Oh Sara, how difficult it is to extract just a few highs after two very full weeks of competition and so many great performances.
Ellie Downie and her balance beam routine during the team final comes to mind when I think about best performances. This was not a very high scoring routine (although 14.133 is not low either). I choose Ellie because she represented her team so well throughout qualifications and especially the team final. Ellie was an important piece of the team effort that brought her country a historic result the team final bronze medal. Being also the last to compete (on vault, the 12th and last routine of the team in the final) she was a symbol of team GB’s fight and success, not without challenges. Ellie hadn’t had a good start on the day, having fallen on her UB routine. Beam was the second event. Despite the pressure, going up on the podium Ellie’s face did not express concern, only focus and determination. But the checks after the standing Arabian, switch half and even the small adjustment after acro elements like layout stepout and side somi showed that it was not an easy moment for her.
Also, I feel like one of the heroes of the Championships that should not go unnoticed was Sae Miyakawa and her amazing floor routine. She still has room to improve choreographically and in terms of interpretation. But in tumbling difficulty she is the only one that can challenge Simone. Sae was thought to attempt the impossible when her four floor passes became double layout full out, double front tuck, Silivas and double layout. Other good floor workers use any of these as their first tumbling line. Thus, Miyakawa’s inconsistency with this difficult routine seemed natural and expected. The routine was simply too ambitious. But in Glasgow, Miyakawa hit every time – qualifications, team finals and event finals – and she even came very close to the floor podium at the event finals. Without that step on the first pass or without that unfortunate starting order (she was first), the Japanese could have been among the medalists.
And there are so many more amazing moments, most of them from qualifications and I am thinking especially at the Rio qualifiers: Japan, Canada, the Netherlands, Italy, but also at teams that only made it through to the test event for now like Brazil, France and Germany.
I could go on all day dissecting the highlight performances of each of these teams… as promised I will continue this series with some of the moments that saddened me and that I wish I could change:
Team Romania, UB, qualifications
One team that did qualify for the test event but had a simply nightmarish preliminary round was Romania. I will mention here their uneven bars performance during the qualifications as this was the catalyst of the disaster. The first two rotations had gone well, even though slightly underscored on floor but the team had finished within the expected scores and results for the most part. But on bars they managed to count six falls or major errors, among five competing gymnasts. Watching this happening live was heartbreaking: each gymnast following on the mistakes of the previous and not being able to stop the spread of paralyzing fear, like in a domino. Only Laura Jurca, the first gymnast to compete hit her routine (although with errors). Then, one after the other, Silvia Zarzu, Diana Bulimar, Larisa Iordache and Andreea Iridon went up and failed to change anything, powerless, seemingly stuck under the weight of the moment.
Diana Bulimar:
Brenna Dowell – UB, qualifications
Speaking of bars but on a whole different level we need to mention Brenna Dowel’s UB qualifications. Brenna also competed on floor and vault during this round, but she had been brought to Glasgow mainly thanks to her fabulous bars routine, as an event specialists. You must appreciate her for even attempting or conceiving to attempt such a difficult, interesting and utterly crazy routine. Brenna’s routine composition almost defies the practical aspect. She is up there with Beth Tweddle and China’s greats, basically doing these elements because she can, not for the calculated reward at the end of the routine. But the pressure was huge. Given her history within the US team (twice an alternate, first time member of the Worlds team) and the depth of the US squad, the chances of her catching another big team were depending on her hitting the routine in qualifications, and perhaps event finals, if she made it. So the emotions must have been overwhelming and the task too complicated and Brenna couldn’t bring herself to succeed. She competed with confidence in Glasgow, on floor and vault. But on bars, on her event, the certainty that that moment was IT and the fact that she had been dreaming for it for too long proved insurmountable.
Maria Kharenkova – BB, team final
During the team final Russia had a meltdown of epic proportions during their balance beam rotation. Seda Tutkhalyan fell on her double pike dismount. Maria Kharenkova who, despite having had some consistency issues, normally has the ability to stay on when the team is at stake was up next. She had no issues whatsoever on 80 % of her routine: bhs-bhs –layout to two feet, aerial walkovers, connections of leaps and saltos and even the switch ring leap. They were not all pretty, but they looked solid. Then at the very last element before the dismount, an L turn, she fumbled and lost tension or simply lost focus and put the hands on the beam then stepped down. It was a shocker because it was so unexpected and uncalled for. Russia would go on to count three falls throughout their BB rotation as Vika Komova also fell on her standing Arabian. Team Russia would go on and finish 4th less than half a point behind Great Britain (3rd).
Aly Raisman’s qualifications performance.
It was an overall sub par performance for Aly: she started out with a bit too much adrenaline and emotions on the event dearest to her and went out of bounds with both feet on the double Arabian to front layout, then her Amanar was a bit messy and relatively low scoring (15.133 after two big steps), she opened the bars rotation and she was not mentally ready after the disappointing previous rotations and she fell on a Tkachev, while on beam she was not her usual secure self. Placing 5th overall after qualifications, Aly mainly lost the battle for individual finals within her own team – outscored by Gabby Douglas for the AA and by Maggie Nichols for the floor final. She would go on to redeem herself with solid performances on beam and floor during the team final (to paraphrase her statement after the competition, I am sure Martha still wants her in the team), but this was not the big international come back she was preparing for.
I was also pretty disappointed with the overall showing of the gymnasts of the balance beam final. Simone Biles was the exception, she managed to HIT during the final. I appreciate her a lot for the fact that she did not let herself influenced in any way by the mistakes of others or by the fact that she too had a mistake on this event during the all around. Even medal winners Sanne Wevers and Pauline Schaefer did not deliver their best performances but kudos to them for at least managing to capitalize on the mistakes of others and for doing enough to medal. But all the “loaded”routines, in terms of difficulty missed: Seda Tutkhalyan, Ellie Black, Yan Wang. Even Komova and Thorsdottir, with less difficulty, were defeated by nerves. The disastrous performances during beam finals are starting to become a general habit though: 2013 and the 2014 beam finals were not much better and this makes me extremely sad.
Back to you Sara, did anyone break your heart this year at Worlds?
Article: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo: Myriam Cawston