Event Finals - day 1

She's wanted it for so long, now comeback queen Alicia Sacramone is World Champion on Vault.

The new world all-around champ Mustafina took silver and Jade Barbossa of Brazil (also in comeback mode) took the bronze.Full results here.

One question though may be nagging on a few minds - would things have been different if North Korea and Un Jong Hong had been allowed to compete. Most likely not- full credit to Alicia for achieving her goal at last.

Also Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece took gold in the Men's floor final ahead of Uhemura and GB's Dan Purvis. Results here.

On Pommel Horse the honours went to Kristian Berki of Hungary with silver to Britain's Louis Smith and bronze Sellathurai of Australia.

In the bars final - I'm going on quick hits from Gym examiner here as the BBC coverage hasn't started yet!
first gymnast up - reigning olympic and world champion He Kexin fell on her jeager - there will be a new world champion this year - but who?
Her teammate Huang Quishang also comes off the bars. The door is wide open.
Beth Tweddle hits her routine out of the park - 15.733.
Bridget Sloan - a clean but less difficult routine 14.666
Aliya Mustafina - Also clean but can't quite match Beth. 15.600
Elizabeth Seitz goes for her difficult 'def' skill and misses. It was a risk which didn't pay off today but good on her for trying!
Ana Porgras- a good routine but can't quite challenge on difficulty 14.6
Rebecca Bross - Knocks team-mate Bridget Sloan out of 3rd place

So it's GOLD for Beth Tweddle
A second silver to Mustafina
and a second bronze for Bross.

Congratulations to the GB gymnasts - 3 medals in 1 day.
Right- I've written the results - now I can watch it!

The money shots-
Floor
Bars
Pommel
No prizes for guessing what she's praying for!
Bars
RingsGreat Britain

Olympic Alphabet - B is for....

... Bringing your Best (When it counts)

Most athletes or olympic hopefuls visualise their perfect olympics- putting out your very best performance. Standing on the podium with a gold medal and the National Anthem playing. But whether or not you end up with a medal- most olympians remember whether or not their olympics performance was the best it could be.

Those who did-

• Yu-Na Kim- smashed personal and olympic records with her performance in Vancouver to win by a landslide. Under all the pressure she delivered- hence the well earned reaction from her (and her coach, Brian)
• Nastia Liukin - Won the all around competition not just on the difficulty of all her skills - but by the fact that she performed each of her routines about as well as she ever had.
• Michael Phelps - 8 golds, 8 world records- can't get much better than that!
• And many many more!

Those who couldn't

• Carolina Kostner - buckled under the pressure at her home games in Turin and missed the chance to redeem herself four years later in Vancouver- will the third time be the charm?
• Cheng Fei- gave her all for the team, her brilliant floor routine securing China's team gold in gymnastics in Beijing- but when it came to doing it for herself in the individual finals- she fell short.
  
• Alicia Sacramone- may never forgive herself for her 2 falls in the Team final in Beijing- but she's started a successful comeback in search of olympic redemption!

.... B is also for Beth

The flag-carrier for GB gymnastics and inspiration to so many young gymnasts. Beth Tweddle showed that this wasn't just a sport for tweenagers and that it is possible to develop into a champion gymnast over time.

This year Beth became an MBE - Member of the order of the British Empire- a royal honour not usually bestowed on athletes until they return home, olympic medal in hand. However the award is given for 'services to sport' - something Beth has given in bundles!

Beth did not have her best performances in Beijing- narrowly missing the bars, floor and team finals. Hopefully London 2012 will be her time. With the rapid improvements of team GB gymnasts- its looking good!

By the way- if you have any better suggestions for the Olympic Alphabet- feel free to comment and propose them!

Bits and Bobs

This is a post made up of all the rendom bits of news that don't seem to fit anywhere else.

The FIG has posted a preview of the upcoming World Acrobatic Gymnastics Championships in Wroclaw, Poland (July 16-18). For Brits the team mainly includes members of the now famous and very talented Spelbound. Best of luck to them all. Read about it here.

Reader Briony rightfully corrected me for saying nothing much was happening in the skating world at the moment. The British Solo Ice Dance Championships are taking place in Sheffield this week.

I have to admit I don't know much about solo dance, even though I have a friend at med-school who competed in it. It seems to my ignorant eyes to be similar in terms of the rules and patterns in the competition (a set dance- eg waltz, tango etc. then a free dance) just without partner. As Bryony pointed out, Solo dance isn't sanctioned by the ISU but is popular in the US and here in the UK. With the usual shortage of partners - it seems like a good idea!


