July 19, 2009

Uchimura takes Japan Cup title

There really was not much doubt that Kohei Uchimura would easily win the all around competition: he had been superior on every event he had entered the previous day. He also tends to place very high even in meets where he has major breaks. The suspense lay in who would come in second or third, and what elements or combinations they would use.

There were two gymnasts from each of the six national teams who had participated in the team championships. This meant that twelve gymnasts per event, divided into two teams of six gymnasts each, competed in two events at the same time.

The two events of the first rotation were floor exercise and pommel horse.

China's Lu Bo did what looked like a Magyar travel from end to center... and followed it with a Tong Fei. A beautiful combination.

Danell Levya of the US on floor exercise started with a double backward laid out sommie with 2 twists. For his second pass, he did a running laid out front sommie to a punch double tucked front sommie... to his seat. Later he did a piked and straddled "manna" and then lowered to "L" and pressed out straight armed to handstand. Germany's Fabian Hammbuechen started with the same double backward laid out sommie with 2 twists, but followed it up with a round off back handspring back with two and a half twists to a front with one and a half twist. He finished with a tucked half in-half out. He has been popular in Japan since he was a junior...

Then came Uchimura on one of his strong events. He started with a round off, back with one and a half twists, front with double twist to front with one and a half twist. He followed that with a round off back handspring back with two and a half twists to a front with full twist, then a handspring to randolph (! That is a front sommie with 2 and a half twists!), a tucked double backward sommie with 2 twists, a very high tucked Thomas salto, and he finised with a very clean triple twisting back sommie. Kim Seung Li from Korea did a handspring front with double twist punch barany... and finished with a front with a double twist. Guo, from China, did an arabian double tucked front sommie.

The second rotation was pommel horse and rings.

On pommel horse, Hammbuchen hit his routine better than on the first day, and finished with straddled handstand turns which were quite pretty.
On rings, Legendre had a lot of mistakes, but finished with a triple back sommie. Lu bo had a straight body Yamawaki (somewhat muscled) to a back uprise maltese, followed by a shoot to inverted cross. South Korea's Yoo performed an Azaryan (back roll) to cross, and followed that with a straight body straight armed press to inverted cross...

The third rotation was rings and vault.
Uchimura and Hambuechen's routines contained a back uprise to inverted cross. Russia's Devyatovskiy started with a back roll to maltese cross, China's Guo started with a back uprise to inverted cross, followed by a Li Ning to L-cross.

On vault, Legendre from the US and Lu Bo both did Roches... but Lu Bo landed his on his feet.

The fourth rotation was vault and parallel bars.

On vault, Danell Leyva did a Lopez (Tinsica with 2 and a half twist) and Uchimura and Hambuechen both did Yurchenko with 2 1/2 twist. (Shewfelt)

On parallel bars, Tanaka did a peach with full twist to handstand. Yoo's routine included a piked morisue and tucked dmitrienko, but also included a healy to piked and straddled front sommie to upper arms. Before he dismounted with a double piked back, Yoo did the extremely rare back overbar somersault to a handstand. Khorokhordin did the same straddle piked front, but caught it to an "L" support.

The fifth rotation was parallel bars and horizontal bar.

Danell Leyva used a peach with full twist to handstand, and a beautiful peach to diomidov. (The twist was performed while his body was rising!) He also did a giant to diomidov. Hambuchen did an inlocated giant, but also an inlocated tippelt. Uchimura did a giant with half turn to upper arm hang.

On horizontal bar, Legendre did layout and tucked Kovacs, and finished with a triple back.

On horizontal bar, there were lots of release moves... except by Tanaka, who did a perfect stoop and shoot with full twist on one arm to handstand in reverse grip, followed by a very high Yamawaki. Legendre did a triple back dismount... but had mistakes in his routine.

The final rotation was floor exercise and horizontal bar.

On floor exercise, Lu Bo did a double twisting front sommie punch barany, Khorokhordin did a running layout front sommie to punch double tucked front, Tanaka did a laid out arabian one and a half somersault to roll out and finished with a triple twisting back sommie. Legendre started with a double layout back sommie with 1 1/2 twist, followed that with a tucked thomas, followed that with a laid out arabian one and a half somersault to roll out, and dismounted with a tucked arabian double front sommie.

On horizontal bar, Leyva did straight body Kovacs and straight body Tkachev, but his most spectacular stunt was a stoop in and shoot to immediate hop to undergrip. It was a very exciting stunt, and done perfectly. Uchimura did not do his three big releases as well as he had the previous day....but made up for that with an Endo done from dislocated giants.

...and Uchimura won the all around. Hambuechen was a surprising second, only .65 behind, and Tanaka was third, only 1.25 behind Hambuechen. Yoo was fourth and Guo was fifth.

Micahael I. Chaplan