Saturday, March 29, 2008

Pac Rim News and Notes: Edition 3

Men's subdivision 2 gets started, 7pm USA time. Mez madly refreshes quick hits on the USAG and International Gymnast pages in lieu of doing important uni work.

Rotation 1: Australia starts on pommel. Eeeeeeek.

7:18[ish] - Sam Simpson falls on (I should say 'off') pommel but I suppose appeared strong otherwise. There's not much to be gleaned from quick hits. No word on the score.


Rotation 2: Australia moves to rings; Phil Rizzo and Josh Jefferis will look to make up ground for the team.

7: 45 - ...hello, USAG? Some updates, please?...oh there we go.

7:47 - Josh, the Commonwealth Games champion on rings, is up. USA going great guns on p-bars, quick-hitter from USAG having an orgasm over the whole thing (lots!!! of! exclamation!! marks!!!!)


7:56 - Sam atones for rotation 1. "Cross maltese cross back lever press handstand double double laid out step". Wahey, I like layout double-doubles (particularly off high bar).

7:57 - Josh's score is up. "Planche back roll to Maltese, bounce cross. Maltese, straight arm back roll to cross. Full-twisting double layout. 14.800"

7:58 - Phil gets a chance to earn some exclamation marks: "Planche press pike / tuck yamawaki handstand full twist double layout stuck!!"


Rotation 3: Australia heads to vault, currently in 6th place on 110.750; Expect good things from Jefferis and Simpson on this apparatus.

*Mez dashes off to do a job, dashes back in time*

8:15 - Josh performs a layout Rudi for 15.800!

8:21 - Phil vaults a Tsuk full.

8:23 - Sam does a Tsuk a double-full.


Rotation 4: Australia is on parallel bars. Commonwealth medallists Jefferis and Rizzo are again expected to shine. Though I would like to hear the progress of our promising newcomers (Jack Rickards, Matthew Curtis, Luke Wadsworth)




8:41 - Phil is up. "Straddle cut healy peach , Bell, giant, bell tucked tipelt double pike dismount [with a] hop."

8:43 - Matthew gets a look-in! "Straddle cut diominov moy support peach, giant, stutz, straddle cut, double pike [with a] step." USA must have finished on their apparatus, as the quick hits for international competitors are now coming thick and fast.

8:46 - And now so does Jack! "14 years old and the smallest gymnast in the competition. Really nice form for such a young gymnast. Healy. Double tuck with a step. 13.00" Awwwwww!


Rotation 5: Australia is off to high bar; Rizzo's strongest event of the lot. He's capable of scoring above 16.0 so I hope he does as good a job [if not better!] as home crowd hero Raj Bhavsar...

Dammit. USAG clearly refuses to do quick hits for international competitors until the American team's rotation is over, even though they're competing at the same time. That is really annoying for people like myself wanting to keep people up-to-the minute (and it's also really, really biased). There's a total lull in proceedings now. Hurry uuuuuuup. IG is being slow as well. Come on, USA's on pommel, surely they're mostly finished by now?

9:03 - Righty ho ho, here we go. A whole lot just got updated at once. Jack must've been up first on high bar for the team? "Stalders and pirouettes. Double layout. Perfect form! 12.15" (I think... the score on the IG site says "12/150" so I assumed it was intended to be a decimal point) He will be one to watch for the future though it sounds like he didn't have any actual releases from the bar. Watching Nationals last year, I noticed that not [m]any of the guys in the squad did either. Oh, for a Kovacs...

9:04 - Sam Simpson performed. Eeeek. Quick hit only says "Gaylord. 13.65". Can't be good.

9:06 - Phil's turn, hurrah! He did his signature Def and the layout double-double. No word on how steady. Please let it be a good score, pleeease! ...Ah. It's a 15.3, MUCH lower than he usually gets. Oh well, a good effort for the team anyway. Looks like a bit home country favouritism for Team USA again. But hey, Phil *could* be through to the final, after such low scores from Russia (and even though America scored highly, I think they can only take 2 finallists through).

Please note that there were no quickhits for Australia or Canada on the USAG site for this rotation, they only came from IG *sigh* If that's just the web coverage, I dread the tv coverage.


Rotation 6: Australia finishes up on floor, still in 6th place on 287.90 with nobody making the top 6 all-around. Paul Hamm, even with a fall [pommel] and a few bobbles, is in the lead. Did these people learn NOTHING from the Aarhus/Stuttgart all-around comps!? WHY do falls still medal?
If I were at the comp, I'd be watching through my fingers right about now.


9:19 - Hamm hit his final routine [rings] so he's got the AA title in the bag. Team-mate Alexander 'Sasha' Artemev just fell on rings, China's Lu Bo *could* now move up into the silver medal position....wahey, he hit his high bar routine but it isn't enough for the win. Team USA wins over China and Japan with Hamm taking individual gold in the senior division, Daniel Levya for the juniors.

9:33 - (No) thanks USAG for the belated update: Matthew performed with a "double layout, flairs to russians , japanese handstand, 1 1/2 layout , back 2 1/2 dismount".
Sam performed, "double full to full , double layout to front 1 1/4 , japanese handstand, whip 1 1/2 , front 2 1/2 , back 2 1/2 dismount".

Can't wait for the women's competition. If she DOES do her double layout on floor *and* her Amanar vault, Dasha J really could give Nastia Liukin a run for her money. I'm just a bit nervous about how our juniors will go!

ETA: In the final senior standings, Josh finished 8th all-around and Sam 14th; For the juniors, Matthew finished 7th with Luke 16th and Jack 17th.

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