Glasgow: Hopes and Legends

The most successful gymnast of the competition was Maisie Methuen who won the all around title (53.600). She also medaled in three event finals: silver on vault and floor and bronze on bars. Maisie displayed a very good level of difficulty , across the board: front pike on vault; Tkachev, Bail, Ray, full in dismount on bars; flic – layout stepout and aerial walkover on beam; double pike and front double full on floor. Her execution too, although not yet as polished as the one of her more experienced peers, has good potential.

Lucy Stanhope placed second, less than half a point behind. Lucy excelled on vault, where she had the best FTY of the competition (placing 3^rd in the vent final) and also one of the best beam routines over the two days, both in term of skills – original mount, flic – layout stepout, aerial walkover, dismount series with 1 ½- and in terms of execution – good rhythm and cohesive choreography. In the event finals Stanhope won the beam title and a bronze medal on floor.

Alice Kinsella placed third in the all around after consistent performances across the 4 apparatuse and a total of 52.550. Kinsella’s highest scoring event was vault (FTY) followed by beam, a very strong piece for her in the all around but where she unfortunately failed to deliver during the event final. Beam is an event where Alice showcased some of the best basics with beautiful toe point and extension as well as difficulty – leap to side aerial, aerial walkover, sheep jump, flic – flic – layout stepout right at the end of the routine. She may have not medalled but she is a beamer in the making.

Laura Kaletha impressed with her precocious difficulty  and won the title on floor: full in, 2 1/2 to punch front, 1 1/2 to layout front, double pike to finish .

Taeja James  took the title on bars: big skills, with Tkachev, full in dismount, good pirouettes, but she had no elements on the low bar. Nevertheless a huge execution score of 8.7 put her ahead of Alice Kinsella, who placed 2nd.

However, the breakthrough star of the meet might be a little gymnast named Amelia Montague. She has become an internet sensation following her floor routine shared by the British Gymnastics Facebook page:

Amelia’s beam routine from last year’s “Espoir” competition was on par in terms of artistry so hopefully a video of her performance from last week-end on the event will also emerge eventually.

Larisa Iordache competed with unmatched enthusiasm and took the title after clean performances. Looking at the results, she could have afforded one or two big mistakes but Larisa feels so confident in her routines (which were not downgraded with the exception of floor) that a big error seemed far-fetched.

After Glasgow, it was announced by the Romanian Federation that Iordache has returned to training as she will be attending a gymnastics Gala in Belgium, before Christmas.

The competitors in Glasgow seemed a bit tired, not delivering 100% of their potential, or compared to the week before in Stuttgart. One of the few exceptions was Ellie Black who reached a new season peak to take the silver medal. Black has worked very hard after 2013 Worlds to upgrade on all events and fought to incorporate the new connections or elements in consistent routines. The first big achievement after all the work was to place in the first 10 gymnast of the world in Nanning.  But an all around medal in a World Cup  event comes as the crowning moment of all her efforts.

Jessica Lopez  looked to have lost a bit of momentum after Stuttgart. But despite some execution errors, which led to slightly lower marks on three out of four events (with the exception of the DTY, which still looked as strong as it can be), Jessica placed 3^rd.