Asian Games - moments

Below is a gallery of of the best pictures from the Asian Games so far (Getty/Daylife)

Yuliya Gureva (UZB) on Vault

 

Koko Tsurumi (JPN) on Beam

Yang Yilin (CHN) focuses on the beam 

The Vault judges watch Krystal Khoo Oon Hui of Singapore

Huang Quishang (CHN) on floor

Jo Hyun-joo (KOR) leaps on floor

Uzbekistan's bronze medallists - (L-R) Diana Karimdjanova,
Irina Volodchenko, Yuliya Goreva, Asai Saparbaeva,
Darya Elizarova and Luiza Galiulina

 

Team China - Asian Games Champions

We'll call it a draw!

GB has not one but two Senior men's champions as Sam Hunter and Daniel Purvis tied for all-around gold at the men's artistic gymnastics championships in Leicester this weekend.

The two recently placed an impressive 5th (Purvis) and 9th (Hunter) at the World Championships. Purvis also won bronze in Rotterdam on floor, which also was his highest score at the british champs too.  Here are the all around results.

The apparatus results were as follows
 Floor
1 PURVIS Daniel - Southport 15.700
2 SEAGER Theo - Bury 15.200
3 PANTELEYMONOV Ruslan - Hinckley 15.000

Pommel
1 WHITLOCK Max - South Essex 15.500
2 PURVIS Daniel - Southport 14.700
3 FIRTH Matthew - City Of Leeds 13.600

Rings
1 FERN Samuel - City Of Leeds 14.600
2 SEAGER Theo - Bury 14.450
3 FOLWELL Luke - Huntingdon 14.450

Vault
1 PANTELEYMONOV Ruslan 16.075
2 SEAGER Theo 15.500
3 FOLWELL Luke GBR 15.225

P.Bars
1 PANTELEYMONOV Ruslan - Hinckley 14.800
2 WATSON Ashley - City Of Leeds 14.800
3 PURVIS Daniel - Southport 14.550

High Bar
1 HUNTER Sam - Unattached 14.800
2 OLDHAM Sam - Huntingdon 14.750
3 SEAGER Theo - Bury 14.350

More information can be found at the British Gymnastics official site and facebook page.

Gymnastics - the competitions continue.

Normally the weeks after a world championships are a quiet time, when athletes and teams have a chance to rest and regroup.

Not so it seems in the world of gymnastics 2010.

Within 2 weeks from the competition finishing in Rotterdam, some of the world's top gymnasts were competing again at the Swiss Cup, a mixed pairs event where a female and male gymnast from each country compete for the highest combined total. Elizabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambuchen took top honours, making up for Seitz's disappointment in the bars final in Rotterdam.

The top 5 teams were
1. Elizabeth Seitz & Fabian Hambuchen (Germany)
2. Vanessa Ferarri & Matteo Morandi (Italy)
3. Ariella Kaeslin & Claudio Capelli (Switzerland)
4. Sandra Izbasa & Flavius Kocki (Romania)
5. Anastasia Koval & Nikolai Kuchenkov (Ukraine)
Ful results and report at International Gymnast (here)

That's not all here's a list of some more major competitions coming up in November. No rest for the wicked it seems.

Men's British Championships (Leicester Nov 5-7)
Osijek World Cup (Croatia Nov 5-7)
DTP World Cup (Stuttgard, Germany Nov 12-14)
Glasgow Grand Prix (Scotland Nov 18-21)


2010 world championships gold medalists Lauren Mitchell (Australia), Thomas Bouhail (France), Eleftherios Kosmidis (Greece) and Krisztian Berki (Hungary) are each slated to compete in at least one World Cup in November.

 Imogen Cairns, Becky Downie, Jennifer Pinches, Hannah Whelan, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Daniel Purvis and Louis Smith are all due to compete for GB in Glasgow, a few weeks after the city (which is already hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games) announced a bid for the 2015 world championships.

Also in November, World Champion Aliya Mustafina is due to face off against the Youth Olympic gold and silver medallists, Viktoria Komova and Tan Sixin at the Italian Grand Prix (or 'Freddy Cup') on November 13. Both Komova and Sixin were too young to compete in Rotterdam but will be eligible for senior competition in 2011.

Event finals - day 2 (finally!)

Unfortunately my Sunday was rather busy (as was my Monday!) So it wasn't until last night that I managed to finally watch the event finals from Sunday.

