4 posts tagged “china”
My opinion: Too busy. Too much going on. The first one I do like more than the red/gold/blue one. And I like the cheongsam design of it, too. But at least it's something different from the egg and tomato ones they've been wearing for so long.
Linky-poos: 1 and 2
Juniors:
- When Rebecca Bross broke her foot and couldn't compete at Nationals, everybody predicted that Jordyn Wieber was going to run away with the competition. After preliminaries, Wieber is...well, winning. But Samantha Shapiro is not making it easy! Shapiro was actually leading the competition with her precision, grace, and poise (and that 15.75 on BB sure didn't hurt), despite Wieber's big tricks. It wasn't until nearly the end of the competition that Wieber took the lead by .1. Day 2 will definitely be interesting between these two.
- Randi Lau had a good night; solid and with good form. She looks to be on her way to making her first National Team.
Seniors:
- Shawn is leading. Big surprise. She also received the biggest gifts of the night, what with her whip-triple being not being fully rotated, her Rudi and Amanar kind of iffy, and her splits still not where they should be for the Olympic favorite. And seriously, what the hell was she wearing? That leo was pure chaos. In fabric form. Oh, and everybody who reads this has to take a large swig of the liquor of their choice if she shows up on Day 2 with any hanzi (Chinese characters) on her leotard.
- Jana Bieger 2008 Nationals = Natasha Kelley 2007 Nationals in terms of scoring.
- Chellsie Memmel is kicking some definite booty. Her sets are still watered down, but she's making her case.
- Alicia Sacramone needs to get back into a competition state of mind. She had a nice long break, but vacation's over. I agree with those who said that she didn't quite seem herself.
- WTF happened to Priess? Why'd she drop out and retire at the 11th hour?
- Shayla is also out of Nationals and is petitioning to Trials. Since Priess is out, her status is back up (it was slipping dangerously out of reach because her only ticket was UB), but being constantly broken and leaving camps and comps early is not making it better.
- Mattie Larson is still not consistent enough to warrant a spot on the team, but she'll be at Trials. And her gymnastics is as lovely as her AOGC clubmate Shapiro.
- Ivana Hong is a huge disappointment. The double front on FX is impressive and I definitely had my doubts about her getting it around, but her bars are abysmal and her best events are more than covered already by the O-Team locks. Plus, the DTY, the one thing that could have won TPTB over was majorly flawed. She'll get to Trials and probably the selection camp, but alternate will likely be the highest attainable position she'll get. Hopefully Day 2 is better. Her gymnastics is still pretty, though.
- Nastia, Nastia, Nastia. We understood the meltdown at Nats last year. You're supposed to be healthy and better this year. WTF is with the UB dismount? That shizz is just fugly. The FX isn't improving. In fact, it almost seems to be regressing. And methinks you need a new BB mount or to speed the one you have up because you're dangerously close to going overtime and you're not holding the scale long enough.
- It's starting to look more and more that ScAm was a fluke for Samantha Peszek. She was shaky, to say the least, here. Given the rumor that Janssen-Fritsen equipment (that is, what will be used in Beijing) was disguised to look like AAI equipment (that is, who USAG (and Nastia Liukin) has deals with) and that Peszek has issues with anything but AAI equipment, plus the fact that Peszek always had consistency issues, I'm not surprised. But no matter. She's on the team, barring injury or her performances on the level of FUBAR.
- Darlene Hill has quite a few injuries and is backing off in order to prevent some of them from getting worse. She scratched bars and only got a 12.75 on BB after two falls. This does not help her case, as endearing as she is.
- Bridget Sloan competed only two events, BB and UB, and put up a 15.2 and 15.75, respectively. Word on the street that she's probably on the team, barring further injury or meltdown. These scores, especially the UB, would cement her spot.
- While I realize China kind of backed the U.S. against the wall with their overscoring at their Internal Test Event and Nationals, I wish the U.S. was scoring more fairly and closer to what the girls would score internationally. Overscoring the stars and busting the
ballsovaries of the unliked does no favors.
So apparently China held an internal test event recently. News to you? To me, too. Wenshuli from one of the gym boards graciously provided information. The girls were divided into two teams: blue/white & red/yellow.
Jiang Yuyuan (my favorite of the Chinese; she's so cute!) does indeed have an Amanar (15.7). But her overall AA score wasn't where it needs to be if she's going to contend for an AA medal.
Cheng Fei won FX and VT, of course. Was there any doubt?
He Kexin broke 17 on UB.
Li Shanshan has a 7.3 BB A score, but was wobbly. The Olympic BB gold would be hers to lose, but she's so inconsistent. Not to mention that her inconsistency could lose her spot on the O-Team.
Deng Linlin (also adorable) won the AA with a DTY and a 7.0 BB A score.
Xiao Sha also had a 7.0 on BB and won the event.
Sui Lu (?) has a 6.4 on FX and 7.1 on BB. I have no idea who she is.
Yang Yilin's foot is still injured, so she only competed UB. Did well, placing second.
Pang Panpan was 4th AA. She has a FTY, but a 7.1 UB A score.
Not much about Zhou Zhuoru. Zhang Nan is fit, but without much difficulty (this does not bode well for my hopes). Same could be said about He Ning.
Pictures:
http://sports.qq.com/a/20080423/000664.htm
http://sports.qq.com/a/20080423/000652.htm
It's looking more and more like it'll be China's gold to lose.
Ask gymn fans who their favorite beam worker is and I'll guarantee that
the name that'll pop up most often will be Yang Bo. They just don't
make 'em like her anymore.
Wonderful! Can I get a double?
Magnificent (aside from the slight wobble after her signature leap)!
Very graceful, hips are squared to the beam, everything is precise, and her signature leap, as well as all her other leap and jumps, are wonderful and get plenty of height. Yang Bo had only one flaw and that was she couldn't hit when it really counted (namely BB EFs). She's known as the best "beamer" to not have won gold, which is just criminal.
Whether it was a wobble and an outright fall:
Or a great routine up until the dismount:
She just faltered for some reason and that's just a tragedy. But it just proves that a gold medal doesn't necessarily prove that you'll go down in history as one of the best. Nearly two decades past her heyday and we all remember Yang Bo as the quintessential standard beam performer.
