Japan defeats Australia

Japan defeated Australia in the WAG Australia vs Japan in Canberra tonight. Japan won 221.75 to 212.775 (I think those were the scores).

Lauren Mitchell wins young sports performer of the year

Lauren Mitchell won the Young Sports Performer of the Year award at the Sports Performer of the Years Awards at Star City Casino in Sydney on the 25th. She beat out Soccer player Ben Kantarovski, High Jumper Amy Pejkovic, Tennis player Olivia Rogowska and Tennis Player Bernard Tomic.

Qualifers for Apparatus Finals

I finally found the qualifiers for apparatus finals here. They are

Floor
1 UCHIMURA Kohei JPN
2 DRAGULESCU Marian ROU
3 ZOU Kai CHN
4 GONZALEZ SEPULVEDA CHI
5 FAHRIG Matthias GER
6 SHATILOV Alexander ISR
7 LEGENDRE Steven USA
8 OKIGUCHI Makoto JPN

Pommel
1 ZHANG Hongtao CHN
2 BERKI Krisztian HUN
3 SMITH Louis GBR
4 KOCZI Flavius ROU
5 SELLATHURAI P. AUS
6 TOMMASONE Cyril FRA
7 SELIGMAN Robert CRO
8 MCNEILL Timothy USA

Rings
1 YAN Mingyong CHN
2 PINHEIRORODRIGUES FRA
3 IOVTCHEV Iordan BUL
4 VOROBIOV Oleksandr UKR
5 MORANDI Matteo ITA
6 STANESCU G. ROU
7 AIT SAID Samir FRA
8 NABARRETE ZANETTI A. BRA

Vault
1 GOLOTSUTSKOV Anton RUS
2 DRAGULESCU Marian ROU
3 KOCZI Flavius ROU
4 BOUHAIL Thomas FRA
5 RI Se Gwang PRK
6 BOTELLA PEREZ Isaac ESP
7 FAHRIG Matthias GER
8 WAMMES Jeffrey NED

P Bars
1 FENG Zhe CHN
2 WANG Guanyin CHN
3 TANAKA Kazuhito JPN
4 KIERZKOWSKI Adam POL
5 TSOLAKIDIS Vasileios GRE
6 CUCHERAT Yann FRA
7 YOO Won Chul KOR
8 ZONDERLAND Epke NED

High Bar
1 ZOU Kai CHN
2 CASSINA Igor ITA
3 PEGAN Aljaz SLO
4 LEYVA Danell USA
5 HORTON Jonathan USA
6 ZONDERLAND Epke NED
7 UCHIMURA Kohei JPN
8 TSAREVICH Aliaksandr BLR

Dragulescu is BACK!

With a 15.725 on floor, Wow! I was a bit worried about Sellathurai's Pommel with some quick hits suggesting he fell on the dismount, but IG's facebook page says his score is 15.575 which should be enough for finals. Phew. However, Rizzo will miss high bar finals after he sat down his dismount and Offord will miss all-around finals. It looks like he had a bad day as he only scored 82.25.

Promo video for London world

You can watch it here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/gymnastics/8287907.stm

It has some pretty cool special effects.

Wiwatowski out of worlds

Luke Wiwatowski will miss worlds after snapping his achilles tendon on Saturday. He was training on floor when he tore his achilles on the takeoff for a triple twist. Wiwatowski was set to compete on floor and high bar at worlds. He was the reserve for the worlds team in 2007.

Doha World Cup

France got off to a good start at the Doha world cup by qualifying in 1st place on 4 of the 6 men's apparatus and also on Uneven Bars. The field was fairly weak with most countries currently focusing on their preparations for worlds. However, there were a few top gymnasts there. Prashanth Sellathurai qualified 2nd on Pommel and 7th on Rings. Judging by his D-score on Pommel: 6.6, he did not do his new routine that he showed at the recent worlds trial. Perhaps he will do it in the finals. His score on rings was only 14.75, but it looks at though the judges were being hard on the execution deductions with top ringmen Angioletti, Tampakos and Coppolino also receiving relatively low scores in the 14 to low 15 range. In fact nobody got an E-score over 8.8.

Spanish MAG team for worlds

The Spanish men's team for worlds has been announced and is

Rafael Martínez
Isaac Botella
Manuel Carballo
Sergio Munoz
Ivan San Miguel
Javier Gomez

Dutch Men's World Trial

Here is a video featuring some action from the Dutch Men's World Trial. Features the well known Wammes and Zonderland and also an up-and-coming gymnast Deurloo. The Dutch men have shot up the rankings in recent years, having placed 36th at the 2003 Worlds, they came 23rd in 2006 and 20th in 2007. They now just need some more depth in order to be a contender for a top 12 placing, although the recent suspension of Van Gelder could hurt them.

Charlie Tamayo

There has some suggestions that Charlie Tamayo is making a comeback. In fact he competed at the National Qualifier before VISA Championships on 4 events: Floor, Pommel, Vault and P Bars. You can see his floor and vault for this comp here:



Charlie defected from Cuba to the USA back at the 2003 Worlds and I don't think he has competed internationally since, which is a shame because he is such an exciting gymnast. He has the double Arabian laid-out named after him and is a great vaulter, having won bronze at the 2001 worlds. He also has the best Yamawaki in the world as pointed out by coach Rick on gymnasticscoaching.com

He didn't compete at VISA championships because he is not a citizen yet, but it looks as though he may be able gain it soon, hence his comeback. However, it is hard to see him making a world or Olympic team for the US, since they are already very strong on floor and vault with the likes or Horton and Legendre among others. Still, I would love to see him make the National team and compete at some international competitions.