YOG Event Finals - Women's Floor

There was a new queen in women's gymnastics this evening as Tan Sixin picked up a second gold medal. Sexin showed that no matter how much the americans may complain about it - it is possible for slight, female gymnasts to stick their tumbling passes.

Komova got up on the floor for a chance to regain her crown. She had a low landing on her first tumbling pass - a double arabian. Gold now seemed out of reach - could she hang on to silver?


In an amusing incident - after completing her routine- Tan Sixin got out her camera to film Komova!


Last up was the chance for Romania's littlest star- Diana Bulimar. The tiny bulimar tumbled and danced her heart out and pipped Komova for second place. On recieving her score her coach then picked her up onto the podium again as the arena sang happy birthday to her! Quite the present for this talented one.


So the final podium of the women's competition may not look quite as expected.

YOG Event Finals - Medal ceremonies

Huge congratulations to this young star from China - Tan Sixin gets her own moment of undiluted glory.


Girls beam medallists - Angela Donald (B) Tan Sixin (G) and Carlotta Ferlito (S)


Floor medallists- Diana Bulimar (S) Tan Sixin (G) and Vika Komova (B)

Komova throws a wobbly!

In the girls balance beam final everyone knew it was the best chance for someone for someone to pip Viktoria Komova to the gold. Tan Sixin was up first and completed her difficult routine with squeaky clean execution : game on!


The next gymnasts (Donald, Gomez Porras) gave good performances but nothing to touch Sixin's score. Komova knew she needed something great to keep up her gold streak.


First tumbling pass- disaster for Komova - she falls on her back layout.


Komova seemed to lose concentration after that - 1 large wobble and another fall later - game over. She also looked to have injured her right hand- the question is whether it will affect her floor exercise.


So Gold to Tan Sixin, Silver to Carlotta Ferlito, Bronze to Angela Donald of Australia.

YOG Event Finals - Men's Day 2

Not your usual gymnastics podium?

Mistakes from the favourites in the Vault final gave medal opportunities for 3 relative unknowns. Erdenberg Ganbad of Mongolia (that's right- Mongolia!) won the gold with an average score of 15.662. Silver went to Ferhad Arican of Turkey (15.650) and a second bronze to Nestor Abad of Spain (15.450). None of these underdogs had qualified for the all-around final.


The paralell bars also had some mistakes- including Sam Oldham, Yuya Kamoto and Danil Kazakhov. In the end Oleg Stepko got himself another gold (14.400), Muntean of Romania the silver (14.150) and Ludovico Edalli adding to Italy's medal haul with a bronze (14.100). Tense faces waiting for their scores.

But all smiles in the end.

The final gymnastics event of the games was the High Bar. GB's Sam Oldham may have left it late but will leave Singapore with a gold around his neck (14.375). Nester Abad - who did not qualify for all-aroud finals picked up his third in event finals with a silver (14.125) and Zhu Xiaodong picked up his 3rd bronze (14.100).

YOG Event Finals - Women's Uneven Bars

Komova showed she can win gold even when she makes a major mistake. The russian princess of gymnastics banged both feet on the floor as she grabbed the lowbar on her pac. However it didn't affect the rhythm of her routine and she still finished well for a score of 14.525 (slightly overmarked in my opinion given the mistake). Tan Sexin looked slightly bewildered after her good performance failed to win her the gold. She took silver with 14.125. Surprise Joana Adlerteg of Sweden competed a low difficulty routine with good execution and managed to win herself a bronze.

Diana Bulimar's score was surprisingly low after a lovely clean routine. She flies well between the bars for one so small. Carlotta Ferlito and Tess Moonen both had form breaks. Canadian Madeline Gardiner's routine ended painfully after she missed her release but banged her face on the bar.

YOG Event finals - Men's Pommel Horse and Rings

The Pommel final was fairly unremarkable with many of the competitors failing to Match their qualifying scores. Oleg Stepko upgraded his 2 silvers so far to a Gold here (13.950). Sam Oldham managed to pick up his first medal (silver 13.925) after a performance with higher execution but lower difficulty than Stepko- Perhaps he'll regret watering down his dismount given how close the scores were. Danil Kazachov of Russia picked up the bronze (13.550)


In the Rings final Andrei Muntean won Romania's first gymnastics medal of these games- taking Gold with 14.350. Yuya Kamoto picked up Silver with 14.200 and Nester Abad of Spain surprised to take Bronze with 14.150.

YOG Event Finals - Women's Vault

It was a competition for second place in the women's vault final in Singapore.

Provided Vika Komova landed on her feet with her Amanar and double twisting yurchenko vaults the gold was hers. She did better than land on her feet with a combined score of 15.312.


Spain's Maria Vargas was the best of the rest with a score of 13.700 (straight and full twisting yururchenkos).

Carlotta Ferlito once again edged Natsumi Sasada for Bronze.

YOG Event Finals - Men's Floor

Dark Horse Ernesto Vila Sarria of Cuba took the Gold (score 14.575) ahead of a mistake ridden men's field. Oleg Stepko (UKR, 14.500) and Zhu Xiaodong (CHN, 14.300) picked up their second silver and bronze medals respectively.


