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Result The Major Competitions in 2004
Results of Apparatus Finals pdf
2004 Chunichi Cup
Men's Apparatus Finals
Report by T. Fujii
(web published on December 11, 2004)
DATE: December 5, 2004
PLACE: Nagoya Sports Complex Rainbow Hall

FLOOR

Just as in the all-around final, most of event finalists missed their tumbling passes and lost a lot of points. Yoneda was the most consistent performer with strong tumbling: 2 1/2 twisting back, punch front, punch 1 3/4 forward roll; 1 1/2 back, layout front full, layout rudi; tucked full-in dismount. He performed with beautiful body line and great height for the victory. Mizutori placed second, and Kim Seung Il placed third. Kim missed the landing on his 1 3/4 forward roll, but was solid on his other passes. He became the first foreign medallist of the competition.

POMMEL HORSE

The reigning world champion, Kashima, showed his great talent to the crowd. His spindle mount was very elegant and extended. He did not change his elements, but only the order he presented them. After his spindle, he continued with Magyar travel, Sivado travel, E-combined flop; double scissors; E flop to D-valued dismount. He had slightly missed in the all-around final, but today he hit his routine. Since he was going to compete on this event in the World Cup Finals, this victory must have given him confidence. Mizutori performed a solid Fedrchenko and other stunts with high level of difficulty. He eventually did not pass Kashima, but finished second. Tomita, in contrast, wobbled on his Fedrchenko, but made an excellent recovery from it for third place. Kim Seung Il had a very good performance including Fedrchenko and Magyar and Sivado travel, but failed to earn a medal.

RINGS

A very strong gymnast on this event, Kim Dae Eun changed his superb routine from the routine with two SEs he showed at the Athens Olympics, but his routine was still strong. He connected four strength elements for bonus points in the first part of routine. He scored 9.700 and kept the lead until the last performer came up. The last performer was Tomita, and his routine was almost the same as that of Kim. His powerful execution gave him his second gold. Tsukahara was another strong performer and placed third.

VAULT

Some gymnasts withdrew from the final, and only four gymnasts competed for the vault title. Mizutori's Driggs had the highest SV, 9.9, and actually he performed very well. But his weak second vault, front handspring tucked barani, cost him a medal. Savenkov aggressively performed Roche, but his landing was very low and he almost sat down. He performed a clean second vault, Kasamatsu full, and that gave him his first medal. The two Japanese, Tsukahara and Nakano, did double twisting Yurchenkos for their first vault. Tsukahara was stable on his second vault (Kasamatsu full) as well, and grabbed the title. Nakano finised third with layout Kasamatsu for his second vault.

PARALLEL BARS

The leadoff competitor, Mizutori, performed a solid peach half to peach to Belle combination, and stuck his double tuck dismount. The following competitors, Tsukahara and Tomita, had balance checks on handstands and went out of medal contention. But Nakano was pretty stable; he performed the very same routine as in the qualification at Athens Olympics, including peach to piked Belle and Wells to Tippelt. He did not do full-out dismount this time, but stuck a very beautiful double pike dismount. He easily took the title on his favorite event. Kim Dae Eun was good on this event too. His Belle and Tippelt were good enough to take a bronze medal.

HORIZONTAL BAR

The Olympic bronze medallist on this event, Yoneda, fell on his Rybalko, and Tsukahara ,unveiled a layout Kolman (Cassina) but failed to regrasp. Kim Dae Eun had another fall on stalder to layout Tkachev (Piatti). After these mistakes, three Japanese showed how they could become the world's best country on this event; Mizutori did layout Kovacs, Kolman, tucked Kovacs, and stunned the crowd with a one arm giant. He stuck his layout double-double dismount and received 9.800. Nakano performed in the later order, and he also hit his routine; he hit a Kolman to 1 1/2 twisting hop giant. He performed Kovacs, and followed that with two giants to high layout double double. It was also a very spectaculars performance, but he could not pass Mizutori. The last performer, Kashima, did a very beautiful routine as the reigning world champion. He performed a good Kovacs and some Endo variations, but had a big hop on his layout double-double dismount. He downgraded his SV to 9.9 because of his injury, but could win a bronze medal. Japanese won gold medals on all six events as well as one more in the all around.

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