Gymnastics - the competitions continue.

Normally the weeks after a world championships are a quiet time, when athletes and teams have a chance to rest and regroup.

Not so it seems in the world of gymnastics 2010.

Within 2 weeks from the competition finishing in Rotterdam, some of the world's top gymnasts were competing again at the Swiss Cup, a mixed pairs event where a female and male gymnast from each country compete for the highest combined total. Elizabeth Seitz and Fabian Hambuchen took top honours, making up for Seitz's disappointment in the bars final in Rotterdam.

The top 5 teams were
1. Elizabeth Seitz & Fabian Hambuchen (Germany)
2. Vanessa Ferarri & Matteo Morandi (Italy)
3. Ariella Kaeslin & Claudio Capelli (Switzerland)
4. Sandra Izbasa & Flavius Kocki (Romania)
5. Anastasia Koval & Nikolai Kuchenkov (Ukraine)
Ful results and report at International Gymnast (here)

That's not all here's a list of some more major competitions coming up in November. No rest for the wicked it seems.

Men's British Championships (Leicester Nov 5-7)
Osijek World Cup (Croatia Nov 5-7)
DTP World Cup (Stuttgard, Germany Nov 12-14)
Glasgow Grand Prix (Scotland Nov 18-21)


2010 world championships gold medalists Lauren Mitchell (Australia), Thomas Bouhail (France), Eleftherios Kosmidis (Greece) and Krisztian Berki (Hungary) are each slated to compete in at least one World Cup in November.

 Imogen Cairns, Becky Downie, Jennifer Pinches, Hannah Whelan, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Daniel Purvis and Louis Smith are all due to compete for GB in Glasgow, a few weeks after the city (which is already hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games) announced a bid for the 2015 world championships.

Also in November, World Champion Aliya Mustafina is due to face off against the Youth Olympic gold and silver medallists, Viktoria Komova and Tan Sixin at the Italian Grand Prix (or 'Freddy Cup') on November 13. Both Komova and Sixin were too young to compete in Rotterdam but will be eligible for senior competition in 2011.

Russia's Mini Divas

The Soviet Union and later Russia have for decades been leaders of the world in gymnastics and figure skating. Wilst their dominance has been challenged in recent years by upstarts such as the USA, China and others, they still have the ability to bring out incredible talents. At the moment though Russia has a slight problem- many of it's brightest stars may be among the best in the world, but they are currently too young to compete on the world stage!

Russia's tweenage talents (L-R) Viktoria Komova, Adelina Sotnikova,

Anastasia Grishina and Elizaveta Tuktamisheva.

Many of the 'older gymnasts' will be breathing a sigh of relief that Viktoria Komova and her team-mate Anastasia Grishina will not be age eligible for the World Championships in Rotterdam in 3 weeks. Komova's 'junior' routines from the european championships and youth olympic games would certainly put her in contention for medals on several events and in the all around. Those gymnasts better be looking over their shoulders though as the London olympics are only 2 years away. Komova will be age eligible and ready keen to add olympic gold to her extensive medal collection.
The Russian press had an enlightening look into Komova's life and medal filled home here.

One year out from Vancouver 2010 the Russian Skating Federation had a slight problem. It's National champion and silver medallist would not only be too young for the olympics, they wouldn't even be old enough to compete as juniors internationally until after Vancouver. Adelina Sotnikova and Elizaveta Tuktamisheva have had to wait, practice their skills and bide their time.

Sotnikova trains in Moscow with coach Elena Vodorezova and under the watchful eye of legend Tatiana Tarasova. Tuktamisheva trains in St Petersberg with Alexei Mishin and his group of skating champions. In 2010 these two have finally been let out and about to compete on the junior grand prix circuit - the first step for many skaters to compete internationally. They both won their first events in Austria and Romania respectively.

Sotnikova is currently sitting in first place at JGP Sheffield after her impressive short programme yesterday. These two will likely compete against each other for gold at the JGP final in December, and then many more times before the Olympics come to Russia for Sochi 2014.

YOG Event Finals - Women's Floor

There was a new queen in women's gymnastics this evening as Tan Sixin picked up a second gold medal. Sexin showed that no matter how much the americans may complain about it - it is possible for slight, female gymnasts to stick their tumbling passes.

Komova got up on the floor for a chance to regain her crown. She had a low landing on her first tumbling pass - a double arabian. Gold now seemed out of reach - could she hang on to silver?


In an amusing incident - after completing her routine- Tan Sixin got out her camera to film Komova!


Last up was the chance for Romania's littlest star- Diana Bulimar. The tiny bulimar tumbled and danced her heart out and pipped Komova for second place. On recieving her score her coach then picked her up onto the podium again as the arena sang happy birthday to her! Quite the present for this talented one.


So the final podium of the women's competition may not look quite as expected.

YOG Event Finals - Medal ceremonies

Huge congratulations to this young star from China - Tan Sixin gets her own moment of undiluted glory.


Girls beam medallists - Angela Donald (B) Tan Sixin (G) and Carlotta Ferlito (S)


Floor medallists- Diana Bulimar (S) Tan Sixin (G) and Vika Komova (B)

Komova throws a wobbly!

In the girls balance beam final everyone knew it was the best chance for someone for someone to pip Viktoria Komova to the gold. Tan Sixin was up first and completed her difficult routine with squeaky clean execution : game on!


