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.