Traditionally, the US Classic is the competition which opens the season for the US gymnasts and one of the final opportunities to qualify for the US Championships.
But because it’s still early in the season, a few good weeks before US Championships, with National verification Camps still to go afterwards, and because this is the first opportunity to test full routines in a competition setting, there are usually a lot of mistakes. Yesterday’s competition was no exception from this point of view, the majority of the gymnasts having smaller or bigger execution errors.
The three gymnasts who finished on the podium – Simone Biles, Kyla Ross and Maggie Nichols – can consider themselves winners. Because placing on the podium is not always, especially in internal meets, synonym with being satisfied with your performance. But it is not the case here; each of the medalists achieved their best and will be content with their routines.
Simone Biles, who never competed in 2014 due to a shoulder injury, won by a safe margin, mostly due to her out of this world difficulty but also paired with good execution. She had hands-down the best routine of the evening, on floor, out of 6.6 difficulty and four extremely difficult tumbling passes, executed in a very convincing manner with amplitude and energy to spare. Her all around total was 61.700, after great vaulting (first vault was an Amanar), and fairly good bars and beam sets.
Kyla Ross placed 2nd with a total of 60.050. She had the best execution scores of the day managing to get 9+ marks on all events except floor (where she “only” received an 8.9). Her strong events still are bars and beam where she had secure and confident routines.
Maggie Nichols managed to place 3rd, through her consistency reminding everyone of her other good all around placement this year, when she was 3rd in Jesolo (behind Ross and Ernst). Her outstanding event was bars where she presented a routine out of 6.2; on the rest of apparatuses she had lower difficulty (mid to high 5s) but she had a good enough execution to help her get those 14+ scores.
Rachel Gowey, who seems to have emerged out of nowhere this year, had a good meet overall, placing 4th. Chow’s student fell on her Amanar vault and had some mistakes here and there on other events but impressed with her pretty lines and ambitious routines. She proved that if she cleans up she has a great shot at making the Worlds team.
MyKayla Skinner had an evening she will probably want to forget as soon as possible. It was not necessarily that she fell on her favorite event – floor-, on the last tumbling pass. But she looked hesitant and very nervous throughout. She had an ok performance on vault (Cheng and DTY) but didn’t manage to get her revenge for the missed floor on bars and beam either. If she wants to have a good shot at a Worlds team, MyKayla will need to get back into a similar shape and mindset that she had in March in Jesolo, when she won vault and floor.
Here are some of the best routines of the evening:
Simone Biles – Floor (15.800/6.6)
Simone Biles – 1st Vault (15.900/6.3)
Kyla Ross: – Bars (15.00/5.9)
Kyla Ross – Floor (14.600/5.7)
Ashton Locklear – bars (15.7/6.6)
Kyla Ross – Beam (15.250/6.1)
Madison Kocian – Bars (15.400/6.3)
Rachel Gowey – Floor (14.150/5.6)
Rachel Gowey – Beam (14.850/6.3)
Here are the top all around results:
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Watch all the routines on USA Gymnastics’ Youtube channel.
Article by: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo Cover: via USA Gymnstics