In other sport - runner Caster Semenya is finally being allowed to compete again internationally after almost a year off and a myriad of gender tests. The results of the tests have not been released but, whatever the reason, it'll be great to see her back.



This is old news now, but the USA 2000 olympic gymnastic team are to recieve bronze medals at the 2010 visa championships after the Chinese team were stripped of theirs when Dong Fanxiao was found to be under-age. I found an interesting old fluff piece on youtube about Dong Fanxiao and the Chinese gymnastics system.

US skater Ashley Wagner has a new video blog on the universal sports website. The video also shows Christina Gao and Adam Rippon goofing around back-stage at an ice show. watch it here.

British Gymnastics has now added a great selection of videos from the national champs.
Beth Tweddle said she didn't compete floor because she was resting a slight knee injury and she also is planning to debut a new floor routine :-)

That's all for now- I'll elaborate on this if I find any more exciting info to blog.

British Champs - Photos

Here are some of my (slightly blurry) photos from the second day of the British Championships.

Top 4 - Beth Tweddle, Nicole Hibbert, Billie Mackenzie (Junior) , Danusia Francis
Middle 4 - Laura Edwards (I think!), The Heathrow girls, Marissa King, Hannah Whelan
Bottom 4 - Niamh Rippin, Vault medallists, Bars Medallists, Floor Medallists

Gym Videos of the week.

Here is one of my videos from the British Championships - Beth Tweddle's bar routine. She won with a (for her) relatively low score of 15.000. My boyfriend swears he saw her bang her foot on the bar. I can't see it watching it over again but it would explain the deductions.



Edit: yes- he was right - I watched a more side-on version of this routine posted by RETROMADDY on youtube - she does bang her foot on the second swing past the low bar.

British Gymnastics will be posting more videos this week here.
One to watch is Lauren Mitchell's impressive beam routine- she won the junior beam and junior all-around titles.

Also you can watch videos from the team final of the Japan Cup here.
Or from the All-Around here.



Aliya Mustafina appears to have changed her floor routine music since Europeans. I like the new routine, but I think I liked the old one better!

Gymnastics Update.

I've borrowed a friend's laptop after getting back from the apparatus finals at the British Gymnastics Championships today. My own photos and videos will follow later.

Yesterday 2008 olympian Hannah Whelan completed her comeback from injury to win the all-around title ahead of new senior Nicole Hibbert and her Heathrow team-mate Danusia Francis.

Beth Tweddle only competed bars here (not sure if that means she's protecting an injury) but she loooked fit and won the title with ease.

Danusia Francis surprised some by winning the senior beam and floor title, ahead of Whelan and Niamh Rippin.

Seniors
Bars:Beth Tweddle, Nicole Hibbert, Hannah Whelan
Floor: Danusia Francis, Niamh Rippin, Rebecca Wing
Beam: Danusia Francis, Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Wing
Vault: Imogen Cairns, Marissa King, Nicole Hibbert

Juniors
Bars: Rebecca Tunney, Lizzie Beddoe, Jasmine Reed-Yang
Floor:Jessica Hogg, Loriah James, Ruby Straw
Beam: Laura Mitchell, Bethan Evans, Jessica Hogg
Vault: Ruby Harrold, Ruby Straw, Jessica Hogg

For full results click here.

Also at the Japan Cup - Russia won the womens team title over Japan. Ksenia Afansyava showed she is still a contender by winning the All Around, ahead of Koko Tsurumi and Aliya Mustafina.


Thats all for now - much more soon! (These photos from International Gymnast)

British Championships next week.

Guildford Spectrum 3/4th July

World and European Champion Beth Tweddle returns to Guildford

The Women’s British Championships is one of the highlights of the British Gymnastics calendar. The event includes competitions whereby the Senior and Junior British All-around Champions are proclaimed, along with the Apparatus Champions in the Senior, Junior and Espoir categories, on the second day of competition.

The 2010 British Championships will reunite the majority of Great Britain's Team Silver medal winning gymnasts from the 2010 European Championships; Beth Tweddle, Becky Downie, Nicole Hibbert, Niamh Rippin and Jocelyn Hunt made history in Birmingham earlier this year and will again all be looking for support from the British crowd.

