Fabian Hambüchen seems to be very busy after he tore his achilles tendon in January. After the Foreign Office has lifted the travel warnings for Tokyo in early May, he took a short trip to his Japanese training partners and friends. In contrast to his teammates Philipp Boy and Marcel Nguyen and head coach Andreas Hirsch, Hambüchen is very happy about the decision that Worlds this year will be in Tokyo. According to him, everything is normal again in Tokyo. Then he appeared at the RTB-Pokal in Bergisch-Gladbach, a competition for young German gymnasts (ages 9 to 11). And finally, he did a little bit karate in Reutlingen with the team who won the competition “Sterne des Sports”. More appearances are planned for next month. Actually, he seems to be comfortable with a comeback after Worlds, just in time for the 2012 Olympics.
Archive for May, 2011
Fabian Hambüchen does karate and more
May 30, 2011Mustafina is training again
May 29, 2011Actually, I’m not sure if anyone else linked to this video already – I found it on YouTube today. (update: Yes, it has been already posted on Mustafina’s own website.) It seems to be a report filmed on 13/14 May at the Russian training centre. It’s wonderful to see Aliya Mustafina doing some simple condition skills on bars and even some tumbling floor (??) – well, I guess that’s before the injury.
Click play or watch the Russian girls on YouTube:
Here’s another piece in English about her at the Moscow World Cup. Click play or watch it on YouTube:
2011 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships – Gold for Belarus
May 29, 2011Surprisingly, Evgenia Kanaeva did not win every final, but “only” hoop and ribbon. Belarussian gymnast Liubou Charkashyna placed first with the ball and the clubs.
Liubou Charkashyna from Belarus
HOOP
1. Evgenia Kanaeva – 29.450
2. Daria Kondakova – 29.025
3. Liubou Charkashyna – 28.200
BALL
1. Liubou Charkashyna – 28.450
2. Evgenia Kanaeva – 28.350
3. Daria Dmitrieva – 27.575
CLUBS
1. Liubou Charkashyna – 28.300
2. Neta Rivkin (ISR) – 27.900
3. Alina Maksymenko (UKR) – 27.525
RIBBON
1. Evgenia Kanaeva – 29.275
2. Daria Kondakova – 29.075
3. Silviya Miteva (BUL) – 27.825
The junior group from Russia won the apparatus final with the ropes. Belarus placed second, Azerbaijan third.
results – senior apparatus finals / junior group rope
Watch the 2011 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships live!
May 28, 2011The blog Zhenya Kanaeva Gymnasium linked to a livestream of the Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships. Tomorrows competition will be broadcast live from 14:55 – 16:00 (EEST?). Plus they posted a photo of Kanaeva’s beautiful black leotard which she wore for the routine with the hoop and some really useful links. Click through to read the whole post about the Europeans!
Livestream / training photos / competition photos / live scoring
Rhythmic European Championships 2011 – Russia’s first gold
May 28, 2011Evgenia Kanaeva, Daria Dmitrieva and Daria Kondakova won the team competition at the second day of the 2011 Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships held in Minsk this weekend. Russia placed ahead of Belarus and the Ukraine.
Kanaeva qualified first for all apparatus finals except for clubs – her teammate Daria Kondakova got the highest score. This competition also served as the qualifying event for the next Individual European Championships 2012. The best 20 gymnasts qualify for 2012.
Take two minutes to watch Kanaeva’s wonderful hoop routine. Click play or on YouTube:
results – team / 2012 individual qualifiers
start list for tomorrow – apparatus finals
Rhythmic ECh 2011 – Evgenia Kanaeva leads the qualifications
May 28, 2011
Unsurprisingly, the Russian team – Evgenia Kanaeva, Daria Dmitrieva and Daria Kondakova – dominated the first part of the team competition as well as the qualification for the two first apparatus finals at the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships 2011 in Minsk. Evgenia Kanaeva qualified first with both apparatus, the ball and the hoop, scoring both times over 29 points. Kondakova qualified second with the hoop, Dmitrieva second with the ball. Belarus and the Ukrainian team followed on the second and third place in the qualification of the team competition.
