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The Major Competitions in 2003 |
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Results(AA)
Results(AF) |
2003 International Junior Competition
Men's Coverage |
Report by Mickey Chaplan
(web published on Sep. 19, 2003) |
DATE: Sep. 14-15, 2003
PLACE: Yokohama Culture Gymnasium
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| From Left Hornton(USA), Hambuchen(GER), Sender(USA) |
I could discuss who won, who was second, etc., but if I do that you will
have no idea of the quality of the competition, or whether you missed a
good meet or not. You missed a good meet.
This is not because the scores were high, or the distance between first
prize and second was so close, but rather because there were interesting
stunts thrown on almost every event, and there were some amazing performances.
The first day of competition had individual all around and event finals
qualifying, and the second day had the event finals.
On floor exercise, Horton (USA) included a very clean open-tucked Thomas...
one and a half back sommie with one and a half twist to dive roll. Sender
(USA) had a Lou Yun (piked double side sommie with a quarter twist on the
second sommie. A number of gymnasts used handspring to laid out front with
double twist to rebound tucked front sommie. Among these was Marius Berbecar
(ROM) who also did a very high double laid out back sommie for a mount,
and a very nice arabian double front. For some reason, he ended up out
of the medals. Fabian Hambuchen (GER) showed the class he used to win the
all-around by doing a very open Manna, and pulling through stiff armed
piked body to handstand. He also did a very simple rebound stretched body
front dive to front support out of a back sommie which was very surprising....
and quite lovely.
Pommel horse had a number of falls by excellent competitors in prelims....
for example Tanaka (JPN), who failed to qualify for finals but had a lovely
russian moore on one pommel in the middle of his Magyar travel.... The
other performer with excellent stretch fell in the finals. Ikhnatovich
(BLR), the gold medalist on this event at Taegu Universiade in last August,
used the same stunt Tanaka did....Dmitri Barkalev (RUS) had a reverse stockli
up out of pommel loops which was a bit of a surprise.
Rings was the only disappointing event. The rules have made it impossible
for juniors to get combination bonus points, so the performers either tried
to use combinations that they were nowhere near mastering, or just giving
up on strength work altogether, and using easy routines. Sender (USA) won
by finding a compromise between these two extremes.... he used a Pineda.
Livochka (UKR) used a gorgeous double piked front sommie dismount. Horton
(USA) and Hambuchen (GER) used laid out double back with full twist on
second sommie. None of these beautiful dismounts was preceded by a respectable
routine, however.
The biggest problem with vault was starting with a vault of high value.
Horton (USA) solved this problem with a Roche (SV 9.8) (handspring forward
to double front sommie) to seat, and Sender (USA) with a laid out Kasamatsu
with one and a half twist (SV 9.9). Hambuchen (GER) did a very pretty Yurchenko
with double twist. (SV 9.7)
Parallel bars was the most interesting event. On the first day, Arnaud
Willig (FRA) had a Tippelt with extra piked front to overarmed hang. (Willig
did not perform on the second day...) A number of others did this stunt,
both piked and tucked, on the second day. Hambuchen (GER), for one, did
this as well as a piked giant swing (Wells). Hambuchen's flexibility put
his Tippelt to handstand in a different class from the other performers
who did this stunt....A number of performers did healy twirls to support,
the most interesting of which was done by Barkalev (RUS) who did his out
of a reverse pirouette... before grabbing the second bar! Ikhanovitch (BLR)
did a diomidov with an extra pirouette on one bar. Lee (KOR) did everything
one can do from a giant swing, including diomidov and belle...
Horizontal bar was, in many ways, a re-run of the world championships,
where some performers did four or five release moves, and some did only
one. Kolmanns were done by Horton (USA) and Hoshi (JPN) Horton (USA) also
did a piked Kovacks. Barkalev did a lovely stretched reverse hecht, and
followed it with lots of variations on the same thing. Eichhorn (GER) did
several inside stalders with full twist. But his teammate, Hambuchen (GER),
was the class of the meet with an inside stalder with one and a half twist
to el-grip, and later a stoop in to very stretched Russian giants and a
laid out front sommie with full twist to straight armed regrasp. That stunt
alone was worth the price of admission....
to Women's Coverage
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