The 2008 Pacific Rim Championships are coming up March 28-30 in San Jose California, at San Jose State University (men's and women's gymnastics)/McEnery Convention Center (rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline). It used to be called Pacific Alliance Championships. For artistic and rhythmic gymnastics there will be team, all-around and individual event competitions. 6 gymnasts on each team, with max of 3 senios each. All-around and individual events will have both junior and senior champions, same for individual trampoline. Buy tickets to watch it live, and/or watch it on tv on NBC Sports: [quote]Single ticket prices begin at $15 for afternoon sessions and $30 for the evening sessions for artistic gymnastics, with the tickets for rhythmic gymnastics and trampoline beginning at $15. Tickets may be purchased charge by phone at 408.998.TIXS; online at www.ticketmaster.com; at all Ticketmaster outlets; at the Event Center Arena Box Office; or through participating Bay Area gymnastics clubs. Visa is the preferred method of payment. [/quote] Gym Chat has the tv schedule listed, NBC Sports: April 13, 4:30

Maybe the USA women's artistic gymnastics team takes longer to choose their team because they have more gymnasts to choose from? Or they just like to take their time and are in no rush lol. It might make a difference also in regards to scheduling that on average the men's team gymnasts are older than the women's team gymnasts.

USA women's team: Nastia Liukin, Jana Bieger, Darlene Hill (seniors), Rebecca Bross, Samantha Shapiro and Jordyn Wieber (Juniors). Olivia Courtney is the alternate. [quote]In other news, Nastia has been at the National Team Training Center this week for the National Team Training Camp. Following this camp she has been named on the Pacific Rim Championships (formally known as the Pacific Alliance Championships) team. The Pacific Rim Championships has a unique team competition with each country being represented by up to three senior and three junior athletes. All Around and Event Final awards will be presented seperately. Joining Nastia on the team are Jana Bieger, Darlene Hill (seniors), Rebecca Bross, Samantha Shapiro and Jordyn Wieber (Juniors). Olivia Courtney is the alternate. The team will continue their preparation for the event at the Karolyi Ranch in the coming days before travelling to San Jose for the start of competition on 28 March. [/quote] http://www.nastialiukin.com/newsroom.html

Also, Carly Patterson will be singing at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships! [quote]INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., March 21, 2008

Jana has been out of competition for a while, getting over her foot injury. She can show how she is competitively at this competition! Chellsie Memmel is being mentioned in promos like the Vogue magazine photo/article (http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=31882) so it shows she is in the mix. Darlene Hill is pretty much a newbie, but senior: [quote]Hill, who was named to her first senior national team in 2007, finished sixth on the uneven bars and floor exercise and ninth in the all-around at the 2007 Visa Championships. She finished fourth in the uneven bars at the 2007 Grand Prix in Glasgow, Scotland. [/quote] http://usa-gymnastics.org/news/2008/mar22-pacificrim.html

"Pacific Rim event in San Jose is Olympic in scope" - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/26/SPCBVQS6L.DTL&feed=rss.sports [quote]"Most of the countries have brought their top seniors in preparation for the Olympic Games," said Jean-Paul Caron, a Canadian and president of the Pacific Alliance Gymnastics Federations. "Most of the countries brought their top juniors, too. It's grown quite a lot. We have almost all the countries on the Pacific Rim. We're quite pleased with that. It makes it a higher profile event." Missing is South Korea. Caron denied that the Koreans are skipping the Pacific Rim Championships to protest the presence of Paul Hamm on the U.S. team. "They almost always participate," Caron said. "I don't know why they're not here. They've always been here."[/quote] Maybe they want to be a surprise at the Beijing Olympics, not show what they can do, or also don't want to take time away from practice for competition/travel. [quote]The Chinese team, always a subject of great interest, is of unknown quality. "I don't know exactly who they brought," Caron said. "I know we were having trouble getting their names at one point. The Chinese have so many great athletes, I'm sure they brought a good team." Russia, meanwhile, has reportedly brought a high-caliber team that includes Lyudmila Yezhova Grebenkova, Dmitry Gogotov, Sergei Khorokhordin and Yury Ryazanov. "It really raised the profile when you bring the U.S., China, Japan and Russia together," Caron said.[/quote] Shawn Johnson is one of USA's top gymnasts, but not competing at the Pacific Rim Championships. There are only 3 seniors and 3 juniors per team, but anyways USA team has Nastia Liukin (won AA gold at Tyson American Cup), and perhaps Martha Karolyi decided it's better for Shawn to have workout time not interrupted by another competition - like for her new vault. And to test out Jana Bieger and Darlene Hill. The USA women's team does have a lot of depth. USA men's AA winner Paul Hamm is on the men's team. Sessions: [quote]The men's team and all-around competitions take place Friday in two sessions, 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. The U.S. goes in the evening along with Australia, Canada, China, Japan and Russia. The women's team and all-around is Saturday, again at 1:30 and 7. China competes early while the U.S. joins Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei and Japan at 7.[/quote]

