It was a spectacular 2nd day at 2014 US P&G Championships.
Simone Biles, who had a 3 points lead in the all around after the first day of competition, became US AA Champion for the 2nd year in a row. She was followed in the ranks by Kyla Ross who was near-flawless to make up for a less successful first day and by Maggie Nichols, lately a constant presence on the internal all around podiums.
The competition was not however without a history: Simone was again impressive on vault, with two huge and difficult vaults (Amanar and layout Podkopayeva). On bars she hit a clean set. On beam, however she showed a bit of nerves taking wobbles after the cossack turn and lo-so series, going down eventually on a side aerial. But she had such massive difficulty (6.5) that she still placed 2nd overall on the event. Floor was again out of this world with double- double , Biles, double layout and full in, almost no hesitations on landings. She will be again World Champion on this event in 2014!
Kyla Ross, who had had uncharacteristic mistakes on Thursday (fall on floor on the first pass and brushed the mat with her knees on the bars dismount) upped her mental game and didn’t set a foot wrong, managing 9+ execution scores on all four events. The highlights of her day were beam (where she took the national title) and bars, demonstrating that she is still vital to the US National team for those two events alone.
Maggie Nichols proved she has what it takes to be included in the National team for a major competition. Her difficulty is in the high 5s on all events except for bars where she can go as high as 6.2 but she is extremely reliable. She had some minor execution errors on bars and beam but she still hit her sets in both days.
WOGA’s Alyssa Baumann placed 4th after a fall on bars in the 2nd day. She has lovely presentation and form. On beam she tied with Simone Biles for 2nd place.
MyKayla Skinner had a good overall competition placing 5th. She managed to leave behind the mishaps from 2014 US Classic and hit her floor routine in both days. She also had two good vaults (Cheng and DTY) proving that she could be a contender on this event at Worlds. She hit both bars and beam, although with some execution deductions.
Madison Kocian competed on bars and beam only, hitting both events in both days. She had the highest bars score of the 2nd day. Unfortunately her beam difficulty (5.8-5.9) might not be enough to boost her chances to be included in a major team as a two events specialists. Not as long as Ashton Locklear continues to do wonders in her bars work. Granted, Locklear was not as clean in the 2nd day (15.2/6.4) but it was enough to earn her the national title on the event (Kocian was 2nd).
Brenna Dowell only competed on bars and hit an amazing set in day 1 but missed on Saturday. It will be a very difficult task to convince the powers that be that she should be included in a major team this year with such an inconsistent one event.
All Around Results Event Final Results
**Article by: Bea **Gheorghisor
Photo Cover: USA Gymnastics