Sorry for promising an update and never delivering. I was taken out of Nationals by an injury. I hurt my back and have been unable to stand up without holding onto a wall so I missed day 2 of Nationals. In fact I just went back to work today.
I promise to update as soon as I can because I did watch Nationals on TV. I am still pretty upset that I missed it live due to a back injury. Me and Shayla Worley now have something in common and not a good thing.
Rumors have her out of Nationals with an injury and not competing at Trials. I know for a fact she is in Boston or was as of a few hours ago.
I guess we will find out tomorrow.
Kristina Vaculik Leads Canadian Nationals and there is a good chance she won’t make the Olympic team. Canada’s points system makes little sense. (You gain points on each event by scoring over a certain score at certain events.) Kristina is the best AA gymnast the Country has had for a few years and because she lacks vaulting ability (the easiest event to score points on) she could be left out of the Olympics.
http://gym-score-depot.ca/Natls_2008/WAG01_Senior_Day1.pdf
I am back from my vacation. Had a really great time seeing my favorite baseball team play on the road (Go Red Sox) I even got to see some history on this trip (ok it was baseball history but it was still history. 
Congrats on your 500th homerun Manny)
Nationals starts tomorrow at the Agganis Arena in Boston Massachusetts. I will be attending junior and senior events. It will be a long day for me and I will report back after the senior event with what I saw. I’ll try to have some pictures available. I live an hour away from Boston by bus so I won’t have time to come back in between events. Looks like I will be hanging out.
Podium training has been the last few days and a few tidbits have been leaked out by some fans.
Chellsie Memmel has been hitting every routine (minus a fall off beam once) and both she and Nastia have been the only gymnasts competing full routines. Chellsie will compete the 1.5 yurchenko on vault. She is easing back into her DTY (double twisting yurchenko) Alicia Sacramone will not be competing bars (Marta’s decision. ) Ivana Hong hit a few DTY’s and Shawn Johnson was having trouble on beam.
If I find any other news I’ll be back but I am leaving you with the results of the World Cup and Zakharova Cup that happened when I was out of town. Results are from IG Magazine.
2008 Stars of the World
May 30, Moscow
(complete results not yet available)
Women’s Vault
1. Anna Pavlova RUS 14.750
1. Jade Barbosa BRA 14.750
3. Ariella Käslin SUI 14.587
Uneven Bars
1. Ksenia Semyonova RUS 16.075
2. Pang Panpan CHN 15.400
3. Daria Zgoba UKR 15.325
Balance Beam
1. Deng Linlin CHN 15.825
2. Sui Lu CHN 15.400
3. Anna Pavlova RUS 15.350
Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Deng Linlin CHN 14.800
2. Ksenia Afanasyeva RUS 14.775
3. Dasha Joura AUS 14.300
Men’s Floor Exercise
1. Anton Golotsutskov RUS 15.650
2. Diego Hypolito BRA 15.625
3. Jeffrey Wammes NED 15.050
Pommel Horse
1. Daniel Keatings GBR 15.975
2. Louis Smith GBR 15.850
3. Krisztian Berki HUN 15.725
Still Rings
1. Konstantin Pluzhnikov RUS 16.325
2. Alexander Vorobyev UKR 16.275
2. Danny Rodrigues FRA 16.275
Men’s Vault
1. Anton Golotsutskov RUS 16.362
2. Rafael Wignanitz FRA 16.300
3. Anatoly Vasilyev RUS 16.150
Parallel Bars
1. Yann Cucherat FRA 16.225
2. Mitja Petkovsek SLO 15.750
3. Yuri Ryazanov RUS 15.650
High Bar
1. Anatoly Vasilyev RUS 15.700
2. Epke Zonderkand NED 15.250
3. Hamilton Sabot FRA 15.200
________________
2008 Stella Zakharova Cup
May 31-June 1, Kiev
Women’s Team
1. Ukraine 114.300
2. Russia 111.900
3. Belarus 110.400
Women’s All-Around
1. Alyona Zmeu RUS 57.200
2. Marina Kostyuchenko UKR 56.850
3. Angelina Kislaya UKR 56.350
4. Olesya Ischenko UKR 55.250
Women’s Vault
1. Marina Kostyuchenko 14.112
2. Anastasia Zaitseva BLR 13.950
3. Laura Gombas HUN 13.400
Uneven Bars
1. Galina Ivanets BLR 14.325
2. Alyona Zmeu RUS 14.200
3. Marina Kostyuchenko 13.675
Balance Beam
1. Alyona Zmeu RUS 14.650
2. Angelina Kislaya UKR 13.900
2. Olesya Ischenko UKR 13.900
Women’s Floor Exercise
