Skip to main content

Results - men's floor, women's vault, pommel horse

Maria Paseka celebrates a bronze medal in vault

Yesterday's event finals provided a first opportunity for the specialists to gain medals in their preferred disciplines.  In the women's competition, there was a surprise as America's McKayla Maroney, the outstanding favourite for the vault title, first stumbled, then fell to a lucky second place, leaving Romanian Sandra Iszbasa to take a well deserved gold medal in this event.  Russia's Maria Paseka took a bronze medal.

The result is not without controversy; how can a gymnast with a fall (Maroney) take a medal away from the Games when others in the final, noteably Germany's Janine Berger, managed to complete their two vaults and finish up on their feet both times?  The freakish ability of Maroney to lift the Amanar vault - the means by which the American gymnasts have dominated this competition - meant that her final score here was too high.  The Amanar has been overscored at these Games in general, its high start value not helping matters in addition to execution scores that ignore basic faults in its performance but do not reward sufficiently the high standards seen in some double twisting Yurchenkos. 

There is, besides, lamentably little strength in depth in this apparatus with one gymnast - Pena Abreu, from the Dominican Republic - attempting a handspring double front vault that was frankly dangerous to life and limb.  It speaks volumes that 37 year old Oksana Chusovitina can qualify to the same event final as she did in 1992 with inferior performance to that she had as a 15 year old.  As elsewhere, the FIG needs to implement changes that will encourage great performance as well as harvesting high start values at the expense of immeasurable risk.


I was really touched by this photograph, which I publish here with thanks to Simona Colesan on Facebook:

Sandra's touching gesture .... "It is as well your medal Mr. Bellu. Thank you ! "
It was the moment when couch Bellu 's eyes went into tears. For couple of seconds he was spechless. "It's for the first time I'm living such a moment. No other gymnast did such a gesture. I have no words... " Bellu replied .

The exuberant Denis Ablyazin won the Russian men's first medal at these Olympics, a bronze on the floor exercise.  Apart from a low landing on his first tumble Denis managed to finish his ultra difficult floor exercise with good execution, and he was clearly delighted with the result. 

China's Zou Kai won gold, Japan's Kohei Uchimura silver, in what is sadly his only final at these Games.  In a competition of execution, Uchimura would have finished first by far ...















Pommel horse was, as predicted, a close fight between the genius Krisztian Berki and flamboyant Louis Smith.  In the end, the marks awarded were a tie, and Krisztian won thanks to his higher execution score.  It was an opportunity to listen to Hungary's atmospheric national anthem.  Britain were delighted when youngster Max Whitlock also took a bronze. 

I can remember a time when, sitting in a gymnastics arena, I was asked by a Canadian onlooker (with a very lovely accent) "'Ooo is zat labouring on ze pommel 'orse?".  It was a British gymnast.  How things have changed.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Vladimir Zaglada - coach, author, friend, father

It is with great sadness that I report here the sudden and completely unexpected death, on 5th October, of our friend Vladimir Zaglada.  I send my love and condolences to his daughter, Olesya.  My thoughts are with the whole family.   Vladimir was born in Lvov, Ukraine, in November 1944.  His father was a progressive lawyer of great courage who was known to defend those who challenged the Soviet authorities.  Vladimir trained as a sports acrobat under the developing Soviet sports system, working in the same club as Olympic champion Viktor Chukarin.  After moving to Moscow, he became a leading coach of women's gymnastics, supporting the development of high level acrobatics.  He worked particularly closely with the up and coming young gymnasts of the early 1980s - you can see him at work in the video 'You in Gymnastics'.  At the national training centre, Lake Krugloye, he worked with Filatova, Mostepanova, Yurchenko, Arzhannikova, Mukhina and more.   Around the mid 1980s Vlad

Who really won the WAG All Around?

You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ

Simone Biles - 'on her way to Olympic gold' in the opinion of Russia

Prosport is carrying the following article about Simone Biles, who they tip as a favourite for Olympic gold.  I thought I would share it here (Google translate in italics) as it gives an interesting perspective on where the Russians feel the sport is heading.  Elena Zamolidchikova and Alexander Alexandrov are both extensively quoted. Atypical American. Simon Biles on the way to Olympic gold Simone Biles, American gymnast, turned 18 on March 14, 2015. Shortly before this, the first in US history absolute Olympic gymnastics champion Mary Lou Retton called Biles perhaps the most gifted athlete in the history of the sport. In 2014, Simon became the first gymnast for 40 years to win four gold at a World Championships. But Biles is not only talent. This is the first gymnast in recent years from the United States, who is not going to earn on its potential Olympic success. Text: Alexander Vladimirov March 15, 2015 9:35 The article on Prosport/Photo: Lintao Zhang / Getty Images / Fotobank.ru Th

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more