London 2012: Day 1 and 2
LONDON 2012
Day 1 - Men's qualification
It was a mixed bag for the men in qualifying as the favourite Kohei Uchimura of Japan fell twice during the competition. The USA men's team qualified first for the team final tomorrow above reigning champions China and favourites Japan with Danell Leyva of the USA topping the all around qualification ahead of his teammate John Orozco.
The British team of Louis Smith, Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Max Whitlock and Sam Oldham finished an incredible 3rd place behind the USA and Russia but ahead of China and Japan. Kristian Thomas and Dan Purvis qualified for the all around final in 5th and 10th places respectively. Louis Smith produced a flawless pommel horse routine, qualifying him for the final in first place with his teammate Max Whitlock also qualifying in 8th. Kristian Thomas also made the vault final qualifying in 5th place.
The men's team final will be shown on BBC tonight at 4.30pm - make sure to watch!
Day 2 - Women's qualification (as seen by the Beth Tweddle Gymnastics (formerly Total Gymnastics) Head Coach, live at the North Greenwich arena)
What a fantastic day! Qualification started early with Brazil and the mixed individual groups kicking off the action. This round featured a gymnast from the Dominican Republic, Yamila Pena who performed one of the hardest vaults in the world, a handspring double front allowing her to qualify for Sunday's vault final. Subdivision 2 brought the arrival of contenders Italy and Australia. Previous World Champion Vanessa Ferrari was the star of the show with a fantastic floor routine including a double twisting double back.
Subdivision 3 was the round everyone had been waiting for with the arrival of Team GB. Competing in the same round as the favourites, USA along with Canada and France, the roof was almost lifted off the North Greenwich Arena as the girls arrived in stunning red leotards with a sparkly Team GB lion on the front. The Americans began on vault, their superpower piece with a huge vault from current world vault Champion McKayla Maroney. Team GB began on their weakest piece beam with Imogen Cairns opening the show. A clean routine from her for a 13.366 was following by another clean routine from Jenni Pinches for a 13.1. Unfortunately next up, Hannah Whelan, European Bronze medalist on this piece, fell on her free cartwheel layout but like a true champion, got back on and finished her routine with a massive double pike dismount scoring 13.066. Youngster Rebecca Tunney closed their efforts on beam with a clean and tidy routine.
Team GB moved to floor and USA to bars. Aly Raisman for the USA was up first and scored a clean 14.166. She was followed by World Champion Jordan Weiber, favourite for the all around title Gabby Douglas who scored 15.533 earning her a place in the bars final and Kyla Ross who finished with a beautiful double layout. Team GB were on floor where their choreography got the crowd involved! Jenni Pinches opened proceedings with a stuck 1 1/2 twist to triple twist scoring 14.1. She was followed by Rebecca Tunney who wowed the crowd with some huge tumbles including a whip to double arabian and a full in back out piked. Hannah Whelan showed why she was European Bronze medalist on floor with spectacular choreography and lovely tumbling. 2009 World Floor Champion Beth Tweddle MBE closed Team GB's efforts on floor with a new routine to Live and Let Die. She didn't showcase her full difficulty after having knee surgery a mere 12 weeks ago, but produced some excellent tumbling and choreography to score 14.433 just squeezing her out of the floor final. Moving to the next piece, Jordan Wieber of the USA showed a few wobbles and a couple of missed connections, opening the door for teammates Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman to sneak ahead of her in the all around qualifications. Team GB moved to vault which is a piece they have much improved on over the years. Double twisting yurchenckos from Hannah Whelan, Jenni Pinches and Rebecca Tunney along with a clean 1 1/2 from Imogen Cairns brought them a high vault total, including a 14.4 from Rebecca! Moving to their final apparatus, USA to floor and Team GB to bars, all eyes were on Beth Tweddle. USA saw a couple of gymnasts bounce out of bounds on their tumbles, but the tumbling itself was spectacular. The highlight for me was Gabby Douglas's lively routine to We no speak Americano! Clean bars from Jenni and Hannah were followed by a spectacular routine from Rebecca Tunney showing maturity beyond her years to score 14.850 and making her reserve for bars final. Last up was Beth Tweddle, starting off with a hecht mount into a geinger roll to invert following by an under healy into two releases. She then went into her signature move, the Tweddle and managed to connect this to a back straddle half, into a shaposhnikova half to re-catch the top bar! She topped it off with a new double twisting double back dismount to score a huge 16.133, qualifying her in first place for the bars final.
Subdivisions 4 and 5 saw the arrival of the Chinese and the Russians. Viktoria Komova of Russia topped the all around qualification standings as well as qualifying for the bars final in 3rd along with 2008 Olympic Champion He Kexin of China in 2nd. The romanians put up a good fight and qualified 4th for team final. USA qualified 1st, Russia 2nd, China 3rd, Romania 4th and Great Britain 5th. Rebecca Tunney and Hannah Whelan also qualified for the all around final along with Beth in bars final.
Women's team final is tomorrow evening at 4.30pm. I will be back down in the North Greenwich arena for the bars final next Monday where I am sure we will all be hoping Beth can repeat yesterdays performance!