Day two event finals of the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands began Sunday with the exciting men's vault competition. Five of the eight gymnasts competing in the vault finals had both their vaults with a 7.0 difficulty value. Romania's Marian Dragulescu, the 2009 Floor and Vault champion, didn't qualify to the vault finals because of coming short on his Dragulescu vault, but a lot of the athletes competed it as one of their vaults - the handspring double front with a half twist (debuted by Dragulescu in 2000). Too bad - Dragulescu does a 7.0 and 7.2 vault for his two vaults.
Thomas Bouhail of France and Anton Golotsutskov of Russia did the same two vaults (including the Dragulescu), but Bouhail's was higher and cleaner, winning him the gold and Golotsutskov the silver. Yang Hak Seon of South Korea did a completely different style than them, twisting to get his 7.0 difficulty value score - he's a quick twister. Dmitry Kasperovich of Belarus also did the Dragulescu as one of his vaults, just a smaill little step on his landing. Kasperovich won the bronze.
On beam, USA's Alicia Sacramone was up first again. Sacramone did a clean routine, but her 6.1 difficulty score wasn't high enough to get her on the medals podium - though she mounts the beam with a front flip, a skill instead of just 'getting on' there. Australia's Luaren Mitchell was next up. Her skill set on the beam included a Terin Humphrey style squat down on one leg and turn around 3 times around with one leg straight out. She finished one ahead of Sacramone, with a good difficulty score and just 0.03 off in the execution score for a medal. It was close. Mitchell won a silver at the 2009 Worlds, but had 2010 injuries, including a broken hand. Some say Australia's coach Peggy Liddick (Shannon Miiller's former beam/dance coach with Steve Nunno) puts her gymnasts in way too many competitions - they competed two major competition just this month. With more competitions and more hard landings and stress on the body can come more injuries and less smart training. USA's Rebecca Bross had her game face on again. She stuck her arabian - the move she fell on during the women's all-around finals. Bross was quick, aggressive, and kept a quick pace. There was flow. She wasn't able to practice the numbers she usually does and likes to do because of nursing a shin injury, but she won the silver on beam finals, tied with China's Deng Linlin. Romania's Ana Porgas qualified first for the event and won the gold in the finals, the first gold medal for Romania at the 2010 Worlds. She started her routine with a forward roll onto the beam. Linlin was the reigning World Champion on beam; she was on the 2008 Olympics Beijing team. Her beam was choppy though, no flow, and she sets up before a big skill, too much pause. 16 year-old Aliya Mustafina (Romania) fell on her arabian - her hips were off center/tilted and she hopped off the beam. Her coach Alexander Alexandrov said earlier Mustafina was completely exhausted. Her teammate, Anna Dementyeva fell on her front aerial - it was kind of like the two Chinese gymnasts He Kexin and Huang Qiushuang falling one ofter the other on the bar finals - they ended with the same rankings, 7th and 6th, respectively. Dementyeva made a long, long pause before her beam dismount, but it was a big one.
The parallel bars for the men brought back the left shoulder taping for Kohei Uchimura (Japan). Nice front uprise to double back. Lots of pundings on the arms for the men on the bar landings. Uchimura swung his arms twice around to stick his dismount. He won the bronze. China went 1-2 on this event, Feng Zhe winning the gold and Teng Haibin winning the silver. Teng Haibin qualified second for pbars. He was on the 2004 Olympics team, but not the 2008 Olympics team. Haibin had a small hop on the landing, Zhe a stuck dismount. Fabian Hambüchen (Germany) finished fourth.
The 2010 Worlds event finals for the women ended with floor. Aliya Mustafina qualified for all 4 event finals - like Russian Svetlana Khorkina in 1997. Mustafina had a pretty routine/choreography, coming close to the line on one of her tumbling passes...she had a diuble turn with her leg up in her routine but downgraded it here to just a single. She wins the silver, tied with Diana Chelaru (Romania). Sandra Izbasa (Romania) won the gold medal in Beijing on floor, but here ended in 7th place. If you didn't recognize her at first, it might have been because she dyed her hair blonde, from brown. Izbasa cameback from a serious torn achilles tendon, with the intention to help the Romanian team get back on top, with the new coaches brought back, Octavian Belu and Mariana Bitang. Izbasa danced to Hava Nagila. She landed with both feet out of bounds, because she went off to the side. Alexandra Raisman (USA) qualified last for floor, but did a great routine, finishing in 4th place by 0.05. Her triple twist was completely around. She landed her tumbling pass and then did her split leap - not using it as a cover up for a bad landing. Diana Chelaru (Romania) did her routine to a 'pixie' type music like Dominique Moceanu would do. It was packed, with a full twisting double back late in the routine. Her whip back triple twist needed more control out of the skill, on the landing, In the Europeans Chelaru won the bronze. Up last was Lauren Mitchell (Australia). She won silver last year at the 2009 Worlds. Like on the beam, she did the triple turn on one leg squatting in her routine - rack up some points. Mitchell danced to techno-like music. Qualified 5th, and then won the event, the first women's World title for Australia.
