Saturday 9 January 2010

New Blog - Gymnastics Issues

Hi please check out my other new blog here - I decided to start a new blog to discuss different issues.

Friday 8 January 2010

Catherine Lyons Update

I know a lot of people are interested in Catherine so I thought I would post this video from youtube on her first double back on floor! I was really impressed with her technique and power. What do you all think?

There is also an update and review video of Catherine here. I really like her style and lines and I just hope she makes it to Senior so that the UK has something good to cheer for!

Monday 5 October 2009

2009 Meditteranean Cup

This competition hasnt been very well reported so I decided to show some of my favourite routines. It was actually a pretty decent standard of Senior and Juniors from Russia and Italy and mainly Seniors fromt The Netherlands and Brazil. The results were close with the Italian Team just beating the Russians by 0.3! Followed by the Brazilians and the Netherlands. All Around results were: 1. Malikova 56.50 2. Dementyeva 56.10 3. Galante 56.00. Full results can be found here.

The Russian Team consisted of: Violetta Malikova, Tatiana Solovyeva, Ramilya Musina, Valeria Sviridova, Anna Dementyeva and Yuliya Belokobylskaya. Belokobylskaya is relatively new to the International scene, she competed at the Gymnix at the start of the year. I really like her lively stye on floor, she doesn't have the difficulty yet but I still enjoyed it. Score: 13.950.

She also has an interesting beam routine although she fell and had some wobbles, the skills are there.
Violetta Malikova was more stable in this competition than previous performances, her floor was particularly impressive with a 9.00 execution score and final score of 14.40. She even stuck her beam routine (14.350), though there was some form issues but she had a round off straight bk and a nice double pike dismount.
I always liked Anna Dementyeva especially her floor but she wasnt at her best this time but still scored 14.20. Another highlight was Ramilya Musina who performed a sky high double layout on floor which can be seen here

The Italians were mostly impressive and innovative in their work. Serena Licchetta who is down to compete Vault and Bars at Worlds was there. Neither of these routines looked good Scoring 13.650 and 12.800, personally I prefer her Floor. In her bars routine she made a mistake and climbed over the low bar to face the other way! It didn't look good and I have never seen
a gymnast do it like that before. Take a Look:

Elisabetta Preziosa showed an excellent beam routine with a 9.00 execution scoring 14.800 and is down to compete beam at Worlds and she definetley has a legitimate shot at making finals with that routine. She had nice leaps and flexibilty and an interesting free cartwheel to scale.

Paola Galante achieved a good all around score of 56.00 to take 3rd in the all around. I like her gymnastics and am looking forward to seeing her in the aa finals at worlds. Junior Carlotta Ferlito was a highlight of the competition, born in 1995 she has a different style including an interesting release on bars (the name I can't think of), an energetic floor routine and her best piece is Beam (14.20).

Gymnastics In Europe Moves to America!

I haven't been posting in a while because I have moved to the US. Yes, just as the Worlds comes to London I move to America! I've decided to still carry on with the blog about european gymnastics but I'm also going to cover some American gym too.

Sunday 24 May 2009

British Team Championships 2009

I just came back from this years British Teams in Guildford. Overall there was some impressive gymnastics consiering it is early on in the season but there was also some not so good and scary performances! This year the results were:
1 - 169.550 - City of Liverpool
2 - 168.600 - Heathrow 'A'
3 - 161.100 - Notts 'A'
4 - 154.000 - Cardiff Central
5 - 150.850 - Huntingdon
6 - 149.700 - Heathrow 'B'
7 - 148.050 - Horsham
8 - 145.000 - Bristol Hawks
9 - 144.550 - The Academy

The City of Liverpool team consisted of Beth Tweddle, Hannah Whelan, Jenny Pinches, Alex Cooper and Abbie Caig. Beth received a (slightly inflated) score of 15.70 on Bars, 15.450 on Floor and she also competed a Yurchenko 1/2 on pike front off on Vault for 13.950, so it seems she is training the other events. Her bars was impressive live but not as good as at the Europeans and floor was flawless but I still don't like her choreography. Hannah Whelan won the All Around (Becky Downie didn't compete all around) and had a good, consistent competition. Her scores were Vault 14.050, A-Bars 14.050, Beam 14.150 Floor 14.150, Total: 56.400. Her floor routine has Nastia Liukin's 2004-06 music and included a nice triple twist. Jenny Pinches semmed to be having an off day with falls on her standing tuck bk full on beam (13.20) and her straight full in dismount off bars (13.050). Although I did like her floor routine (14.40) with a Double Arabian and back 1 1/2 through to back 2 1/2 twist. Just a quick mention of little Abbie Caig (12 years) who had a very solid routine including a difficult beam routine with Onodi into split change+tuck back, Flick Layout and double tuck back dismount.

