European Championships - Event Finals Preview

Gym fans will be bitterly disappointed to not see Aliya Mustafina compete further in Berlin. The question now is whether she can be recovered enough to be on top form for Worlds in October.

And the other question is, who is now favourite for the event finals in Berlin. Mustafina had qualified for all 4 finals, meaning 4 new places for those who just missed out.

Can Dementyeva grasp the opportunity to take home more Gold from Germany?


Vault Final

1. Steingruber SUI 14.525
2. Izbasa ROM 14.525
3. Mustafina RUS 14.487
4. Kaslin SUI 14.200
5. Chusovitina GER 14.200
6. Nabiyeva RUS 14.187
7. Seitz GER 14.175
8. Racea ROM 13.987
R: Croket BEL 13.912

Uneven Bars Final
1. Mustafina RUS 15.600
2. Tweddle GBR 15.550
3. Nabiyeva RUS 15.375
4. Seitz GER 14.475
-. Dementyeva RUS 14.450
5. Bui GER 14.450
6. Vanwalleghem BEL 14.350
7. Van Gerner NED 13.925
8. Ferrari ITA 13.900
R: Whelan GBR 13.800

Balance Beam Final 
1. Mustafina RUS 14.900
2. Dementyeva RUS 14.825
3. Ferlito ITA 14.800
4. Preziosa ITA 14.800
5. Millousi GRE 14.325
6. Kaslin SUI 14.300
7. Croket BEL 14.250
8. Whelan GBR 14.225
R: Pihan-Kulesza POL 14.200


Floor Final 
1. Izbasa ROM 14.600
2. Mustafina RUS 14.525
3. Chelaru ROM 14.400
4. Belokobylskaya RUS 14.275
-. Dementyeva RUS 14.025
5. Croket BEL 13.950
6. Ferlito ITA 13.850
7. Tweddle GBR 13.850
8. Csillag HUN 13.775
R: Jarosch GER 13.700

Dementyeva wins Euro gold, Mustafina withdraws injured.

Just about everyone had the gold medal all sewn up before the event today. Then came the news no-one expected. World champ Aliya Mustafina left the arena in Berlin in a wheelchair after a bad landing on her Amanar vault. That left the competition wide open.

Enter Anna Dementyeva, the young russian who won fans at the Worlds in Rotterdam last year, but did so in the shadow of her more powerful (and diva-esque) team-mates. Second after the qualification she knew the title was hers for the taking, but pressure can do funny things in the world of gymnastics. The 16 year old Dementyeva carried the pressure like a veteran, competing all apparatus cleanly and with buckets of soviet style!

The closest battle was for 2nd, 3rd and 4th. After a home win for Germany's Phillip Boy this afternoon, the German's were daring to hope for another medal before the end of the day. The eyes of the nation fell on Elizabeth Seitz, After completing her difficult bar routine cleanly she had more than a chance. Her beam and floor routines were solid....and made the Berlin crowd go wild!

But Seitz was not going to have an easy run to a medal. The two Romanians Amelia Racea and Diana Chelaru chased her to the wire. Chelaru had the lead over Racea up to the last apparatus, but her somewhat messy form on her last apparatus gave her just a few too many deductions. Racea came back after her qualifying disaster to compete a nearly faultless floor routine and seal the deal with a double twisting yurchenko on vault. She looked honestly shocked (but delighted) to make the podium. I just hope her team-mate can forgive her!

Results (full scores to follow)
1. Anna Dementyeva (RUS)
2. Elisabeth Seitz (GER)
3. Amelia Racea (ROU)
4. Diana Chelaru (ROU)
5. Carlotta Ferlito (ITA)
6. Vanessa Ferrari (ITA)
7. Celine Van Gerner (NED)
8. Ariella Kaeslin (SUI)
9. Giulia Steingruber (SUI)
10. Marine Brevet (FRA)

Also, Congratulations to the Brits. Daniel Purvis tied for gold earlier today in the Men's event. Kristian Thomas finished 11th Hannah Whelan 13th and Danushia Francis 16th.

Event Finals tomorrow, Wide open but sadly without Mustafina.

