Brenna Dowell breaks hand

Property of John Cheng

Okay, so I'm starting to like lose my mind due to lack of sleep, so please excuse any typos in here.

So, Brenna Dowell was originally on the rotation schedule today but mysteriously disappeared. I said "I sure hope that she didn't break." Guess what? She did.

I'm not sure how or when, but Brenna Dowell is suffering from a fracture in her hand. Sad, right? As of Wednesday, the Dragon Gymnastics Facebook page was wishing Brenna (and the other girls) good luck this weekend and she trained in yesterday's morning session. It seems like it must have happened last night.

No word as if she'll be back for Championships or not. I'll let you all know if I find out.

If you're not too familiar with her, Brenna has like, the prettiest tumbling ever. Seriously.

Top Gym 2011 - Why I think Ohashi will be left off the roster

Honestly, Top Gym is one of my favorite meets of the year. Anyone who knows me around the boards knows that I'm a huge fan of Junior Gymnastics.

Top Gym consists of 2 gymnasts per country with a team final that I don't really understand, an all around competition and event finals. This year, it will take place from Nov. 25th-27th.

In addition to the US, they're expecting gymnasts from Russia, Romania, Canada, Great Britain and a variety of other countries.

The question on everyone's mind is: "Who will Marta send?"
I might be in the minority as I'm thinking that Ohashi will not go to Belgium. Don't get me wrong, Ohashi's fabulous but, if I were Marta, I'd be more worried about 2012 than 2016, or even 2013.

Also, Marta's made a habit of sending national team members with the same coach on international assignments together. Fassbender & Guerra of Stars and Wieber & Moore of Twistars were both sent to Top Gym together, and Marta sent CGA and WOGA pairs out internationally to other competitions in the past year.

That's why, depending on health, I think that Marta has 2 solid choices for Top Gym:

(Property of Examiner.net)

(Property of Emer Hults) 

All four gymnasts: Brenna Dowell & Sarah Finnegan (Left Pic) Kiana Winston & Kennedy Baker (Right Pic) were born in 1996 and are age eligible for 2012. Brenna Dowell and Sarah Finnegan are coached by Al & Armine Fong at GAGE. They both competed in last year's Pan Am Championships where Sarah won the Bronze on Beam. Kiana Winston & Kennedy Baker are newer to the scene, and are coached by Kim Zmeskal & Chris Burdette at Texas Dreams. Although they haven't competed internationally, They've both been impressive for years and in my opinion, this would be the perfect experience for the two of them to prove how great they can be. 

Who knows? I could be wrong. Marta could send Katelyn Ohashi & Kyla Ross. Who do you think she'll send? 

If you're a member of IGF, you can talk about Top Gym here.

Here is the list of competitors from "The All Around" as Teo posted on IGF:

Russia:Yulia Chemareva & Evguenia Shelgunova

Hungary: Dorina Jelencsics & Borbala Nardai

South-Africa: Tylah Lotter & Ryan Bloy

Italy : Carlotta Necchi & Giulia Gemme

Netherlands: Maartje Ruikes & Elise Bats

GBR: Georgina Hockenull & Sarah Strawbridge

Canada:Tara Mauchell & Briannah Tsang & Sydney Soloski & Maddie Copiack & Shallon Olsen & Maegan Chant.

Belgium: Ellen Rabout & Berangere Fransolet & Laura Waem & Jitske De Herdt & Amalia Heine & Lia Baudet.

Romania: Bianca Ciobanu, Paula Tudorache and Andreea Munteanu

Dark Horses for London - Sarah Finnegan

Shawn Johnson, Carly Patterson, Courtney Kupets and Nastia Liukin all seemed to be shoo-ins for the Olympics. But what about those who you many didn't really expect to see on the Olympic Team (or as an alternate) like Tasha Schwikert, Corrie Lothrop and Mohini Bhardwaj? In the next few weeks, I'm looking to showcase girls other than Jordyn Wieber and Rebecca Bross: The Dark Horses for London.

(USA Gymnastics)

In my opinion, Sarah Finnegan is one of the most underrated gymnasts in America. Based on the Visa Scores of all Olympic eligible gymnasts, Finnegan placed 3rd All Around, behind only Wieber and Ross. While Al Fong's comment about intending to make the Olympic team made me uncomfortable, Finnegan has a good shot at being an alternate, and may even be on the team if some of the expected members (god forbid) become injured.

Vault: Finnegan has a Double Twisting Yurchenko, which usually scores in the high 14s.

Bars: Although Finnegan placed 5th on bars this year, I wouldn't consider it a strong event for her. She has a start value of 5.6 and while she has fairly good form, she sometimes struggles to stay in handstand on pirouettes. Even if she made the team, I couldn't see her factoring in a Team Final setting on this event unless all of the strong bar workers are completely out.

Beam: Finnegan's start value on beam is a 6.4 which rivals many of the girls who competed in Worlds' Event Finals this year. She does struggle on some of her dance elements like her Humphrey and a leap that doesn't ever seem to get anywhere near 180 (Johnson with a half, if I remember correctly). Overall, with some polishing, Finnegan could rival the best in the world on this event.

Floor: Most people, however, recognize Finnegan because of her floor routine which has a 5.8 Start Value. With the wonderful dance skills of the typical GAGE girl, she earned the Junior National bronze this year, as well as the gold at Classics. She connects a Memmel into a full turn which is unbelievably beautiful! Girl can tumble and dance. 

Her coach, Al Fong is known to encourage upgrades in the Olympic year so her D scores will almost surely be higher in 2012. My concern is whether or not she'll be able to perform those upgrades well and exceed expectations like Terin Humphrey, rather than fall short like Ivana Hong.

Sarah Finnegan has only been an Elite for 2 years now, but she's made the National Team both years. In September of 2010, Finnegan was on the Gold Medal Winning Pan American Championships team and she also won the Beam Bronze Medal.

Overall, I think it's a long shot to think that Finnegan will compete on a 5 member team in London, but she'd be a fantastic alternate.

Do you have an idea for a "Dark Horse" feature? Tell us in the comments!