Beth Tweddle will return to the British Championships having missed the event last year as she competed at the World University games. Since then Beth has gone on to win the World Floor title and the European Floor and Bars Titles!

Beth Tweddle: “I’m really excited to be making my return to the British Championships in Guildford. The last 12 months have been incredible for me, and the fact that I have won the World Floor title and the European Floor and Bars titles all in Great Britain, shows that having the home-crowd can really make a difference. To be back in Guildford competing in front of many of the fans who have given me such amazing support is something I'm really looking forward too.”

Unfortunately Becky Downie the defending Senior Champion, won't be able to defend her title due to injury, meaning her hopes of securing her third senior title in a row to continue her amazing run of British Championships stretching through two Espoir titles, to two Junior titles to two Senior titles must come to an end.

Other Seniors to watch out for include Jenni Pinches, Imogen Cairns, Hannah Whelan, Marissa King and Danusia Francis who for various reasons are all on the comeback trail in Guildford.

Later this year the Senior gymnasts will be looking to claim places either in their Home Countries National Teams for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi (3-14th October) or for the British Team at the World Championships in Rotterdam (October 17-24th). The 2010 British Championships acts as one of the qualifying events to make these Teams so is of vital importance to many of the gymnasts competing.

In the Junior category the ones to watch will be those that took part in the Junior European Championships- Ruby Harrold, Laura Mitchell, Rebecca Tunney, Billie Mackenzie and Jessica Hogg along with Venus Romaeo and Lizzie Beddoe who return from injury.

We wish all the gymnasts the best of luck for a fantastic 2010 British Championships,

(Article from British Gymnastics)

In the Summertime.

It's a busy summer on the way in the gymnastics world.
For the USA- competition starts at home. (Click the logos to take you to the event websites)













Then in August- the world's most talented juniors head to Singapore.
The Commonwealth Games take place 3-14 October in Delhi (woefully close to Worlds- so the gymnastics competition may be rather under-attended)

The 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships take place in Rotterdam, 16-24 October. This is the biggest world championships of the quadrennium, over 70 countries will send full teams, which will begin to be wittled down to the final 12 which will win tickets to London 2012.

The Worlds website also has a number of interesting interviews and articles- including this on Beth Tweddle.

Reigning world champ on floor Beth Tweddle is enjoying the rise of the British men, and not just because she enjoys seeing her home country do well at competitions. What with her male colleagues now sharing the limelight and helping her share the burden of expectations, Tweddle is feeling less pressure to do well, which she says is helping her. ‘A few years ago, when we went to a major championships, it was a case of “what result can Beth come home with?” But now it’s more about “what result can British Gymnastics achieve?” The boys have been getting lots of great results on the international circuit for some time and so the pressure has been taken off me and is shared between us, which is nice.’

Tweddle has indicated she intends to stick with the two-events-only strategy she adopted after the Beijing Olympics. Like last year, she will compete bars and floor only at the world championships. However, there are a few changes in the works. For one thing, she is going to get a new floor routine soon. ‘If you do the same thing over and over again it just gets boring, so straight after the Europeans I’m going to change it and get a new choreographer,’ she said. ‘Hopefully, it will put a bit more pizzazz back into my life.’

The 25-year-old is now gearing herself up for the world championships in Rotterdam in October, but as the gymnast explains, she will have to miss the Commonwealth Games because of a calendar clash. ‘Unfortunately the world championships clash with the Commonwealth Games, so for myself I’m hoping to go to the World Championships. All our funding is based on our World Championship results, not our Commonwealths. So our A team will travel out to Rotterdam for the worlds and the B team plus the two reserves from the A team will go to the Commonwealth Games. It works in a good way, as the B team will be the younger seniors who will also be eligible for 2012 and are not quite ready this year. They’ll get the experience of a major championships. Hopefully that will bode well for the future for us.’

The fact that at age 25, she will be one of the oldest female gymnasts competing in Rotterdam, doesn’t bother Tweddle. ‘Age doesn’t really come into it. It’s just an extra number. I’m still out there, still enjoying it and still getting the results.’ So what’s keeping her going? Why, her dream of winning a gold medal at the 2012 Olympics, of course. ‘A lot of people have said, “Why do you keep going?” The motivation is I’ve still got one dream to achieve and that’s 2012, hopefully. We’ll see what happens, and I think with age comes experience.’ (Sources: The Telegraph, 28 April 2010; Liverpool Echo, 1 and 4 May 2010; BBC Sport, 12 May 2010)