UPDATE from Twitter @intlgymnast: World champion Aliya Mustafina has suffered a torn meniscus and will need surgery, coach Valentina Rodionenko says

Skating news- good and bad.

Two pieces of figure skating news made it to my ears today.

1) The IOC has authorised 6 new events for the Sochi Olympics including Women's Ski Jumping and a figure skating team event! (That was the good news) Read More.

2) British ice dancers Sinead and John Kerr have announced their retirement from competition. It's a shame as they were our only skaters to make it near to an international podium in recent years. I wish them all the best and hope we can see more of them in shows some time soon.  Read More.

GB girls make AA, Beam, Bars and Floor finals at Euros

GB had a solid day of qualification in Berlin.

Danushia Francis and Hannah Whelan qualified for the all around final
Hannah squeaked into the beam final in 8th place
Beth Tweddle put aside her troubles in training and qualified to the bars and floor finals.

As expected Aliya Mustafina leads the all around, followed by team-mate Anna Dementyeva.

Event Final Qualifiers - Click here (Double Front)

All Around Finals Qualifiers (thanks to TheAllAround)

Women's British Gymnastics Championships

Tickets go on sale today for the 2011 Women's British Championships.

The event is moving this year from it's usual venue tucked away inside the Guildford Spectrum to Liverpool's Echo Arena, No doubt in a slight nod to 3 of britain's best gymnasts being liverpool's own (Beth Tweddle, Hannah Whelan and Jennifer Pinches).

The event will take place on the 9th and 10th July. Prices are very reasonable at £15 for adults and £10 for children. Tickets and info available here.

The schedule is
Day 1 – Saturday
 
1st Session (Juniors):
Doors open                               10.30
Competition start                       11.30 
 
2nd Session (seniors): Doors open16.00
Competition start                       17.00 
 
Day 2 - Sunday 
 
3rd Session (apparatus finals):
Registration                               09.00
Doors open                               10.00
Competition start                       11.00

Europeans - ready to roll in Berlin

With the World Cup events wrapping up, the first major gymnastics championship of 2011 is set to go next week in Berlin. The event takes a similar format to the 2009 worlds with just 4 competitors from each country (6 in the men's event) and no team competition. There will be individual all around and event finals.

The schedule (abridged) is below
April 4th - Women's podium training
April 5th - Men's podium training
April 6th - Women's qualification (4 subdivisions)
April 7th - Men's qualification (3 subdivisions)
April 8th - Men's and Women's AA final
April 9th and 10th - Event finals

The women's teams from some of the major nations are
Russia - Mustafina, Nabieva, Dementyeva and Belokobylskaya
Romania - Izbasa, Porgras, Chelaru, Racea
GB- Tweddle, Whelan, Pinches, Francis
Youth olympian Carlotta Ferlito will join veteran Vanessa Ferarri on the Italian team. Germans Elizabeth Seitz and the immortal Oksana Chusovitina will challenge in event finals.


The most recent European all-around champion and silver medals (Ksenia Semenova and Afansyeva) will not be there to defend their titles, barring major catastrophe all safe bets will still be on Mustafina (she doesn't after all have a Jordyn Wieber of Viktoria Komova to watch out for here.)

Worlds headed to Moscow!

At last the fate of the World Figure Skating Championships has been decided. The event will take place in Moscow, Russia on April 24- May 1. (ISU)

This I feel is the best result all round as the pressure is take off the people of Japan to host at such a difficult time but all skaters, including the Japanese, have a chance to compete and show unity with their colleagues from around the world.

The event will be hosted in the Megasport Arena, which seats 12,000 people. Moscow was selected out of a choice of 6 cities, the others being Vancouver; Lake Placid, Colorado Springs; Turku, Finland; Graz, Austria; and Zagreb, Croatia.

I wonder how easy it will be for those fans who had planned to make the trip to Tokyo to attend the event in Moscow at a month's notice. Hopefully this event will become memorable for all the right reasons, despite the sad circumstances for it's postponement.

Yesterday it was reported on Twitter that France (the nominated hosts of the 2012 worlds) have offered the chance to host to the Japanese.