One of the big trends in men's gymnastics at the moment is the Tkatchev half turn. In the code the layout Tkatchev half is known as the Moznik:
But the straddle Tkatchev half is merely a side note. But over 20 years after it was first performed someone has finally discovered who first performed it. Turns out it was 1996 Olympic silver medalist Jair Lynch
The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) recently approved naming a horizontal bar flight element after the USA's Jair Lynch, who won the silver medal on the parallel bars at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta and is currently a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee's Board of Directors. Lynch was the first gymnast to compete the skill at an official FIG competition, having performed what is now known as the "Lynch" as far back as the 1992 season, and the skill is included in the FIG's 2013-16 Code of Points for Men's Artistic Gymnastics.
As many predicted Iordache topped qualifications on day 1, but Mustafina had 2 falls and fell to 4th. But finals starts from scratch, so it could still be a tight battle.
With no team competition Max Whitlock topped the all-around standings on day 1. Although he was only a hair ahead of favourite Verniaiev. It was also notable with the lack of Germans in the top 10 after the retirement of Boy and Nguyen and Hambuchen not doing the all-around.
There is also a livestream for the finals:
http://eurovision.digotel.com/ueg/index.html
Although it does say available to European viewers, so I'm not sure if it will work for those of us outside of Europe. We may need a proxy server otherwise.
It's sure looking like a busy weekend of sport, with Europeans and NCAA championships.
Some of the Stanford men's gymnastics team have been blogging from their trip to Norway which they just finsihed
Near the end of the workout, our team and the Norwegians had a ring strength contest, where people on both teams had to hold an iron cross for as long as they could. Our team was led by ringmen James Fosco and Dennis Zaremski, while the Norwegians had quite a collection of guys that could do crosses, including a 45 year old coach. I (Sean) was quite jealous, as I am still unable to pull that off. In the end, Stanford was able to capture the victory!
1993 was a time of big change in gymnastics. ROV - risk, originality and virtuosity had just been eliminated and the gymnasts had to get used to a different mindset. I found this competition immensely interesting. There were a number of big names, some at the beginning of their career, some towards the end. Nobody really understood this code at the time and the major trends had yet to emerge, and there was also a great battle for 1st.
