Subdivision 1 - Mixed Groups 1, 2, and 6, and Brazil.
The two gymnasts from the Mixed Groups in Subdivision 1 that I most enjoyed watching were Ana Sofia Gomez Porras and Vasiliki Millousi. I feel Gomez did her best on all apparatus, scoring a total of 56.132 and qualifying to the All Around competition. Millousi didn't advance to either the All Aroud or the Event Finals, but she is honestly a joy to watch, especially on balance beam. Her dance elements are very beautiful!
Ana Sofia Gomez Porras
Team Brazil looked extremely shaky and overall were very disappointed, their competition ending in the ladies huddled together, some in tears. They were hoping to make the Team Final, however, too many falls in their performances would leave them short of reaching their goal. Also, none of their gymnast qualified to AA or EFs.
Team Brazil at the end of their competition.
Subdivision 2 - Mixed Groups 3 and 4, Italy, and Australia.
Highlight from the Mixed Groups in Subdivision 2 - Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland qualified to the All Around final with a score of 54.715. She is also a Reserve for the Vault final.
Guilia Steingruber
Vanessa Ferrari on Bars.
Australia had a weak, error filled competition which led to a huge let down for the team when they came up short and did not qualify for the Team final. With the exception of a very low score on floor, Emily Little had a solid day and just qualified for the All Around, as did Ashleigh Brennan. Lauren Mitchell is one of my favorite international gymnasts and I'm so psyched that she was able to qualify to the floor final!! I can't wait to watch and I really want her to medal (but I want like over half of the 8 in that floor final to medal so we'll see what happens). Big disappointment for Australia not making the Team final.
Team Australia huddle.
Subdivision 3 - United States, Great Britain, Canada, and France.
Forgive me if my comments here are brief, I was following mostly the USA's routines on all 4 apparatus rather than watching the Live Feed so I only got to see very few of the routines from the other countries.
Okay, United States recap -- wow. I was amazed and blown away by their first rotation on Vault. Aly Raisman did the best vault I've seen her do in forever, Gabby and Jordyn were steady, and of course McKayla was fabulous. I hope so much we repeat in Team Final. Bars were decent .. Jordyn's body break on the high bar and Kyla's feel tapping the low bar were the only disappointments. Aly was solid and Gabby was great. Beam .. Kyla gave a wonderful lead off, all I would've liked more was a stick on the dismount, because I know she can. Gabby did her best, no question, couldn't have asked for more. Jordyn I believe did a wonderful routine with only 2 visible errors : her significant balance check after her leap towards the end, and her tiny hop on dismount landing -- yet the judges decided that that warranted 1.3 in deductions. I believe she was underscored. She hit her second series of connections better than I've seen her do since Pac Rims and they took out the other troublesome one and she hit those moves perfectly. 14.7 for that is just ridiculous. Aly had a great performance, she didn't waver once I don't think and nearly stuck her Patterson dismount. Floor exercise would have been a disaster, had they not been so far ahead. Kyla Ross's lead off routine scored low (in the 13's), as expected. They were planning to drop that anyway, but then Gabby had a major deduction when she flew out of bounds after a landing and resulted in another very low score. I again believe that Jordyn was slightly underscored on floor but I don't know enough about the floor deductions to fully speculate like I did about beam, I just know she had a 1 tenth for going out of bounds, but other than that no major errors. But it was irrelevant anyway, because with the low beam score the damage had already been done. Aly Raisman gave the floor exercise of her life. I still maintain that this is the most difficult and best floor in the world, and she showed it then. Her high score qualified her to the All Around, ahead of Gabby, who was previously in first, bumping Jordyn to third and out of the All Around based on the 2 athletes per country rule. That was honestly a feeling I've never felt before to the extreme. I was DEVASTATED for Jordyn but ECSTATIC for Aly. Added in was the literal DISBELIEF that Jordyn would not be competing in the All Around. It felt like it was not real life. Like I can't even explain it. I love both of these gymnasts so much and have followed their careers for so long, it was like so many emotions clashing. Jordyn deserves it because she's so consistent, she's won everything, you can always depend on her .. but Aly deserves it because she's the hardest worker, she's the leader, and she is focused and driven. It's like there's no answer for how to feel. I cried sad tears for Jordyn and happy tears for Aly. And Gabby is an amazing athlete as well, and she deserves it too! It's just so hard.
