Wow! Beth Tweddle's new tumbling pass

A new video has appeared on youtube (not sure of the original source) showing Beth Tweddle training a double Arabian FULL OUT! She hasn't performed it in competition yet but it's sure to be a jaw dropper if and when she does.



As mentioned in my last post the GB worlds team is to be named Friday. As I see it Tweddle, Whelan, Pinches and (if she is injury free) Francis are locks, leaving 2 spots open to the rest of the team hopefuls.

First olympic athletes named (and a gymnastics update)

Image:  Iain Percy, Annie Lush, Nick Dempsey, Lucy Macgregor, Hannah Mills, Ben Ainslie, Kate Macgregor, Bryony Shaw, Saskia Clark and Andrew Simpson of Great Britain pose during a photocall at the announcement of the first athletes to officially join Team GB ahead of the 2012 Olympics at the Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich on September 20, 2011 in London, England. (Daylife.com

The first athletes to be named to Team GB for London 2012 have been announced. The British Sailors have been picked including 3 time olympic champion Ben Ainslie. Sailing is one of GB's strongest medal events, with 4 golds from Beijing.

It's interesting that due to the more consistent nature of sailing, the athletes can be nominated so far in advanced, compared with many sports where national teams are picked in the month leading up to the games. These athletes can now focus their training on preparation rather than qualification.

Speaking of qualificaiton, the Team USA gymnasts are at the final selection camp for Worlds and the Pan American games. The team should be announced soon after the final competition tomorrow. There is rumour that one gymnast (supposed to be Mackenzie Caquatto) has injured both ankles on a double pike. If so this is a real shame as of the USA's nominated 'bar specialists' she was one of the best all-arounders. Link here (on facebook so you will have to logon).

The British gymnasts are also at the final worlds training camp in Lilleshall, the final teams for MAG and WAG are to be confirmed on Friday.

London 2012 Paralympic Medals

First of all apologies on my blogging absense. Placements and life have both kept me rather busy recently and it's all too easy to fall off the blogging horse after a while!

Today the London 2012 organising commitee unveiled the medals for the upcoming paralympic games, tickets for which are also on sale at this time. I'm not sure what exactly is going on with the front side design but the reverse is elegant and as I said before the general medal design is pretty likeable and not too enormous or out there. Whilst I liked the sentiment and originality of the medals at Vancouver 2010 - the medals were HUGE!

Blogging should get busier in the coming weeks with the gymnastics worlds and grand prix of figure skating approaching fast. The GB women's gymnastics team is due to be announced some time this week.

China leads at JGP Latvia

The first official day of the new skating season kicked off today with the ladies, mens and pairs short programmes at the JGP Volvo Cup in Riga Latvia. Chinese skaters have taken the lead in all 3 disciplines. Full Event Results

In the ladies event Zijun Li has taken a narrow lead over russian Polina Agafonova. 14 year old Li is the 2010-11 Chinese national champion and was 9th at the 2011 Junior World Championships. She landed a clean 3Flip-2Toe combination and a 3Lutz with an edge call. She trains in Beijing under Mingzhu Li (Former coach of Lu Chen and Caroline Zhang) and but has some american influence with her programmes choreographed by Karen Kwan-Oppegard. American Ashley Cain sits in 3rd place, a clear 5 points behind the 2 leaders.

1	Zijun LI	CHN	55.09	1
2	Polina AGAFONOVA	RUS	54.60	2
3	Ashley CAIN	USA	49.14	3
4	Gerli LIINAMAE	EST	48.90	4
5	Polina SHELEPEN	RUS	47.92	5
6	Yasmin SIRAJ	USA	46.75	6

3 Asian skaters sit atop the mens standings after the short programme. Separated by a little over a point He Zhang (China) leads over Ryuju Hino (Japan) and June-Hyoung Lee (Korea). All of these skaters are relative newcomers, but have strong jump arsenals to build on. Sadly Canadian wonderkind Nam Nguyen botched his jumps and sits in 12th place with a score of 47.08. Perhaps this one will just have to go down to experience.

1	He ZHANG	CHN	59.26	1
2	Ryuju HINO	JPN	58.10	2
3	June-Hyoung LEE	KOR	58.06	3
4	Timothy DOLENSKY	USA	56.52	4
5	Jiaxing LIU	CHN	55.20	5
6	Pavel IGNATENKO	BLR	54.87	6

The pairs event was much more decisive. Sui & Han hold an 8 point lead over second place skaters Petaikina & Kurduykov of Russia. Sui and Han are knocking on the door of senior world medals this season, particularly if they can add mature style to their arsenel of tricks. The junior grand prix should very much be a warm-up act for them. The 3 american pairs sit 7th, 8th and 9th.