Men's results: Team: USA, China, Japan - Japan jumps from 5th to 3rd, in front of Russia and Canada after great 6th rotation vault. Senior All-Around 1. Paul Hamm USA 94.450 2. Sasha Artemev USA 92.300 3. Lu Bo CHN 91.350 4. Maxim Devyatovsky RUS 90.800 5. Raj Bhavsar USA 90.650 6. Takuya Inatera JPN 90.200 7. Wang Heng CHN 89.450 8. Joshua Jefferis AUS 88.600 9. Nathan Gafuik CAN 88.100 10. Liang Mingsheng CHN 87.900 11. Adam Wong CAN 87.600 12. Sergei Khorokhordin RUS 87.100 13. Yusuke Saito JPN 87.050 14. Samuel Simpson AUS 83.750 Junior All-Around 1. Danell Leyva USA 89.400 2. Igor Pakhomenko RUS 87.950 3. Genki Takeshita JPN 87.850 4. Glen Ishino USA 87.500 5. John Orozco USA 86.900 6. Liu Zhanteng CHN 86.550 7. Mathew Curtis AUS 86.300 8. Chen Xuezhang CHN 86.150 9. Riku Munakata JPN 85.450 10. Fang Lixiang CHN 85.150 11. David Belyavsky RUS 85.000 12. Jackson Payne CAN 84.600 13. Nikita Ignatiyev RUS 83.600 14. Anderson Loran CAN 83.200 15. John Hall CAN 80.700 16. Luke Wadsworth AUS 79.350 17. Jack Rickards AUS 76.450 Check rotation details at: http://vivvo.intlgymnast.com/index.php?news=266

Paul Hamm: [quote]Although China is competing at the Event Center, Hamm's primary rival for all-around supremacy is not. Yang Wei, who won gold medals in all-around at the last two World Championships, is not on this Chinese team. "You should be trying to gauge where you are going into the Olympic year," Hamm said. "At this point I see myself as being one of the top contenders in all-around on the world stage. The possibility is there to come out with an all-around medal." Avery said he expects Hamm and Wei to compete for the all-around gold medal at Beijing and said his guy relies on execution to carry him while Wei pushes his degree of difficulty. "We're hoping execution wins out at Beijing," Avery said. "I feel they will battle it out for 1-2." [/quote] [quote]"In some ways I'd say I'm a better gymnast than '04 in terms of skills," he said. "From where I need to be, I'd say I'm 90 percent. I'm happy where I am. If I can do these kinds of routines at the Olympics, I should be able to get on the podium (top three), although winning the gold is another matter. It's a different position for me to be in, going after" Wei and other top contenders.[/quote] Hamm tunes up for another run at Olympic gold http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=32492

Women's team: 1st = USA 2nd = Canada 3rd = China Women's AA; Seniors: 1st = Nastia Liukin 2nd = Jana Bieger 3rd = Dasha Joura Juniors: 1st = Rebecca Bross 2nd = Samantha Shapiro 3rd = Viktoria Komova. Carly Patterson sings her song "Temporary Life" before the awards ceremony. Samantha Shapiro's (USA) floor routine has music malfunction after a few notes, audience claps along! Jana Bieger's floor routine, from IG commentary: [quote]Double layout. Arabian double front. Front full, Rudi. Barani. Double pike out of bounds. Improved choroegraphy.[/quote] -gets 14.800, same score as Nastia: [quote] front layout, double-twisting front, just barely in front. Handspring double front. Back 1 1/2, Rudi - stumbled out of bounds. 2 1/2. [/quote] more from IG here: http://vivvo.intlgymnast.com/index.php?news=268 The pop-ups are so annoying on their new website though! (they updated it in case you haven't visited in a while) - too many depressing ads (literally!)

Huge points difference between 1st place USA and 2nd/3rd place for women's team competition: 1) USA 245.275 2) Canada 233.475 3) China 233.075 4) Australia 232.675 5) Russia 230.250 6) Japan 224.925 7) Mexico 214.325 8) TPE 191.400 9) HKG 189.125 10) PHI 160.075 http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2008/pac/results/PRC08_Women_Team.pdf Women's AA: Senior: 1) Nastia Liukin USA 62.850 2) Jana Bieger USA 59.925 3) Dasha Joura AUS 59.200 http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2008/pac/results/PRC08_SR_Women_AA.pdf Junior: 1) Rebecca Bross USA 61.050 2) Samantha Shapiro USA 60.100 3) Viktoriya Komova RUS 57.600 http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/events/2008/pac/results/PRC08_JR_Women_AA.pdf USA Gymnastics has results details posted: http://usa-gymnastics.org/events/2008/pac/news.html Photos: http://usa-gymnastics.org/events/2008/pac/photos.html