Okay so qualifiers for the United States -- Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas qualify to All Around, McKayla Maroney to Vault finals, Gabby Douglas and Kyla Ross (as a Reserve) to Bars, Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman to Balance Beam, and Jordyn Wieber and Aly Raisman to Floor.
Aly Raisman and Gabby Douglas learn they've qualified to AA.
Great Britain was the only other team in Subdivision 3 that I was able to see a few routines of because of the live streaming. I got to see both of Beth Tweddle's routines, floor and bars. Beth qualified for the Bars final but unfortunately did not make floor. I also got to see Rebecca Tunney's beam routine; she qualified to the All Around as did Hannah Whelan. Tunney is a Reserve for Bars final and Tweddle for Floor final. Great Britain qualified into Team final as well.
Team Great Britain at Qualifications.
I didn't get to see ANY of Canada and I was so disappointed. Their biggest accomplishment yesterday was qualifying for Team final! I was so so excited for them. Dominique Pegg qualified to the All Around and Elisabeth Black and Brittany Rogers to Vault final. The Canadians are without their star, Peng Peng Lee, who was injured before the Games began. PS. Their leos were the best of ANYONES!
I also didn't get to see any of France. Unfortunately the French didn't qualify for Team final. One of their girls, Aurelie Maulausessena finished just outside All Around qualification in 25th. They also did not qualify for any Event finals.
Youna Dufournet of France falls.
Subdivision 4 - Mixed Group 7, Germany, China, and Russia.
Germany finished 9th as a team, just outside making the Team final. Elisabeth Seitz qualified for the All Around and for the Bars final. I was very happy that Oksana Chusovitina was able to qualify for the Vault final. This is her 6th Olympics and I really want her to take home a medal!
Elisabeth Seitz on Beam.
China had a slightly disappointing day, having an overall bad rotation on Floor Exercise, which was definitely a strength for them in Beijing. However, they managed to qualify in third due to a low team score from the Romanians. Deng Linlin and Huang Quishaung qualified to the All Around for the Chinese. I would have preferred Yao Jinnan, however, she has an injury to her thigh that was hindering her though out the competion. He Kexin and Yao Jinnan both qualified to Bars final and Lu Sui and Deng Linlin to balance beam. China is missing their veteran, Cheng Fei, who was injured prior to the Games.
Lu Sui on Beam.
Russia looks strong .. very strong, and ready to contend for a gold medal. I followed the Russian's routines on the live feed so I do remember a bit more about them. First up was Mustafina on floor and she delivered a solid routine that qualified her for Floor finals. Her bars were amazing, and she also landed a spot in the Bars final. She did not throw an Amanar, opting for the DTY but performed it effortlessly. Her beam was shaky, and there are room for improvements for team final. Ultimately, her routines were good enough to get her to the All Around as well. Komova looks ready for anything. All her routines scored high, with the exception of her Floor routine which scored a 13.9. She did, however, make the Bars and Beam final, and she qualified to the All Around in first place. Maria Paseka qualified to Vault final and Keseniia Afanaseva qualified to both balance beam and floor exercise finals. The Russian team qualified second as a team for Team final.
I love this picture of the Russian team!
Subdivision 5 - Mixed Group 5 and 8, Japan, and Romania.
Celine van Gerner from the Netherlands from a Mixed Group qualified to the All Around.
Japan qualified to the Team final. Asuko Teramoto and Rie Tanaka both qualified for the All Around. Koko Tsurumi qualified to Bars final and Ausko Teramoto is a Reserve for both Balance Beam and Floor finals.
Team Japan.
I really wanted to see Romania finish 3rd, ahead of China, but they had to settle for 4th. They had a rough time on the bars, which is normal for them, but they did not seem up to par on Floor at all. Catalina Ponor was in tears after her routine, but luckily she managed to sneak in to qualify for the Floor final. She also qualified for Balance Beam. Iordache and Izbasa are the All Around qualifiers, and Sandra Izbasa also qualified for Vault and Floor finals. Boulimar qualified for balance beam.
The Romanian team.
It was quite a day of qualifications! *HERE* IS A LINK to the FIG website where you can see all the results and the placements of the gymnasts in each final, along with scores for the Team and each gymnast. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.
Another thing I noticed with Jordyn's floor was that one of the leaps was not good. It was the one that sent her out of bounds. She did not finish it from the angle I saw. So the judges most likely did not credit that, or took of points in the execution.
ReplyDeleteGotcha, I didn't catch that. I hope more than ever the Team wins gold tomorrow!
ReplyDelete