Still there were a few happy- makers to be had.

1) Ana Porgras finally some gold around her neck after beautiful performances and graceful composure all week.


2) After the floor final had begun to look like a bit of a splat-fest, brilliant performances from Ferrari, Chelaru, Raisman , Sui Lu and of course Lauren Mitchell finished the women's competition in style.


3) The Rotterdam home crowd mustering to cheer on their gymnast, the incredible Epke Zonderland. And then with no subtlety at all boo the judges when he was knocked down to silver by Zhang Chenglong of China.


4) No bronzes handed out to the women on Sunday, showing just how close the competition is!

2 Golds, 4 silvers!

So that was Worlds 2010. With only 640 days to go until London 2012 it looks like we still have plenty to look forward to.....

Event Finals - day 1

She's wanted it for so long, now comeback queen Alicia Sacramone is World Champion on Vault.

The new world all-around champ Mustafina took silver and Jade Barbossa of Brazil (also in comeback mode) took the bronze.Full results here.

One question though may be nagging on a few minds - would things have been different if North Korea and Un Jong Hong had been allowed to compete. Most likely not- full credit to Alicia for achieving her goal at last.

Also Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece took gold in the Men's floor final ahead of Uhemura and GB's Dan Purvis. Results here.

On Pommel Horse the honours went to Kristian Berki of Hungary with silver to Britain's Louis Smith and bronze Sellathurai of Australia.

In the bars final - I'm going on quick hits from Gym examiner here as the BBC coverage hasn't started yet!
first gymnast up - reigning olympic and world champion He Kexin fell on her jeager - there will be a new world champion this year - but who?
Her teammate Huang Quishang also comes off the bars. The door is wide open.
Beth Tweddle hits her routine out of the park - 15.733.
Bridget Sloan - a clean but less difficult routine 14.666
Aliya Mustafina - Also clean but can't quite match Beth. 15.600
Elizabeth Seitz goes for her difficult 'def' skill and misses. It was a risk which didn't pay off today but good on her for trying!
Ana Porgras- a good routine but can't quite challenge on difficulty 14.6
Rebecca Bross - Knocks team-mate Bridget Sloan out of 3rd place

So it's GOLD for Beth Tweddle
A second silver to Mustafina
and a second bronze for Bross.

Congratulations to the GB gymnasts - 3 medals in 1 day.
Right- I've written the results - now I can watch it!

The money shots-
Floor
Bars
Pommel
No prizes for guessing what she's praying for!
Bars
RingsGreat Britain

Another busy day.

After all the gymnastics and skating antics of yesterday there's more to come today. The event finals from worlds are about to start at 2.30pm UK time on BBC1.

Mustafina will be looking to add more gold to her gym bag havign qualified for finals on every event. Her competition includes Alicia Sacramone on vault and He Kexin & Beth Tweddle on bars.


The starting list for todays events is here.

Meanwhile in Japan, the expected winners prevailed in the pairs and dance events

Pairs

1	Qing PANG / Jian TONG	CHN	189.37	1	1
2	Vera BAZAROVA / Yuri LARIONOV	RUS	173.83	2	2
3	Narumi TAKAHASHI / Mervin TRAN	JPN	155.66	3	4

Dance

1	Meryl DAVIS / Charlie WHITE	USA	165.21	1	1
2	Kaitlyn WEAVER / Andrew POJE	CAN	141.57	2	3
3	Maia SHIBUTANI / Alex SHIBUTANI	USA	136.93	5	2

A great outing too for the young teams Takahashi & Tran and the Shibutani siblings, testing the water on the senior level.


The surprises came once again in the ladies event. Not only Mao Asada but also mini Mao (Kanako Murakami) had disasterous outings with 3 falls a piece. Mao will need a strong victory at her second event in Paris, as well as mistakes from others to even make the final now. 2010-11 could see a changing of the guard in ladies figure skating.

1	Carolina KOSTNER	ITA	164.61	1	2
2	Rachael FLATT	USA	161.04	3	1
3	Kanako MURAKAMI	JPN	150.16	2	5

Full NHK results here and a collection of videos here.

Picked for the team.

Thanks to Elaine on the IG forum and Brigid, The Couch Gymnast for this info. More and more world teams are now taking shape. These teams are nominative only and much can (and probably will) change...