Click play or watch Evgenia Kanaevas super difficult, flawless ball routine (29.350) on YouTube:
The host country, Belarus, defeated Russia in the junior group (not team!) division by 0.05 points. Israel placed third followed by Azerbaijan, Bulgaria and Italy.
competition results – junior group
qualification results – ball / hoop / teams (after day 1 of 2)
You can find all the important information on the ueg-gymnastics website. Unfortunately, the translation of the official website doesn’t really work for me.
New leotards, leotards, leotards
May 27, 2011The new spring collections of the three big brands Milano, GK Elite and Christian Moreau are online – it’s time for a new “best and worst never worn leotards”! And this time, I also took a look at AlphaFactor‘s website. In fact, I even tried to get my hands on some new Italian leotards, designed by the brand Freddy, but couldn’t find anything in the web. Is it even possible for gymnasts to buy Ferrari’s, Ferlito’s and Fasana’s competition leotards?
Okay, let’s start with Milano.
"Madonna Bodice"
It was only a question of time until they would do something like this. Though it’s named after the Queen of Pop it’s still very simple – without the crucifix it would look like another normal workout leo. If they put some sleeves on it, Tina Erceg could make another statement at Worlds.
"Ribbon"
This one is for the girls who still cannot really decide whether they want to do rhythmic or artistic gymnastics. So even though they’re performing double backs on floor, it will look as if they’re swaying (?) the ribbon. I actually really like it – not too much colour, not too many rhinestones. I could see Nastia Liukin in this one for her comeback (if there will be a comeback) – it has pink in it but is still age apropriate.
Let’s see what GK Elite designed.
"Luv Pink Tank Leotard"
Gymnasts who aren’t very popular in their gym might like this one. It looks as if someone already spilled out a whole bottle of cherry juice on the leo, so nobody will do it again. Haley Graham in ‘Stick it’ should have worn this leo at her first competition after leaving Worlds.
"Black multi color Leotard"
Is this Miss Kyla Ross? Somehow I’m a fan of black or dark blue leos with a few colors on it – probably because they don’t hurt my eyes as so many of the other bright, shiny, neon colored gk-leotards. It reminds me of the 2010 Supergirlcup-leo.
Now, it’s time for Christian Moreau.
"Ibo"
Normally I always find one or two really special leotards in the new collections. But not this time. Why, oh, why do they design sleeveless, high-necked leos? The model above looks like she’s wearing a bib. I hope I won’t see anyone is this leotard.
Last but not least is AlphaFactor. I didn’t know about the brand for some time. When I first opened their website, the overhappily grinning Courtney Kupets scared me a little bit. She holds the scrunchie in her hand as if she wants to tell me that she’ll choke everyone with it who won’t buy a leotard.
"Aria"
Even though this leo does not have as much sheer texture as others, it’s all in the wrong places. But I guess this wouldn’t bother Adela Sajn – quite the contrary.
"Timeless"
She might like this one, too. But I could also see Catalina Ponor wearing this one for her highly-expected comeback. In my opinion, it says too much figure skating / evening gown than gymnastics.
"Venetian"
This leotard has a really beautiful neckline. Unfortunately, it seems as if the designers didn’t have any time left to design the lower part of it, so they just put a fence of rhinestones on it and called it a day.
Elite gymnast = Movie star (5)
May 26, 2011
Gymnastics for now and then
May 25, 2011Yes, it’s been a while. Meanwhile they changed the layout of the wordpress Dashboard, so everything looks a bit strange, but it feels good to focus solely on gymnastics for some minutes/hours.
Though I didn’t blog a lot in the past weeks, I still followed the best sport in the world, mainly on Examiner, GymnasticsCoaching and of course The Couch Gymnast. This website gets better and better. My favourite post of the past weeks on TCG:
Can we find another narrative for gymnastics?
Another highlight is Spanny Tampson writing about Make it or Break it. Somehow I always found time to read these long fantastic reviews. I don’t watch the show, I only read the posts, it’s hilarious! Though I’m not a fan of MIOBI, I hope they make another season just so we can read about it on Spanny’s Big Fake Smile.
And if you haven’t seen the short film about Oksana Chusovitina posted by GymnasticsCoaching, you should. I actually learned a few new things: After the 1992 Olympics and after winning the gold medal, Chuso first wanted to quit the sport and went only three times per week in the gym, but after a while her body told her that she can and wants to continue. Fortunately! Today, she only goes to the gym if she’s in a good mood – if not, she’ll just stay home. And she might even continue until the 2016 Olympics!