All Around champ Yuya Kamoto fell on his first tumbling pass taking him out of the running. GB's Sam Oldham has several small errors meaning his quest for a YOG medal continues.


The Lineup for this even made me smile- you can see how small and somewhat stocky Kamoto (2nd gymnast from right) looks compared to his comperitors.

Bounce!

Today saw the trampoline competition at the Youth Olympics.

In the Women's event Dong Yu of China took gold after leading all the way through the competition. Silver to Sviatlana Makshtarova of Belarus and Bronze to Chisato Doihata of Japan. Doihata improved from 5th in the first qualifying round to 4th in the second and 3rd in the final. Dong Yu had the greatest difficulty of the field including a triple somersault and the usual chinese high standards of execution.

In the Men's event Oleksandr Satin of Ukraine took the gold in a tight field of competitors. GB competitor Nathan Bailey's hopes of a medal were dashed after coming in contact with the mat early in his routine.

Tomorrow normal gymnastics service resumes with the first events finals
Men's - Floor, Pommel and Rings
Women's - Vault and Bars

Golden Girls - The All Around

Viktoria Komova made simple work of trouncing the competition today to win her first youth olympic title with ease. Komova topped her qualifying score with 61.250.

Silver went to Tan Sexin of China with 58.500 and Bronze to Carlotta Ferlito of Italy (55.350) who narrowly edged Natsumi Sasada of Japan (55.100). Sasada - who wears her heart on her sleeve was smiling and waving to the camera whenever it found her then burst into tears on seeing Ferlito's final score. I hope she can win herself an event medal before the games are over.

Komova took the the top scores on vault (15.650), bars (15.450) and floor (14.900) so will likely collect more bling over the weekend. Tan Sexin narrowly pipped her on beam with 15.350 vs Komova's 15.250.

Tumbles and Titles - The All Around

Yuya Kamoto became the first ever Youth Olympic Champion in Gymnastics.


Kamoto was consistent throughout and managed to repeat and improve his form from the qualification event.

GB's Sam Oldham looked to have the silver medal in his hands until he fell on High Bar and gave up several places on his last event.


Oleg Stepko of Ukraine took the silver after being close behind Oldham following the paralell bars. China's Zhu Xiaodong took the bronze.

Tomorrow - The diminuitive and talented Viktoria Komova will aim to continue her domination of the women's field.

It's Back! Olympic Alphabet - F is for ...

The Flame.

The stadiums and medals and logos and mascots may change - but the olympic flame will always be a recognised symbol of sporting achievment. The Olympic flame is lit in acient olympia - travels worldwide as a symbol of the games and burns throughout the duration of the games.

This year the Youth Olympic flame was lit for the very first time. 'Lighting the way' for a new generation.



........F is also for Friends and Family

In 2006 Sarah Hughes attended the figure skating competition at the Torino Olympics as the reigning olympic champion. But she wasn't there to aim for a second gold medal- she was there to cheer on her younger sister Emily in her own olympic competition. Pretty good person to have on your side!
Friends and Family are the unsung heroes- usually hidden in the depth of the crowd. Most olympic athletes would agree they wouldn't be olympic athletes without their supporters at home.

Youth Olympic Games

UPDATE : As almost everyone expected - Russia's Viktoria Komova dominated the women's (or is that girls?) qualifying at the Youth Olympics in Singapore. Her impressive AA score of 61.000 would put her up at/near the top at the Senior worlds. Tan Sixin of China put in a respectable collection of scores to qualify 2nd into the all-around final.

The qualifying scores were -

1. Viktoria Komova (RUS) – 61.000
2. Sixin Tan (CHN) – 58.100
3. Carlotta Ferlito (ITA) – 55.750
4. Diana Bulimar (ROU) – 54.700
5. Tess Moonen (NED) – 54.250
6. Gomez Porras (GUA) – 54.050
7. Angela Donald (AUS) – 54.050
8. Madeline Gardiner (CAN) – 53.850
9. Jonna Adlerteg (SWE) – 53.600
10. Natsumi Sasada (JPN) – 53.550
11. Harumy Freitas (BRA) – 53.100
12. Alina Kravchenko (UKR) – 51.400
13. Elisa Haemmerle (AUT) – 51.350
14. Jessica Hogg (GBR) – 51.250
15. Dilnoza Abdusalimova (UZB) – 51.200
16. Kosthia Requena (VEN) – 50.900
17. Maria Vargas (ESP) – 50.650
18. Kyungjin Park (KOR) – 50.450

RussianCup2009 and Mistysakura have posted a number of videos from the qualification on Youtube

Yuya Kamoto of Japan won the Mens qualifying round, ahead of GB's Sam Oldham.

The Scores near the top were.

1. Yuya Kamoto JPN 87.200
2. Sam Oldham GBR 86.850
3. Oleg Stepko UKR 86.800
4. Xiaodong Zhu CHN 86.100
5. Danill Kazakhov RUS 85.400
6. Andrei Muntean ROU 83.800

Meanwhile here are some photos from the Ladies podium training

Diana Bulimar (Romania) & Viktoria Komova (Russia)
Angela Donald (Australia) & Jessica Hogg (Great Britain)