July 19, 2009
*revised on July 22, 2009

Huang wins women's all-around

The Japan Cup of this year did not have a qualification round for the individual all-around competition: prior to the team all-around competition, each country had submitted a list of gymnasts who were competing for the individual all-around. Two gymnasts per country, eight gymnasts in total competed for the individual all-around in the first Japan Cup.


Rotation 1

Mustafina performed her double twisting Yurchenko much better on vault and she nearly stuck her landing (with leg separation). Mitchell and Uemura did one and a half twisting Yurchenkos but both of them took a step backward. Huang did a double twisting Yurchenko as did Mustafina, but Huang's execution was much better than that of Mustafina. On uneven Bars Nabieva underrotated her piked stalder full but did not fall. Her Maloney-hall (similar to Khorkina II - she did Khorkina II from a sole circle) was a crowd favorite. Zhang performed a clean routine but she put hands down on her full-in dismount. Tsurumi had a clean combination of piked stalder half to el-grip to Ono turn to Jaeger, but took a big step forward on her double layout dismount. Greeley completely lost her balance on her free hip circle full on low bar and bail to handstand on low bar. In the end, Mustafina led the competition after this rotation and Tsurumi followed Mustafina in third place.


Rotation 2

On uneven bars, Mitchell overarched her handstand after her bail to the low bar. She took a big step forward on her dismount. Uemura lost control on her stalder with one and a half twist but recovered well from it. Huang had a beautiful Ono turn to front giant with full turn on one arm, but her hand slipped when she tried to perform el-grip Endo after that combination and she fell. She, however, had beautiful execution, and her dismount was layout full-in. Mustafina showed piked stalder half to el-grip to huge Khorkina and piked stalder full to Tkachev to Park with good execution. On beam, Zhang fell after her front aerial to tucked back sommie. Tsurumi did a combination of front aerial, ff, layout stepout that she that she hadn't been able to hit in the team competition. She was steady in other elements as well except for her turn with one leg above horizontal. Greeley sat down on her two and a half twist dismount. Nabieva had a steady performance (roundoff to layout stepout mount; roundoff to layout back; tucked double back dismount). Mustafina still kept her lead over Tsurumi at the end of the second rotation.


Rotation 3

Uemura started this rotation with a slightly shaky performance on beam. She took a step after every difficult skill but stuck her two and a half twist dismount. Huang showed her leg strength on beam as well as on vault: ff, two-foot ff, layout back; piked punch front, ff, Korbut. She wobbled after her switch leap to tucked back sommie but her routine was very clean to score 15.350, the highest score of the day. Mustafina had a variety of stunning elements: tucked arabian; switch ring jump; double turn; Onodi to side sommie; triple twist dismount. There was a single ff in the middle of the routine that seemed to be there for no reason at all. Even though she had not made any big mistake, her score was below 14. Mitchell showed good originality, such as cartwheel to sit in straddle position to mount, two and a half turn in sitting position, front aerial to punch front. Unfortunately, she had a fall after her layout back, just as in the team competition. On floor, Tsurumi nailed every landing including the double pike dismount that she had missed in the team competition. Her double turn with one leg above horizontal was the only mistake that would cut down her D score. Greely had no notable mistake but her low D score kept her total score near 13. Nabieva performed a high arabian double tucked front sommie and triple twist, but she missed her combination with two and a half twist (she wanted to connect that to a punch full twisting layout front but she performed only a punch tucked front sommie). Zhang put her hands down on her tucked full-in mount but her music and choreography were elegant like rhythmic gymnastics. The medal contention got exciting; Huang took the lead over Mustafina, and Tsurumi was third by more than a point over Nabieva.


Rotation 4

Greeley hit her Yurchenko with one and a half twist. Nabieva stunned the crowd with two and a half twisting Yurchenko. She landed it, but she overtwisted (nearly two and three quarter twists) and she finished facing the horse. She was not trying to perform a triple twisting Yurchenko which would be the first ever performed in the world, but it seemed to be so. (The number on the board was 435, and that meant that she had intended to perform a two and a half twisting Yurchenko.) Since it is still a quite difficult skill and her D score was 6.5, she scored 14.950.*She said she performed two and a half twisting Yurchenko, not triple, at the press conference after the competition. Since triple twisting Yurchenko was not on the Code of Points, she should have submitted it as a new element prior to the competition but she didn't. Zhang performed another amazing vault, double twisting Yurchenko. She almost stuck her landing. Tsurumi had planned to perform a double twisting Yurchenko before the Japan Cup but she was not yet confident and so chose to do a full twisting Yurchenko. She had a big hop on her landing that cost her the bronze medal. The margin was only 0.05 between her score and that of Nabieva. On floor, Huang went out of bounds after her two and a half twisting back sommie to punch layout front sommie with full twist, but she performed a clean piked full-in and double piked back dismount, and so she saved her lead. Mustafina had a world class set; arabian double tucked front sommie; two and a half twisting back sommie to punch layout front with full twist; back sommie with one and a half twist to punch rudi; triple twist. Even though she performed well (only going out of bounds after her Arabian double), she could not catch Huang. Mitchell had a nice piked full-in and arabian double tucked front sommie to deer leap. The final competitor for women was Uemura; she performed well, including back sommie with one and a half twists to punch rudi; double twisting layout front; and tucked double back sommie, but she put her hands down on her double pike dismount. She looked a little tired from the pressure of this big meet in her home country.


Finally, Huang won the first Japan Cup and the two Russian, Mustafina and Nabieva, followed her for the silver and bronze.