1. Marina Kostyuchenko UKR 14.500
2. Angelina Kislaya UKR 14.450
3. Alyona Zmeu RUS 14.225
Men’s Team
1. Belarus 172.000
2. Spain 170.700
3. Great Britain 169.750
Men’s All-Around
1. Ruslan Panteleymonov GBR 85.950
2. Dmitry Stolyarov RUS 85.750
3. Christian Bazan ESP 85.600
Men’s Floor Exercise
1. Kristian Thomas GBR 15.200
2. Dmitry Girenko 15.025
3. Javier Gomez ESP 14.675
Pommel Horse
1. Dmitry Stolyarov RUS 14.925
2. Daniel Ribeiro USA 14.750
3. Ruslan Panteleymonov GBR 14.475
3. Zoltan Kollai HUN 14.475
Still Rings
1. Dmitry Girenko UKR 15.425
2. Christian Bazan 15.175
3. Attila Racz HUN 14.300
3. Valery Durmanenko UKR 14.300
Men’s Vault
1. Wesley Haagensen USA 15.625
2. Christian Bazan ESP 15.550
3. Ruslan Panteleymonov UKR 15.525
Parallel Bars
1. Christian Bazan ESP 14.725
2. Denis Savenkov BLR 14.525
3. Alexander Safoshkin RUS
High Bar
1. Wesley Haagensen USA 13.925
2. Artyom Lyubanevich UKR 13.800
2. Ruslan Panteleymonov GBR 13.800
I know some of the gymnasts will be leaving for US Nationals this Monday. I will be out of town until Tuesday but hopefully I can dig up some information for you then.
Have a great weekend.
I leave you with Beth Tweddle’s new Uneven Bar routine worth a 7.4 A score. Rumor has it she is going to add a few more tenths to this routine for the Olympics. Just in case you didn’t know Beth has had the best B score (fewest deductions) the last few World Championships.
Paul Hamm is out of the US Olympic Trials with a broken hand. Sorry not buying it. Many people believe he has already earned his way to Trials and while I see their point this still irks me. It all seems so fake and set up. Hamm didn’t even seem upset last night when he hurt his hand. He was seen according to one of the Gymnastics Magazine’s web site happy smiling with his friends AFTER he hurt himself. Why wouldn’t he be concerned with the immediate future if he was really hurt? Maybe it is me but I would have had more respect for him if he had won Nationals out right and then taken off Trials.
http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/Portals/0/PDFs/Results/USC08Juniors
AA-Final_20080523_024831.pdf
Jordyn Wieber won the US Junior Classic today by over 3 points. Way to young for the Olympic team this kid is amazing. Look for her in the future to help lead the team on 2012.
Paul Hamm took out the competition by almost 4 points even with a fall on the Parallel bars hurting his hand in the process. He was seen laughing with friends after the competition so I doubt the injury was serious. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him withdraw from the Finals with his just at the right time (and temporary) “injury”
9 of the top 10 spots were occupied by “Team Chevron” with Only, Berkeley’s Kyle Bunthuwong in the mix finishing 6th.
Notables:
:Blain Wilson only competed two events. He then decided it was time to retire and he left the arena do not to be a distraction to the competition. He will not petition to Trials. Blain has been labeled the “bad boy” of mens gymnastics for years but I have always loved him. I’ll miss him
:Yewki Tomita finished 2nd on Pommel horse with a 14.8
:Kevin Tan won Rings with an impressive 16,650 He should be a lock for this team finishing 8 tenths higher then anyone else on the event.
:Morgan Hamm finished 28th overall only competing four events. Finishing 1st on vault and Floor (tied with his brother) He received an B score of 9.8 on vault and that was way too high. He won’t receive this score outside of the US.
:Alexander Artemev finished 9th.
Lisa Wang finished first in Senior Rhythmic taking the best score on all four events. Lisa has been a staple on the Rhythmic gymnastics for the last few years.
Welcome to my first blog. I am new at this so please bare with me. My main subjects will be Gymnastics and Figure Skating. The summer Olympics is coming up soon so stay tuned! I will be attending the US Nationals on June 5th and 7th and will report back live.
See you soon with the 6 girls I currently feel will best represent the United States in gymnastics.
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