1	Wenjing SUI / Cong HAN	CHN	54.22	1
2	Ekaterina PETAIKINA / Maxim KURDUYKOV	RUS	46.30	2
3	Xiaoyu YU / Yang JIN	CHN	44.32	3
4	Margaret PURDY / Michael MARINARO	CAN	43.95	4
5	Tatiana TUDVASEVA / Sergei LISIEV	RUS	41.31	5
6	Ekaterina KRUTSKIKH / Vladimir MOROZOV	RUS	40.55	6

Full Event Results

Junior Grand Prix kicks off international skating season

Even with the delayed world championships, it seems like a long time since we've had a chance to watch major international figure skating. The new season kicks off this week with the first leg of the Junior Grand Prix (JGP) from Riga, Latvia

Last year's JGP graduates Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktamisheva have moved on up and are ready to compete with the seniors this year. This years JGP series could give us a glimpse of the future. Skaters eligible for the JGP this year will also be eligible for the 2014 olympic games in Sochi.

Here are a few names to look out for at JGP Latvia
(Full list of entries here).
Canadian junior men's champion Nam Nguyen (pictured) who beat skaters several years his senior and well over a foot taller than himself to claim his 4th national title (he also holds novice, pre-novice and juvenile golds) and also skated at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Gala. He is pipped to be one of Canada's brightest takents for the coming 2 quadrennia. Read my previous post on Nam here.
Russian Ladies Polina Shelepen and Polina Agafonova. Both have medalled on the JGP before and will be contenders this season aswell. 
American Yasmin Siraj, who won two silvers of the series last year and placed 7th at the JGP final.
2 time World Junior Champions, and last year's Senior GP bronze medallists Wenjing Sui & Cong Han who seem to still be competing on the junior circuit alongside their senior exploits. No conclusion has been made following a controversy over Sui's age last year, questioning whether she was old enough to compete on the senior circuit.
These and many more could be names we hear more about over the coming years.

The rest of the JGP season looks like this...
31/8-4/9 Riga, Latvia*
7-11/9 Brisbane, Australia
14-18/9 Gdansk, Poland*
21-25/9 Brasov, Romania
28/9-2/10 Innsbruk, Austria*
5-9/10 Milano, Italy
12-16/10 Tailinn, Estonia*
(*includes pairs skating event)

8-11 December - JGP and GP finals - Quebec City, Canada
Also, the ISU site has announced that the 2012 GP and JGP finals will infact be held in Sochi, Russia.

You can also preview the entries for the senior Grand Prix series (starting with Skate America 21-23 October) here.

German World Teams Announced

See a theme here? There's going to be a run of these posts as the countdown to Tokyo continues. Germany held it's National Championships this weekend and from there named it's men's and women's world teams.

Women's World Team (14th in Rotterdam)
Elizabeth Seitz
Kim Bui
Oksana Chusovitina
Nadine Jarosch
Pia Tolle
with Marie-Sophie Hindermann, Lisa-Katherina Hill or Anja Rheinbay in the final spot.

Men's World Team (3rd in Rotterdam)
Philip Boy
Fabian Hambuchen
Marcel Nguyen
Eugen Spiridinov
Sebastian Krimmer
with Helge Liebrich, Thomas Taranu or Andreas Toba in the final spot.

The Men should definitely be looking at Olympic qualification and a few medals on the side. For the women a top 8 team finish in Rotterdam may be too much to ask, but top 16 with a view to making it to the second qualification event in London is very reasonable. Individual performances from European medallists Seitz, Bui and Chusovitina should also be a treat for us the audience.

Countdown to Tokyo - 39 Days.

Canadian World Team Announced

I the wake of their recent selection meet, Canada too has announced the gymnasts they will send to the World Championships in Tokyo.

Dominique Pegg
Talia Chiarelli
Kristina Vaculik
Peng Peng Lee
Mikaela Gerber
Coralie Leblond-Chartrand
Madeline Gardner

Canada is another one of those countries on the edge of an olympic team berth. I wish the Canadian girls all the best in their quest. It's great too to see Chrisine 'Peng Peng' Lee complete her successful comeback from injury to make a world championship team. Is it too much to hope to see her special and individual beam work in event finals?