Russia's MAG didn't have the greatest qualifications yesterday, with Ablyazin, Garibov, and Kuksenkov all failing to make their individual event finals. It was that kind of day for lots of gymnasts. For example, the whole world gasped as pommel horse specialist Kristian Berki took a fall and missed out on his expected place in Saturday's final. Gymnasts such as Britain's Daniel Keatings and Ukraine's Oleg Vernaiev and Igor Radivilov all took disappointments.
It is the job of gymnasts to put their necks on the line and perform their best when the green light shines. Gymnastics, more than any other sport, is brutally efficient at weeding out those who are unready for those vital few minutes of performance, either mentally or physically. And sometimes gymnasts just have a bit of bad luck.
Nevertheless, there is some light on the horizon as Alexander Balandin qualified to rings final, showing his newly accredited element and some great style. He is in fourth position at the end of qualifying. Newcomer to the Russian team, Mattvei Petrov, also qualified to pommel horse in 6th position.
Russia's only all arounder, David Belyavski, qualified to the all around in 14th position. It was a difficult day for him. I have read that his injured foot was very painful; he was unable to perform his full programme of difficulty and made many mistakes. Japan's Kohei Uchimura was utterly dominant and is expected to take the gold barring major errors.
You can navigate the men's scores from here.
The women's qualifying is still underway, resuming this afternoon at 1.30 pm Antwerp time with subdivision 3, which includes Tanya Nabieva and Simone Biles. Russia's WAG team will be building on the performances of young Anna Rodionova, who was quite the breath of fresh air at this competition yesterday and must surely be in contention for the Longines Prize for Elegance. She has set an all around score of 54.599, which will be a target for Nabieva if she competes four apparatus (and there is some doubt about this after Tanya suffered an accident in training which has left her with a huge bruise in the middle of her forehead).
Anna's score on beam of 14.466 also puts her in very strong contention for a place in Sunday's beam final. How nice to see a Russian gymnast perform with confidence on this piece and there is much room for improvement in her D score if she can connect some of the elements shown yesterday without error.
If you aren't in America and so cannot follow the live streaming which is on USA Gymnastics Youtube channel, you can follow live scoring at the FIG website. Start lists for the WAG qualifying are here.
The FIG is updating its Youtube channel regularly with some great quality videos of routines from qualifying so I would keep this open as you follow live scoring this afternoon. In the meantime, I will leave you with two happy moments from Russia so far.
Anna Rodionova Beam, Qualifying, 14.466
Alexander Balandin, Rings, Qualifying, 15.6
It is the job of gymnasts to put their necks on the line and perform their best when the green light shines. Gymnastics, more than any other sport, is brutally efficient at weeding out those who are unready for those vital few minutes of performance, either mentally or physically. And sometimes gymnasts just have a bit of bad luck.
Nevertheless, there is some light on the horizon as Alexander Balandin qualified to rings final, showing his newly accredited element and some great style. He is in fourth position at the end of qualifying. Newcomer to the Russian team, Mattvei Petrov, also qualified to pommel horse in 6th position.
Russia's only all arounder, David Belyavski, qualified to the all around in 14th position. It was a difficult day for him. I have read that his injured foot was very painful; he was unable to perform his full programme of difficulty and made many mistakes. Japan's Kohei Uchimura was utterly dominant and is expected to take the gold barring major errors.
You can navigate the men's scores from here.
The women's qualifying is still underway, resuming this afternoon at 1.30 pm Antwerp time with subdivision 3, which includes Tanya Nabieva and Simone Biles. Russia's WAG team will be building on the performances of young Anna Rodionova, who was quite the breath of fresh air at this competition yesterday and must surely be in contention for the Longines Prize for Elegance. She has set an all around score of 54.599, which will be a target for Nabieva if she competes four apparatus (and there is some doubt about this after Tanya suffered an accident in training which has left her with a huge bruise in the middle of her forehead).
Anna's score on beam of 14.466 also puts her in very strong contention for a place in Sunday's beam final. How nice to see a Russian gymnast perform with confidence on this piece and there is much room for improvement in her D score if she can connect some of the elements shown yesterday without error.
If you aren't in America and so cannot follow the live streaming which is on USA Gymnastics Youtube channel, you can follow live scoring at the FIG website. Start lists for the WAG qualifying are here.
The FIG is updating its Youtube channel regularly with some great quality videos of routines from qualifying so I would keep this open as you follow live scoring this afternoon. In the meantime, I will leave you with two happy moments from Russia so far.
Anna Rodionova Beam, Qualifying, 14.466
Alexander Balandin, Rings, Qualifying, 15.6