WHAT a day.
From USAG
Firstly, huge congratulations to the USA women’s team. What a performance. For a team with such a lack of experience, with only a single team member with past world level competitions under her belt, this was a fantastic achievement. The highlight for me was Maroney. Not only is that vault spectacular, but her floor is fast becoming my favourite of the American’s too. She is such a stylish, talented athlete and one who I hope continues to upgrade for next year.
Also very proud of the Brits! A brilliant fifth place finish to shake off any disappointments of qualifying. Well, almost any. The definite highlight was Beth’s bars. I would actually go as far as to say that her routine today was the best I have ever seen her perform. Aside from a slightly baggy one arm pirouette the routine was flawless, and that connection at the beginning is breathtakingly good. Receiving the high score of the day must have been a really good boost for Beth and perhaps compensate a little for not making the bars finals.
I found the Russian’s and the Chinese a little disappointing to watch. This of course does not include some fantastic highlights such as Sui Lu’s beautiful beam set (the well deserved highest beam score of the meet so far and my personal favourite for beam gold), but Quishang’s bars fall and Tan Sixin’s mess ups were not good to watch.
Komova surprised me. Who knows whether she was tired or stressed out or what, but her performance today was really not up to her qualifications standards. Let’s hope she gets it together by the AA so she can try her best to hold off Jordyn Wieber (I would be perfectly happy for either to win, but I am really hoping for it to be down to the last tenth, and that neither makes any major errors).
Catalina Ponor was an absolute treat to watch. Something about seeing her on the competition floor just seems right. Her beam was great, I am loving the roundoff layout, and the good old onodi combination is back in action. On floor I think her music and choreo are great and if she can just clean up her legs a bit it would make for a truly world class routine.
So, Jordyn ends the day not only as a world gold medallist but also as the frontrunner. I hope she can hold it together. More exciting news from today is that Alicia Sacramone will be presented with a gold medal as a member of this world team, and will therefore become the most decorated female gymnast in American history. If Alicia had remained healthy, the American’s would still have won gold but would have won it by an even greater margin. Alicia is hugely deserving of this accolade.
Can’t wait for the rest of this week!
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