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The Major Competitions in 2003 |
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Results
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Chunichi Cup
Men's & Women's All-Around Finals |
Report
(web published on Jan. 12, 2004) |
DATE: December 6, 2003
PLACE: Nagoya Sports Complex Rainbow Hall
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| Men's All-Around Award Ceremony |
Men's All-Around Final
Hiroyuki Tomita, the bronze medallist of the all-around final at the 2003 World Championships, won the all-around final of Chunichi Cup. He was competing against strong gymnasts from Russia, China, Korea and the United States, who have had great achievements in international meets.
Tomita kept some difficult skills in reserve and did not have a 10 start value on any event except rings, but that brought him a very steady performance as a result. On floor, he downgraded his routine (his routine was the same as that of 2002 Asian Games) with a few small mistakes. He had a very steady performance after that. He did not perform his Driggs on vault, but stuck his Kasamatsu-full. On parallel bars, he did not do his Tippelt, and on horizontal bar, he also did not do his piked Stalder with 1 1/2 twist. The routines on each event were not his best ones, but his perfection put him in first.
The runner-up was Naoya Tsukahara of Japan. He was better than Tomita after the fifth rotation, with the very same routines as usual (10 start value except for vault) and he was ahead of the rest of the competition. However, he completely underrotated his layout double-double dismount on horizontal bar, and this cost him the win in the all-around.
China's Feng Jing was third behind the two Japanese. After winning the all around of the 2001 World Championship, Feng become a strong tumbler on floor; he used a layout full-in mount, and two and a half twist to punch layout barani dismount. He looked great on the other events, and seemed to have grown enough to be a very good all-around competitor, just like Yang Wei, his compatriot.
In spite of a very exciting performance (layout Tkachev ? Straddle Tkachev ? Piked Tkachev ? Gienger, and stuck layout double-double dismount to score 9.775! ), Alexei Bondarenko of Russia could not reach the medal position because of a mistake on pommel horse, and finished fourth.
Great things were expected from Takehiro Kashima of Japan, who had won two gold medals in the World Championships. He was not in good shape, and had to count some big mistakes (He sat down on the bars after his Tippelt on parallel bars, etc.). His fifth place finish was very disappointing for the crowd, but he was excellent on horizontal bar, on which he had won a gold in the World Championships. His Kovacs and Endo and El-grip giant combination were awesome, and the judges gave him 9.725.
Akihiro Kasamatsu, also one of the World Championships members from Japan, upgraded his first tumbling pass on floor to a two and a half twisting back somersault ? punch tucked barani ? tucked back somersault with one and a half twist and got the best score of the day (9.500) on this event. Some big mistakes on pommel horse and horizontal bar dropped him to sixth place overall.
Yang Tae-yong of Korea, the men's all around champion at the Universiade at Daegu, Korea, his home town, made a mistake on floor in the first rotation, and could not catch up with the medal contenders. Liang Fuliang of China, a silver medallist in the men's all-around at the 2002 Asian Games, showed very gorgeous circles on pommel horse and a very high piked belle on parallel bars and got the best scores on both events, but missed his stoop in and Russian giant on horizontal bar and dropped to eighth.
Women's All-Around
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| Women's All-Around Award Ceremony |
Three-time world champion (including the 2003 World Championships) Svetlana Khorkina of Russia won her first Chunichi Cup title over the Romanians. She started the day with a nice Khorkina II on vault, and stuck her full-out dismount on uneven bars. She kept her one and a half twisting giant in reserve. However, the last two events were a disaster for her. She couldn't connect some series on beam and did not earn bonus points, and sat down on her whip back to triple twist on floor. She had great choreography and it attracted the Japanese fans. She only beat Munteanu of Romania by a 0.075 margin but that was enough to guarantee her the all around title.
Andreea Munteanu and Oana Ban of Romania, both of whom competed in the 2003 World Championships, challenged Khorkina, but mistakes prevented them from beating her. Munteanu stuck her double twisting Yurchenko (with bent knees, though), but fell on her Gienger on uneven bars, just as she had in Anaheim. In contrast with Khorkina, she hit her last two events; she hit her routine on beam and performed with very cute choreography and strong tumbling on floor. She scored best on floor and almost caught up with Khorkina. Ban earned poor scores on the first two events; she perfomed a full-twisting tucked Luconi, but it was low and her score was lower than expected. She got a low score on her weakest event, unven bars, too. However, she regained in her last two events like Munteanu; she hit her full twisting layout back somersault on beam and tumbled a very powerful layout double back somersault, arabian double, whip - whip to double pike, and triple twist dismount. Her rhythmical performance was also a crowd-favorite.
Fourth place went to Russia's Lidya Sidorova. She missed her foot circle on low bar on uneven bars and touched her feet to the mat which caused a fall. This mistake cost her a medal.
The Japanese national champion, Manami Ishizaka, ended up in fifth place.
She hit a clean Yurchenko with one and a half twist, but she had several
wobbles on beam during the combination and could not gain the bonus points
she expected to have. However, she had no big mistake and kept her performance
steady after the national championships.
The 2003 Universiade Champion, Irina Yarotska of Ukraine, had a very dangerous fall in her double front dismount on uneven bars (She almost landed on her back). She completely broke her concentration after that event and placed only sixth.
The rest of the Japanese gymnasts, Kyoko Oshima and Ayaka Sahara, had big mistakes and could not earn good scores. Oshima put her hands down on her layout double back dismount on uneven bars and Sahara fell on her layout back mount on beam. Mayu Kuroda competed for exhibition only, but she had a very nice performance on uneven bars, on which she had won the national title in 2002 and 2003, and had won a bronze medal at 2003 Asian Championships. She had a very clean el-grip giant full to Ono-turn (Bi) with very beautiful body line to score the second best behind Khorkina.
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