Team USA
Rebecca Bross, Mackenzie Caquatto, Alicia Sacramone, Kytra Hunter, Mattie Larson, Alexandra Raisman (Samantha Shapiro -reserve). No mention of reigning world champ Bridget Sloan - she supposedly is too injured to compete. If this team stays the same then Bross will be the only common element with last years team.


Team Russia:
Ksenia Afanasyeva, Ksenia Semyonova, Tatiana Nabieva, Aliya Mustafina, Anna Myzdrikova, Ekaterina Kurbatova (Anna Dementieva -reserve). Sad not to see olympic veteran Anna Pavlova make the cut.


Team Romania:
Sandra Izbasa, Ana Porgras, Diana Chelaru, Raluca Haidu, Cerasela Patrascu, Gabriela Dragoi and Amelia Racea (reserve). This is surprising as Racea is the reigning european champion on beam, again I suspect injuries play the part. Olympic floor champ Izbasa looks in good form.

Team China:
Sui Lu, Huang Qiushuang, Deng Linlin, Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin, Yang Yilin Wu Liufang (reserve). If all goes well for themChina are certainly capable of stealing the beam and bars golds and possibly upsetting the US or Russia on floor or in the all around. Sui Lu is looking fantastic!

Team Japan:
Koko Tsurumi, Yuko Shintake, Rie Tanaka, Mai Yamagishi, Momoko Ozawa, Kyoko Oshima (Akiko Sato -reserve).

Team North Korea:
Hong Un-jong, Hong Su-jong, Kim Un-hyang, Kang Yong-mi.

Team Ukraine:
Yana Demyanchuk, Alina Fomenko, Angelina Kysla, Yevzhenya Cherniy, Valentina Holenkova, Anastasia Koval and Alyona Kaidalova (reserve). No mention of Daria Zgoba.

Team Belarus:
Alina Sotnikava, Nadezhda Visotskaya, Liliya Khaan, Anastasia Marachkouskaya, Volha Makhautsova, Yevzhenya Zaitseva, no reserve.

Ecuador, Guatemala and Singapore have withdrawn from the event. Several other countries have reduced the number of athletes competing, prompting the FIG to wonder whether the draw for the event should be amended.

Commonwealth Chaos

Excitement for the upcoming commonwealth games in Delhi has been tarnished as the first teams to arrive have found not only filthy conditions in the athletes village, flood waters near the site breeding mosquitoes and even competition venues falling around them.


Several nations have even threatened to pull out if things don't improve and fast. The organising commitee stands fast that everything will be ready in time. The british gymnastics teams are still in training and planning to fly out Monday. I personally want to see all the gymnasts still attend and do well, and for them all to stay healthy (particularly the ozzies, many of whom are also due to compete at Worlds.)

Speaking of Worlds. The GB world team have been training together at the Lilleshall sports hall and posed held a media day. Photos can be seen on the BG facebook page . Several more nations have also announced their world teams this week.

Romania

Sandra Izbasa, Ana Porgras, Diana Chelaru, Raluca Haidu, Ceresela Patrascu, Gabriela Dragoi, Amelia Racea (one will be the alternate)

Argentina Ayelén Tarabini, Lucila Estarli, Aldana Carraro, Delfina Ortuño
Australia

Georgia Bonora, Ashleigh Brennan,Emily Little, Larissa Miller,Lauren Mitchell, Georgia Simpson,Georgia Wheeler

Also in the world of skating. The JGP has headed to Japan this week with several rematches of medallists from some the earlier events this season. The senior international season is also kicking off with the Nebelhorn trophy in Germany.

Several of the names to watch at Nebelhorn include-
Ice Dance
Anna Capellini and Luca Lanotte - the italian olympians won the short dance earlier today.
Natalie Pechalat and Fabian Bourzat- always crowd favourites
Alex and Maia Shibutani - promising US juniors for several seasons now- hoping to make a splash on the senior scene.
Ladies
Kiira Korpi and Jenna McCorkell are the seasoned faces.
Ashley Wagner of the US has withdrawn due to illness and will be replaced by Melissa Bulanhagui.
Mens
Long time favourite of mine Kevin Van-Der-Perren appears to be still putting off retirement. If he's healthy I'd predict a two horse race between him and Michael Brezina for the title.
Pairs
The promising young russian team Vera Bazarova and Yuri Larionov are the favourites here, although I couldn't like to count out Megan Duhamel of Canada and her new partner Eric Radford.