Heathrow 'A' Team consisted of Danusia Francis, Nicole Hibbert, Backy Wing and Laura Mitchell. Danusia (3rd AA) presented some nice elegant work but she needs to up her difficult level and she seems to be well capable of doing that. Her highest score was on Bars (14.200) where she showed a nice combination of stoop in to pike seat circle fwd (in L grip) in hstd phase into Straddled Jaeger. Nicole Hibbert came 2nd in the All Around with a score of 56.250 she had some big skills on floor (double arabian and full in) and an improved Bars (Tkatchev into pak, Toe on Shapshnikova into overshoot 1/2), but I think she needs to work on her presentation as she doesn't really sell her floor and beam. Becky Wing looked in very good shape and her routines were better presented than in the Europeans. Her bars with good with a beautiful Tkatchev into Pak Salto and a very elegant floor and dance work on beam where she scored 14.00. She came 4th all around and if she hadnt had a fall on floor (double arabian) she could have won. Laura Mitchell had a nasty fall on her bars dismount, she was meant to do a double straight but her hand guards got stuck to the bar and her first tuck back was onto her back on the high bar and she then bounced backwards onto the low bar! I have never seen a fall like it before. but thankfully she was fine with no injuries at all.

Becky Downie only competed Bars (14.90) and Beam (13.650) where she had a silly fall on her free cartwheel. I think she is still recovering from an ankle injury but she still managed to stick her double pike dismount on beam. She also debuted a new skill on bars which was a Toe on Piked Tkatchev and finished her routine with a stuck full in dismount.

I will post other comments tomorrow and hopefully by then some videos will be up on youtube.

Thursday 21 May 2009

FinGym 2009

This is a small competition but it attracted some good quality junior gymnasts including Laura Svilpaite, Sara Catanzaro and Naoual Ouazzani-Chahdi.
Laura Svilpaite from Lithuania is one of my favourite gymnasts and her form is beautiful. She earnt a gold medal on beam with 13.90 and a silver medal on Bars (12.90) with a fall. Her bars routine has a D Score of 5.70 and includes a tkatchev, pak salto and double layout dismount. In qualification she scored 14.850. Her routine from the WOGA Classic where she performed better is below:

Naoual Ouazzani-Chahdi from the Netherlands earnt gold medals on Vault and Floor with scores of 13.950 and 13.850. Her floor routine was entertaining and although she didnt do the harder tumbles her form was good.
Sara Catanzaro from Switzerland has high D Scores including 5.90 on beam but needs to work on her execution and form but she has a lot of potential. She got 2 silvers on Vault (13.775) and Floor (13.60). Her routine had Double Arabian, tucked full in, 1 1/1 through to double and double pike to finish.
Full results and videos can be found here

Glasgow Grand Prix 2009

Full results can be found here. As every1 has already reported on the results I'm just going to write a few of my comments and favourite videos.
Beth Tweddle was impressive in finals hitting both routines after having trouble on Bars in qualifying. Her bars routine has a D Score on 6.70 and I think it is the most difficult routine in the world, however recently at the Chinese National Championships Jiang Yuyuan performed a routine which had a D Score of 6.90. Comparing the two I still prefer Beths rouutine but she will definitely have some competition at this years Worlds from Yuyuan's routine as she scored 15.00 and 15.150 which strict judging, and there is still room for improvement. Which routine does every1 else prefer?






The floor final was intersting Beth's routine was clean and her tumbling was impressive but I really do not like her dance work and I hope the GB choreographers can come up with something better. I also agree with others that Anna Myzdrikova's routine had much nicer dance and I liked her different tumbles including a back triple twist into a tuck back.
I really liked Diego Hypolito's floor routine esoecially with his new skill a Double Arabian Straight with full twist in the second somersault. I really love how he is motivated to do better and to compete more daring skills, so I'm glad he won both floor and vault.



Sanne Wevers and Ana Maria Izurieta won the Beam Finals with a score of 14.075. I like Wevers routine because it is very innovative, she does have a lot of turns but I was impressed with her triple spin and double spin with leg up. She had a D Score of 6.70 but she does need to improve her form although I saw an interview with her on BGTV where she hadnt been training much so it is a good performance!
Also well done to Becky Downie for finally proving herself and earning the silver medal on bars with a score of 14.60.