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The Major Competitions in 2003 |
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Results(AA)
Results(AF) |
2003 International Junior Competition
Women's Coverage |
Report by by T. Fujii
(web published on Sep. 19, 2003) |
DATE: Sep. 14-15, 2003
PLACE: Yokohama Culture Gymnasium
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| From Left Shcherbatykh(UKR), Russo(AUS), Ide(JPN) |
Vault
Most of the gymnasts performed "Luconi" (round off to full turn to back dive to handstand on the horse and piked back somersault), which was also done by a lot of gymnasts in the last world championships. Despite its high start value (9.7), the scores tended to be low in both Worlds and this meet.@Seemingly, the judges were very strict on the preflight, and if the gymnasts didn't twist and push off into the vault well, the judges gave them a big deduction. Cheng Fei of China performed a very clean Yurchenko one and a half twist, which has the same start value as the Luconi (9.7). She won the apparatus finals on this event. Lozhechko of Russia performed Luconi and placed second in the apparatus finals. She almost stuck her landing, but her vault was a little low in the event finals. Japan's Ide made the most of her tall body, and got good height on her Luconi to earn third in the event finals. Russo of Australia, the all-around champion of this meet, performed the only front hand spring vault in the meet (front handspring piked barani). She performed very well on both days but could not score higher than expected.
Uneven Bars
Russo was absolutely outstanding on this event. Not only her high start
value (9.9), but also her consistency was unbeatable (the start values
of the other gymnasts were in the range of 9.5 to 9.6). Russo used a variety
of foot circles, as did the other Australian veteran of the World Championship
team, and got the most of bonus points for combinations with the foot circles.
The German, Gunne, started her routine with Shaposhnikova, bail to handstand,
and layout hecht in combination!. Her good bar work reminded us of the
great gymnasts of East Germany in the '80's; Gunne won second place. For
the third place in the final, three gymnasts tied. Stancu of Romania performed
in a typical Romanian style, with fewer in-bar elements. She hit giant
full to Gienger to place third. Shcherbatykh of Ukraine had a wobble on
her Stalder sequence in the all-around, but she hit the routine in the
final. Lozhechko of Russia showed an excellent piked Stalder to Tkachev
to Pak sault. China's Cheng was expected to perform a great routine as
most Chinese gymnasts do, but she did a very short routine and had a low
start value. She performed a very good el-grip giant with good flexibility,
however.
Beam
Almost one month ago, Russo performed very well in the qualification round
in Anaheim, and made the apparatus finals. She again hit her routine here,
and scored 9.500 and 9.375 in the all-around and the apparatus finals,
respectively. Her only remarkable bad point was a too-long and too-low
setup position before her acrobatic series. However, she composed a good
enough routine to win the final, with ff stepout+ ff to both feet+layout
back sommie, Rulfova, tucked front sommie, and nice jump combination. China's
Cheng had a gorgeous routine, including tucked full twist back sommie.
She was expected to beat or tie Russo if she hit her routine, but she sat
down on her dismount in the all-around, and fell on her full twisting sommie
in the final. Minobe of Japan had no fall on both days but had a big wobble
on her layout back sommie in the final. However, she somehow managed to
win the silver medal. Stancu of Romania had a variety of jump combinations,
such as switch leap to ff to layout stepout, sheep jump to tucked back
sommie, Johnson, etc.. The Only a big error on landing her dismount (several
steps) prevented her from getting a better result.
Floor
Even though the gymnasts in the junior level are always very good on this
event, they often lack stability. On that point, Russo was great. She had
tucked and piked full-ins in the first half of her routine, and continued
with whip to ff to layout back sommie two and a half twist, and double
back piked sommie for her dismount. She did not make enough turn on her
triple turn to earn a D rating for it, but the rest of her routine was
so solid that she won the final. As a result, she got three of four golds
in the finals, and won four gold medals in total. The most notable thing
is that she hit eight of eight routines in this meet. That was just amazing..
The gymnasts from the former Soviet Union, Lozhechko and Shaposhnikova
performed very beautifully and lovely ballet, but they had to count a lot
of mistakes and missed earning medals. The performances of Japan's Ide
and Minobe were quite different from each other. Ide again made the most
of her beautiful body line and performed beautifully to place second in
the event final, and Minobe had powerful tumbling series, including triple
twist, double pike, back sommie two and a half twist, and back sommie double
twist to immediate punch front to win third place.
to Men's Coverage
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