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| Evgeny Grebyonkin and Aliya Mustafina. Courtesy RGF |
Yevgeny Grebyonkin, head coach of the women’s gymnastics teams, gave an
interview to Sovetski Sport about the thriller that took place today after
Aliya Mustafina’s performance who became World Champion.
Two inquiries were
submitted at the same time by the Russian delegation and by the USA. Russia tried
to challenge Mustafina’score, whose D score was downgraded for some unclear
reason. The Americans challenged Ross’ score.
'Our inquiry was
taken, although the score was not changed. Yet Ross’score was changed. Why was
it so? I don’t know. Nobody explained anything to us. Generally they don’t
explain anything, they take the inquiry, and if they agree on the complaint, it
is posted on the board. We didn’t see any changes in Mustafina’s score.'
It didn’t have any consequences, because Iordache, the favourite, fell off
beam. If Iordache had not fallen and had performed at her level, Aliya would not have won gold?
'Yes, unfortunately.'
Why was the Japanese inquiry at the Olympics accepted? Uchimura had fallen
off pommel horse. Aliya didn’t fall, but our inquiry is not accepted. Is it
possible to do something to fight against those double standards?
'The Japanese
inquiry was taken because a member of the committee was Japanese. No member is
Russian. I don’t know what can be done. I am a coach.'
'We knew that the
Romanian Iordache is very strong; she is very dangerous, as well as one of the
Chinese girls. This is why we targeted a bronze medal, considering it would be
a success. But on beam any forecast may vanish at any moment. I used to say that
the beam is like a checkpoint. You never know if you will be allowed to pass or
not.'
Coming back to the inquiry: how could the judges downgrade the D score?
'Aliya has a very
good routine created for her by Raisa Ganina. Yet, after Worlds, we will go
over it and modify it because some connections can be interpreted in different
ways, giving different scores! The routine should be modified in order to
prevent those differences. We’ll work for that!'
Ed's note : Speaking elsewhere, Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko has announced his intention to speak to the FIG about the standards of judging at this competition, and in particular to query the consideration of appeals raised in this final.
Ed's note : Speaking elsewhere, Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko has announced his intention to speak to the FIG about the standards of judging at this competition, and in particular to query the consideration of appeals raised in this final.
This Championship was a disastrous concerning the judging. Overscoring the Americans everywhere and underscoring everybody else… Not only FIG didn’t learn anything from what happened last summer in London but they also came up with “Gymnastically incorrect” judges this year.
ReplyDeleteThe italians were beautiful on beam but they preferred Biles with major breaks and step on landing...
ReplyDeleteThey were beautiful, but I think Ferlito had too much arm-swinging on all her moves. I think they are deducting more for that in the new code? Ferrari missed a connection I think which lowered her D score even more behind Biles and Ferrari's dismount was pretty bad, offline of the beam and a huge step back. I think if Iordache or Rodionova had stayed on the beam either one would have been a better choice for medalist vs. Biles or the Italians.
DeleteBiles did have the 5th best E score out of the 8 finalists and that is counting two who fell, so she was near the bottom of the ranks in E score execution. It was her D score that got her the bronze, and whatever the petition jury saw vs. what the D score judges saw was the difference. The FIG should have to release their decision public so we all know why they accept or reject petitions rather than having it a mystery.
I agree that there is a bias towards the Americans, if you remember Aly Raisman (USA) nudging Catalina Ponor of Romania out of Bronze position in London Olympic's Beam Final because of an inquiry when Bela Karolyi literally jumps off the stands and shouted to the coaches to run and put it in, it was devastating to Catalina too as it was for Ferrari here.
DeleteAnd let's not forget that Vanessa lost a tie-breaker to Aliya Mustafina in the Floor Finals at the Olympics (even though this had nothing to do with an inquiry but about execution score) this brought back sadness and a bit of angry, so I can understand her initial reaction towards Aliya after the final scores were announced and everyone congratulated each other..Ferrari can be seen just shaking hands with Mustafina then proceeds to give everyone else hugs & kisses.
I am totally for having these decisions disclosed to the public or at least give the inquirer an explanation as to why it was rejected/accepted. I feel had Larisa hit her routine as she flawlessly done so in the passed (she only faltered in EF & AA) her 6.3 D-Score could have blown everyone out. As for Anna Rodionova (love her style btw, reminds me of Komova) she had the potential to medal, at least take Bronze. Everyone had to redo their beam work to adjust to the new code, not sure if the Italians redid theirs, that arm-swing is something to consider but its pretty hard for the gymnasts to avoid it completely. Was it my imagination or did Biles not almost ram her head on the beam or make contact with the beam at dismount? I don't see were they found an extra D-Score points (btw that is the only part that is allowed to be challenged).
Well I am very delighted that Aliya finally got her Beam Gold Medal, she now possesses a Full set of World Medals, if you recall 2010 she fell and ended last place, Anna having the same results, and it being their first Worlds seems very ironic to me. Hopefully this means Anna can look forward to getting a medal next year (fingers crossed, lol).
I also feel that Biles was a bit overscored in beam finals. Her dismount was worse than Ferrari's because although both took large 0.3 steps, Biles also landed with her chest extremely low (which would incur a 0.3 deduction as well). I was a little bit annoyed about the inquiries during the beam final and the fact that Aliya's was rejected while Biles' and Ross' were accepted. I think the 0.2 increase in Biles' D-Score came in her switch leap- switch 1/2- tuck back combo (a series worth 0.3 in bonus). Probably, the judges felt she didn't connect the switch 1/2 to tuck back fast enough and only gave her the switch leap- switch 1/2 combo (0.1 bonus), while the petition jury felt she connected all 3 skills and thus gave her the additional 0.2 to her difficulty. I wonder if Ferrari or Ferlito had submitted inquiries whether they could have gained additional tenths of difficulty and passed Biles. Fortunately, Ross' D-Score, however, was only raised by 0.1 because if it had been raised by 0.2, then she would have beat out Mustafina for gold. Now that would have been annoying!!!! Well, I'm overjoyed that Mustafina finally got the one world championship medal she was missing!!!!!!!
DeleteAs a reminder, Biles was deducted heavily on her E score (8.383) so I think the judges correctly deducted for her poor landing (chest too low, .3 step forward, and landing too close to the beam), plus I believe she was ducted for her balance checks on the beam. Ferrari had a cleaner routine on the beam with fewer balance checks but missed a connection and it was an obvious miss so she had to do the move as a solo move; also remember as you mentioned she had a .3 step back on landing which was actually wide enough that it may have been deducted more than .3, plus her landing was way offline of the beam which is another deduction, yet Ferrari scored 8.600 E score because she was cleaner on the beam. With the new scoring system you have to include the D and E scores, which means sometimes the cleaner less difficult, but more pleasing to watch routine falls short. :(
DeleteIs is a shame Iodache and Ridionova fell. I would have preferred either of them winning a medal. Ross and Mustafina certainly were worthy, but I don't think Biles was. But that is gymnastics, falls happen. :(