Also Queen Yu-Na has told the LA times that she has settled in well in California, she is looking for an appartment and will announce her new coach next month. As it is someone based in the LA area some potential names include Rafael Aratunian, John Nicks, Frank Caroll, or maybe even Michelle Kwan (unlikely - but it would be cool!)

Commonwealth Games - Team England

British Gymanstics and English Gymnastics have announced the England team for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

As the Commonwealth and World teams are seperate, we can safely expect a GB world team announcement will follow soon.

The girls headed to Delhi are

Marissa King
Imogen Cairns
Laura Edwards
Rebecca Wing
Jocelyn Hunt
(Alternate - Charlotte Lindsley)


Based on this (and the recent team in Gateshead) we can guess some (fairly) safe bets for the Rotterdam Team

Beth Tweddle
Becky Downie
Danushia Francis
Hannah Whelan
Nicole Hibbert
Jennifer Pinches/Niamh Rippin

The Men's Commonwealth team will be:

Reiss Beckford
Luke Folwell
Danny Lawrence
Max Whitlock
Steven Jehu
(Alternates - Robert Payne, Mathew Firth)

Goings on

I'm currently away from home in Newcastle for a family wedding with a wounded laptop in tow - still feel it is right to update on the recent sports happenings when I get a moment.


A few miles from here the GB gymnasts beat the Swiss girls in their latest friendly international. Some of the bigger names were competing here than at the recent GB vs Romania meet. GB (Rebecca Downie, Jenni Pinches, Danusia Francis, Nicole Hibbert, and Hannah Whelan) scored 168.700 in the team competition to convincingly beat Switzerland (Ariella Kaeslin, Jennifer Senn, Jennifer Rutz, Linda Stampfli, Minu Krasniqi) with 152.850.

Becky Downie returned from her recent injury to claim the all around with a score of 55.950.
Becky said: “It feels really great to put in a performance like I have today. I was really happy with Beam and excited to be able to show off my new Floor routine, so overall I’m very happy.” GB also took the top 4 spots in the all-around with Kaeslin in 5th, scoring 53.100.

At the Russian Cup, Aliya Mustafina showed she is back on form after collecting a number of medals at Europeans then looking lacklustre performance at the Japan Cup. Mustafina took the all-around with 62.271 (The scores here were inflated as the judges gave extra marks for originality). The Ksenias, Afansyeva and Semenova took silver and bronze respectively. I would love to see all 3 of these girls at Worlds, although I suspect Semenova will miss out on the AA final.

In the skating world, as I predicted the Russian's made a comeback in the ladies event at JGP France. Polina Shelepen completed a 7-triplr jump programme to take gold ahead of Yasmin Siraj (USA) and Rosa Sheveleva (Russia). France's Yretha Silete was 4th and Jiang of the USA 5th. Andrei Rogozine (Canada) held onto the Men's title. Stepanova and Bukin of Russia decisively won the ice dance event.

Stateside- one of the USA's international bar workers, Cassie Whitcombe has a broken leg. This will likely take her out of the World's race. What this means is that either Bridget Sloan needs to get healthy and fast - or Mackenzie Caquatto (who I had dismissed for being inconsitent) may get the call. For such a strong team USA has a big weakness in the bars department- Where's a healthy Liukin when you need her!

And finally - on the other side of the World, Sui Lu won the all around at the Chinese Nationals. Her score of 56.900 bettering Jiang Yuyuan (56.35) and Huang Qiushuang (55.600). Deng Linlin missed the competition with a pulled thigh muscle.

Meanwhile...

Back in the world of gymnastics-

The Chinese nationals are taking place. This will be one of the first stage in selecting the world team for them. Will they be able to stay on top of the world as they were in Beijing?


Olympian Jiang Yuyuan is one of the gymnasts debuting a new floor routine. We all loved her olympic routine- but she had outgrown it somewhat.

Whilst in the USA the newly assembled national team (minus Vanessa Zamarippa- who has been nudged by Marta that her routines lack difficulty) are down in Texas for the first of 2 worlds selection camps.


The US do like to draw out team selection! As I mentioned in my previous post, my picks for the team would be -

Rebecca Bross, Mattie Larson, Alicia Sacramone, Kytra Hunter,
Bridget Sloan - if she can be ready in time (Cassie Witcombe if she can't)

I confess I can't remember if there are teams of 5 or 6 this year. Ali Raisman would be a fairly safe and consistent 6th member and it would be sad to see her miss out to her own gym-mate, Sacramone.