Crowd favorite Epke Zonderland from the Netherlands was high-flying on the high bar (aka horizontal bar), for the final event of the 2010 Worlds in Rotterdam. He did a 2 release connection - a kovacs and a kovacs with a twist. Stuck the landing too. A great show for his home country. Zonderland was up first and so had to play the waiting game. Feng Zhe (China) who just won the pbars event, qualifie 8th for high bar. A completely different style, with most of his points aquired through pirouettng skills. Some like John Roethlisburger and Tim Dagget did in today's coverage may call it 'uninspired'. Chris Brooks (USA), University of Oklahoma graduate, at his first Worlds, brought back some of the high-flying tricks. Doesn't have as high as a difficulty value for his high bar routine as Zonderland or Chenglong. Brooks had a step back on his dismount. He takes ff his grips and becomes the cheerleader for his teammate Danell Leyva. He does his double layout over the bar with his arms out to the side. Takes a step back on his dismount. He scores behind Zonderland, but the upcomng guys bump him off the podium, at 5th place. Fabian Hambüchen (Germany) has a lot of titles on high bar, a high flyer. He does a kovacs, and then a kovacs with a full twist. Stuck his landing. Scores right under Zonderland. His teammate Philipp Boy continues the high-flying tricks, layout kovacs with full twist (called Cassina - Kolman in layout position), catching releases with the fingertips grasp, nice routine right to handstands, small hop/chest down on the landing. Boy finishes after Hambüchen. Zhang Chenglong (China) uses very hard intricate bar skills for a 0.2 difficulty score over Zonderland. Chenglong's coach was actually standing next to him under the bar with arms out for one of his release moves. He qualified first for the high bar and won gold on the event final.
2010 World Gymnastics Championships
Oct. 24, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Balance Beam Final D E ND Score
1. Ana Porgras (Romania) 6.5 8.866 15.366
2. Rebecca Bross (USA) 6.5 8.733 15.233
2. Deng Linlin (China) 6.6 8.633 15.233
4. Lauren Mitchell (Australia) 6.6 8.600 15.200
5. Alicia Sacramone (USA) 6.1 8.966 15.066
6. Anna Dementyeva (Russia) 6.2 7.766 13.966
7. Aliya Mustafina (Russia) 5.9 7.866 13.766
8. Yana Demyanchuk (Ukraine) 6.2 7.533 13.733
Women's Floor Exercise Final D E ND Score
1. Lauren Mitchell (Australia) 5.9 8.933 14.833
2. Aliya Mustafina (Russia) 5.8 8.966 14.766
2. Diana Chelaru (Romania) 5.9 8.866 14.766
4. Alexandra Raisman (USA) 5.7 9.016 14.716
5. Sui Lu (China) 5.7 8.966 14.666
6. Vanessa Ferrari (Italy) 5.5 9.100 14.600
7. Sandra Izbasa (Romania) 5.9 8.883 0.8 13.983
8. Ksenia Afanasyeva (Russia) 5.8 6.900 12.700
Men's Vault Final D E ND Score Average
1. Thomas Bouhail (France) 7.0 9.366 16.366 16.449
7.0 9.533 16.533
2. Anton Golotsutskov (Russia) 7.0 9.433 16.433 16.366
7.0 9.300 16.300
3. Dmitry Kasperovich (Belarus) 7.0 9.233 16.233 16.316
7.0 9.400 16.400
4. Yang Hak Seon (South Korea) 7.0 9.400 16.400 16.266
7.0 9.133 16.133
5. Flavius Koczi (Romania) 7.0 9.233 16.233 16.208
7.0 9.183 16.183
6. Andrei Isayev (Ukraine) 6.6 9.266 15.866 16.049
7.0 9.2331 6.233
7. Luis Rivera (Puerto Rico) 6.6 9.375 15.975 15.945
6.6 9.316 15.916
8. Jeffrey Wammes (Netherlands) 6.8 9.300 0.1 16.000 15.750
6.6 8.900 15.500
Parallel Bars Final D E ND Score
1. Feng Zhe (China) 6.7 9.266 15.966
2. Teng Haibin (China) 6.4 9.216 15.616
3. Kohei Uchimura (Japan) 6.4 9.100 15.500
4. Fabian Hambüchen (Germany) 6.3 9.066 15.366
5. Koji Uematsu (Japan) 6.5 8.733 15.233
6. Adam Kierzkowski (Poland) 6.0 9.200 15.200
7. Eldar Valeyev (Kazakhstan) 6.9 8.283 15.183
8. Samuel Piasecky (Slovakia) 6.3 8.866 15.166
High Bar Final D E ND Score
1. Zhang Chenglong (China) 7.5 8.666 16.166
2. Epke Zonderland (Netherlands) 7.3 8.733 16.033
3. Fabian Hambüchen (Germany) 7.1 8.866 15.966
4. Philipp Boy (Germany) 7.3 8.533 15.833
5. Danell Leyva (USA) 7.1 8.566 15.666
6. Chris Brooks (USA) 6.6 8.783 15.383
7. Feng Zhe (China) 6.6 8.566 15.166
8. Koji Uematsu (Japan) 7.2 6.800 14.000