The next gymnasts (Donald, Gomez Porras) gave good performances but nothing to touch Sixin's score. Komova knew she needed something great to keep up her gold streak.


First tumbling pass- disaster for Komova - she falls on her back layout.


Komova seemed to lose concentration after that - 1 large wobble and another fall later - game over. She also looked to have injured her right hand- the question is whether it will affect her floor exercise.


So Gold to Tan Sixin, Silver to Carlotta Ferlito, Bronze to Angela Donald of Australia.

YOG Event Finals - Women's Uneven Bars

Komova showed she can win gold even when she makes a major mistake. The russian princess of gymnastics banged both feet on the floor as she grabbed the lowbar on her pac. However it didn't affect the rhythm of her routine and she still finished well for a score of 14.525 (slightly overmarked in my opinion given the mistake). Tan Sexin looked slightly bewildered after her good performance failed to win her the gold. She took silver with 14.125. Surprise Joana Adlerteg of Sweden competed a low difficulty routine with good execution and managed to win herself a bronze.

Diana Bulimar's score was surprisingly low after a lovely clean routine. She flies well between the bars for one so small. Carlotta Ferlito and Tess Moonen both had form breaks. Canadian Madeline Gardiner's routine ended painfully after she missed her release but banged her face on the bar.

YOG Event Finals - Women's Vault

It was a competition for second place in the women's vault final in Singapore.

Provided Vika Komova landed on her feet with her Amanar and double twisting yurchenko vaults the gold was hers. She did better than land on her feet with a combined score of 15.312.


Spain's Maria Vargas was the best of the rest with a score of 13.700 (straight and full twisting yururchenkos).

Carlotta Ferlito once again edged Natsumi Sasada for Bronze.

Golden Girls - The All Around

Viktoria Komova made simple work of trouncing the competition today to win her first youth olympic title with ease. Komova topped her qualifying score with 61.250.

Silver went to Tan Sexin of China with 58.500 and Bronze to Carlotta Ferlito of Italy (55.350) who narrowly edged Natsumi Sasada of Japan (55.100). Sasada - who wears her heart on her sleeve was smiling and waving to the camera whenever it found her then burst into tears on seeing Ferlito's final score. I hope she can win herself an event medal before the games are over.

Komova took the the top scores on vault (15.650), bars (15.450) and floor (14.900) so will likely collect more bling over the weekend. Tan Sexin narrowly pipped her on beam with 15.350 vs Komova's 15.250.

Youth Olympic Games

UPDATE : As almost everyone expected - Russia's Viktoria Komova dominated the women's (or is that girls?) qualifying at the Youth Olympics in Singapore. Her impressive AA score of 61.000 would put her up at/near the top at the Senior worlds. Tan Sixin of China put in a respectable collection of scores to qualify 2nd into the all-around final.

The qualifying scores were -

1. Viktoria Komova (RUS) – 61.000
2. Sixin Tan (CHN) – 58.100
3. Carlotta Ferlito (ITA) – 55.750
4. Diana Bulimar (ROU) – 54.700
5. Tess Moonen (NED) – 54.250
6. Gomez Porras (GUA) – 54.050
7. Angela Donald (AUS) – 54.050
8. Madeline Gardiner (CAN) – 53.850
9. Jonna Adlerteg (SWE) – 53.600
10. Natsumi Sasada (JPN) – 53.550
11. Harumy Freitas (BRA) – 53.100
12. Alina Kravchenko (UKR) – 51.400
13. Elisa Haemmerle (AUT) – 51.350
14. Jessica Hogg (GBR) – 51.250
15. Dilnoza Abdusalimova (UZB) – 51.200
16. Kosthia Requena (VEN) – 50.900
17. Maria Vargas (ESP) – 50.650
18. Kyungjin Park (KOR) – 50.450

RussianCup2009 and Mistysakura have posted a number of videos from the qualification on Youtube

Yuya Kamoto of Japan won the Mens qualifying round, ahead of GB's Sam Oldham.

The Scores near the top were.

1. Yuya Kamoto JPN 87.200
2. Sam Oldham GBR 86.850
3. Oleg Stepko UKR 86.800
4. Xiaodong Zhu CHN 86.100
5. Danill Kazakhov RUS 85.400
6. Andrei Muntean ROU 83.800

Meanwhile here are some photos from the Ladies podium training

Diana Bulimar (Romania) & Viktoria Komova (Russia)
Angela Donald (Australia) & Jessica Hogg (Great Britain)

Youth Olympic Games

The Organizing commitee of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore in August have changed their rules on the number of coaches a country can send with its young athletes. (International Gymnastics) In gymnastics they had only previously allowed one coach for both mens and womens gymnastics - difficult if your male and female entry train on different sides of the country! This rule had led to the USA refusing to send a female gymnast.

I haven't found a lot of info on entries yet but Russia's Viktoria Komova is due to attend, having won the junior all around and a heap of other medals at the junior European championships. With the organizing commitee now allowing one coach per gymnast it will be interesting to see if USA Gymnastics go back on their word and send someone like Jordyn Wieber (junior Pacific Rim champion) to compete with Komova. She may be one of the few that can.....

Also - the Singapore organizing commitee have planned a special 'olympic lane' on the roads connecting the athlete's village and competition venues. Motorists will be required to give way to specially marked official vehicles.