The final subdivision brought many of the best moments of the prelims. The US women had a successful qualifying round. For the first time in an international competition, Jade Carey hit both of her very difficult vaults and her floor tumbling and made it into both finals. We should be very content with her performance. Her three team mates had great routines but also some mistakes: Morgan Hurd was almost perfect across three events (vault, bars and beam) but messed a landing on floor. She will be a favorite in the all around and beam finals. Ragan Smith had a couple of mistakes on bars and beam (fell on the layout to two feet) but still placed 2nd in the all around qualifications, .001 behind top seeded Mai Murakami. Asthton Locklear had the best bars routine she could have hoped for, and earned the highest E score of the women’s competition (vault aside), with a 9.066.
Mai Murakami had an almost perfect competition and leads the all around qualifications: she had scores in the 13s on beam and bars and in the 14s on vault and floor. She will compete in the event finals on vault, beam and floor.
For China Wang Yan had a promising all around performance but a fall on beam and other small mistakes on bars and floor threw her on the 16th place, which she will be able to improve easily on Friday. She qualified for the vault final. Fan Yilin was impressive on bars with splendid turns but had a big step on the dismount; she can improve on the score that put her third in the qualifying rankings on the event.
Here are my live notes during the competition:
Rotation 1
Morgan Hurd (USA) vault solid double twisting Yurchenko with small hop 14.466/5.4
Ragan Smith (USA) vault good Yurchenko double it seemed the legs came apart but the landing was good 14.466/5.4
Jade Carey (USA) vault 1 Her first routine in an international competition will be an Amanar! She had lots of power and lounged forward but keept it in check 15.066 Carey 2nd vault: Kazamatsu with some untidy legs, but nothing major 14.633 for 14.849 average
Diana Varinska (UKR) bars hit bars set 14.566/6.0 We had been rooting for her this whole year. It’s great this little Ukrainian got better as the year passed!
Asuka Teramoto (JPN) beam hit! switch leap, side somi, side aerial, Onodi, triple full dismount 13.333/5.7
Mai Murakami (JPN) beam switch leap on, pike front, hit series, switch ring leap, aerial, a good set! 13.2
Aiko Sugihara (JPN) beam hit routine ends with a triple full 12.466/ 5.3
Wang Yan (CHN) floor – Silivas with lots of height and unfortunately she jumps out of bounds, nice height in the element through, 1 ½ to triple full to another uncontrolled bounce outside the lines, 1 1/2 to full , well executed, double twist 13.366/5.7 Over 8 execution considerring the steps seems a bit generous.
Vidiaux (CUB) vault 1 – Tsukahara way deviated to the side, takes a few steps 13.866; fall on the second vault a front handspring full
Rotation 2
Mai Murakami (JPN) floor was impressive with 4 turn, stuck Silivas, double layout with a small hop, 2 ½ to full, double L turn, double pike. 14.2/5.8
Aiko Sugihara (JPN) floor – triple full to wolf, front double full to front tuck 13.433
Wang Yan (CHN) vault 1 14.4 (DTY) and vault 2 14.7 for Rudy
Morgan Hurd (USA) bars passed her first (real)test, was a good set until the end when she stopped for a bit but was able to complete the dismount. Job done 14,333/ 5.8
Ragan Smith (USA) bars – not a perfect set but she was able to complete it 14.133
Ashton Locklear (USA) bars did her best bars set 14.533 / 5.5, currently sitting on 6th
Sae Miyakawa (JPN) floor – finished with her DLO almost to her knees, impossible to comprehend the composition of this routine – after double front, full in stretched and double double, she really didn’t need a double layout to finish.
Rotation 3
Aiko Sugihara (JPN) vault good Yurchenko 1 ½ 14.066/ 5.0
Ashton Locklear (USA) beam – solid triple wolf, as is the flick layout stepout, much better form on tourjete, punch front, side somi, and she falls off on side aerial, good double tuck dismount. Would have made finals had she stayed on!
Morgan Hurd (USA) beam hit routine was close to falling on switch ring leap, but everything else was rock solid, she threw the full in dismount. 13.500
Ragan Smith (USA) beam fall on layout to two feet: 12.900 with 5.7 D
Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) vault1 14.366 / 5.4 14.333/5.2 for 2nd vault
Sae Miyakawa (JPN) vault Rudi, 14.9/ 5.8 and DTY as second vault, not as clean 14.133, 14.516 average
Mai Murakami (JPN) vault clean DTY 14.633
Yan Wang (CHN) bars decent effort but not enough difficulty 13.4/ 5.3
Luo Huan (CHN) bars – hit set for a 14.566
Fan Yilin (CHN) bars huge routine with perfect lines. The dismount was far from great (full in with a big step forward) so it is possible to impove on this score in the finals.
Varinska (UKR) floor – starts with charming balletic choreography, triple full, bounces out of double back, – oob, nice leaps not lots of difficulty but nice form 12.6/ 5.2
Rotation 4
Wang Yan (CHN) beam fall but I did not see where punch front switch leap ring, layout to two feet leg up, the rest of the routine was wobbly but hit as far as I could see
Luo Huan (CHN) beam fall on Onodi 12.466/5.6
Liu Tingtin (CHN) beam hit routine but lots of wobbles, event went 7 seconds overtime, still should be enough for finals
Morgan Hurd (USA) floor- started with perfect first two passes, especially the Silivas to mount was gorgeous; knee on the floor on font double full, great full in
Ragan Smith (USA) floor This routine is much more charming in person, Ragan seems to have a feel for this music: opens with a great double layout, followed by a good triple full, nice Arabian to jump, solid double back pike 14.433/ 5.8
Jade Carey (USA) floor hit with double double, full In layout front double full, full in, the last pass had lots of power still but stayed in bounds 14.1/5.7
Here are the results at the end of the prelims:
First 24 All Around:
Bars, top 8 + reserves
Floor, top 8 + reserves
Article: Bea Gheorghisor