REPORT for Women's Individual AA - DAY2

As well as the team all-around, Japan and Russia were going head to head, considering that Russia and Japan were 4th and 5th respectively in the Beijing Olympics.

Tsurumi, the bronze medallist in the 2009 world championships, was a good target, not only for the two Russians, Afanasyeva and Mustafina, but also for her teammate, Shintake, who was also a 2008 Olympian. Shintake was the only top gymnast who was in the second group, but the other three started the competition from vault in the first group.

The two Russians took an easy lead performing double twisting Yurchenko; Afanasyeva stuck her landing with great height, and Mustafina almost stuck her landing, too. Tsurumi had a large step backward on her landing of full twisting Yurchenko. Shintake, on uneven bars, hit her clean routine with her Stalder-full to Gienger and Endo-full to Jaeger combinations. She almost stuck her landing.

In the second rotation, Shintake hit her routine on balance beam. Her minor mistake was a switch ring leap (a little short) but she stuck her landing of double pike dismount. On uneven bars, Afanasyeva did a sole circle with half turn to piked Jaeger, Tkchev to Park, and full-out dismount. Tsurumi could not perform a Tkachev after her Ono turn with another half turn, and her routine was a little nervous but did not have any big mistakes. Mustafina showed her Maloney-half, piked Jaeger, piked stalder-full to Tkachev. She stuck her full-in dismount.

Tsurumi started the third rotation on beam. She was nervous on her Onodi and she had a big hesitation (almost an under rotation) because she had missed her Onodi in the team all-around. She, however, stuck her two and a half twist dismount. Mustafina fell on her tucked Arabian and could not connect ff to layout stepout after front aerial. Afanasyeva was solid and powerful; tucked Arabian; front aerial, ff, layout stepout; tour jete with a half turn; Onodi; side aerial with two foot landing; tucked double dismount. Her dismount was extremely high and she stuck the landing easily. Shintake, on floor, went out of bounds on her two and a half twist in her first pass, but stuck her double pike dismount. At this moment, Afanasyeva took the lead over Tsurumi, and Shintake was in third with a small margin over Mustafina.

In the last rotation, on floor, Mustafina performed a tucked Arabian double for her mount, and two and a half twist to punch tucked front full in the second pass. She nailed the landing on her triple twist dismount. She waited for Shintake's vault. Shintake needed to stick her landing to get a good score, but she stepped over the line on her landing on her one and a half twisting Yurchenko. This mistake cost her first place to Mustafina. While Korea's Jo tried a double twisting Yurchenko aggressively (low and put her hands down, though), Afanasyeva kept the lead with her strong routine: double layout mount; two whips, ff, triple twist (with a big hop); one and a half twist to punch front with full twist; double turn with her leg horizontal backward; double pike dismount. The height on each somersault was the best of all without doubt. She scored 14.650, which left Tsurumi a large margin to win the title. Tsurumi, however, hit her routine almost perfectly: she stuck her tucked full-in mount, one and a half twist; Rudi; double pike dismount. Even though her execution was beautiful, her low D score kept her below Afanasyeva.

As a result, Afanasyeva won her first Japan Cup's individual all-around, and Tsurumi took a silver medal. Mustafina entered third place, winning her second individual all-around medal. Shintake came close to a medal position but placed fourth. However, this would make her more confident than ever.

by Toshiaki Fujii