End of an Era
One of the biggest stories of this championships is that neither of the reigning World All Around Champions will be competing to keep their titles this year.
On the women’s side, Simone Biles took a break from training following her Olympic success last year, so has not entered this competition.
On the men’s side I am sorry to report that “King” Kohei Uchimura damaged his left ankle on his Vault landing during qualifications, stirring an old injury. A determined competitor, he continued to his third event, P-Bars, despite finding it difficult to walk. However after completing his routine, landing his dismount mostly on his right leg, he decided it would be best for his health to pull out of the remainder of the competition. This means his 8 year streak as the world’s best gymnast (6x World Champion, 2x Olympic Champion) will come to an end on Thursday.
Kohei’s persistent dominance in the MAG AA field will not be forgotten quickly. A record of 8 major championship wins in a row has never been done before, and will be near impossible for any individual gymnast to repeat or beat. But this is not the end for Kohei by any means. Speaking to NBC, he apologised to those who have supported him in Montreal and reiterated his goal to compete at the Olympics in his home country, in 2020. I wish him the speediest of recoveries and good luck for the next steps in his career.
New World Champions
So who will replace Simone and Kohei as the new World champions?By 0.001, Mai Murakami (JPN) leads after qualifications, heading up a pack of contenders to succeed Simone Biles: https://t.co/f5BA177sK1 pic.twitter.com/L1Dn5LkTP3
— FIG Media (@FIG_media) October 5, 2017
Sadly, there is more bad news to be told here. Fan-favourite Larisa Iordache, who medalled in the all around competition at the last 2 world championships, was also injured during the qualification rounds. The Romanian Gymnastics Federation reported that she tore her achilles tendon during the warm ups.
I never thought that I am so loved. I want to thank you so much for all the support, the messages and simply everything. I love you all. ❤
— Larisa Iordache (@Larisa_Iordache) October 4, 2017
The all around gold medal will be an extremely close call. As you can see from the tweet above, the top two placed gymnasts in qualifications- Mai Murakami and Ragan Smith- were a mere thousandth of a point apart!
On the men’s side perhaps Kenzo Shirai will make it another Japanese MAG champion for his teammate? Or maybe Oleg Verniaiev, who took the MAG silver at the Rio Olympic Games, will make the most of this opportunity?
The top five gymnasts from the AA qualification for WAG and MAG were:Women:
- Mai Murakami, JPN
- Ragan Smith, USA
- Ellie Black, CAN
- Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos, FRA
- Elena Eremina, RUS
Men:
- Manrique Larduet, CUB
- Ruoteng Xiao, CHN
- David Belyavskiy, RUS
- Kenzo Shirai, JPN
- Oleg Verniaiev, UKR
Previous Event Champions
For the individual event finals, the following gymnasts are still on track to defend their titles from the last World Championships (in 2015):
MAG
Kenzo Shirai- Floor. Max Whitlock- Pommel Horse (also 2016 Olympic Floor champion) Eleftherios Petrounias- Rings (also 2016 Olympic Rings Champion)WAG
Maria Paseka- Vault. Fan Yilin- BarsAll of the above gymnasts are securely on track to defend their previous World titles, as they not only qualified for the finals but each one of them qualified for their final in first position! (With the exception of Fan Yilin who qualified for the Bars final in 3rd position).
Other big names in the finals include 2016 Olympic Parallel Bars Champion Oleg Verniaiev (MAG) who qualified in first on P.Bars, and 2012 Olympic High Bar Champion Epke Zonderland who qualified in first on H.Bar.
Your British Finalists
Your British gymnasts remain healthy and happy! (#TouchWood) Although there are no team results at a World Championships that follows an Olympic Games, you can get ready to cheer on the following British gymnasts who have officially qualified for Individual finals:
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Max WhitlockFinal: Pommel Horse When: 7th October Qualified in: 1st position Score: 15.300 Watch: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/41483232 |
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Nile WilsonFinal: All Around When: 5th October Qualified in: 8th position Score: 83.832 Also: 1st Reserve for the High Bar final (8th Oct), 3rd Reserve for the Floor final (7th Oct) |
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Courtney TullochFinal: Rings When: 7th October Qualified in: 6th position Score: 14.766 |
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Claudia FragapaneFinal: Floor When: 8th October Qualified in: 4th position Score: 13.933 Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZJKVwyVS3w |
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Amy TinklerFinal: All Around When: 6th October Qualified in: 13th position Score: 52.831 Also: 3rd reserve for the Vault final (7th Oct) |
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Alice KinsellaFinal: All Around When: 6th October Qualified in: 24th position Score: 51.365 |
You may also be interested to know that former British team member Reiss Beckford, now competing for Jamaica, is second reserve for the all around final, in 26th position.
How to Follow
Now here’s how to make sure you catch all the finals action: Twitter: @BritGymnastics, @Gymnastics, @ZoneGymnastics, @JemPin515 Official Scores: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/schedule.php?idevent=13465 Official Website: https://mtl2017gymcan.com/en/home/ BBC Television Schedule:| Competition | Channel | Date | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men's AA Final LIVE | BBC 2 | 6th October | 00:00-03:00 |
| Men's AA Final Highlights | BBC 2 | 6th October | 13:45-15:15 |
| Women's AA Final Live | BBC 2 | 6th October | 0:00-03:00 |
| Women's AA Final Highlights | BBC 1 | 7th October | 13:15-14:15 |
| Day 1 Apparatus Finals (MAG: FX-PH-SR; WAG: VT-UB) | Red Button & Online | 7th October | 18:30-21:00 |
| Day 1 Apparatus Finals Highlights | BBC 2 | 8th October | 15:00-17:00 |
| Day 2 Apparatus Finals (MAG: VT-PB-HB; WAG: BB-FX) | Red Button & Online | 8th October | 18:00-21:00 |
| Day 2 Apparatus Finals Highlights | BBC 2 | 9th October | 13:45-15:15 |
And finally...
Here are 4 more things you may want to know:- New tie-break rules
Last world championships finished with a 4-way tie for WAG Bars Champion! New rules mean this will not happen again.
2015 WAG World Championship Final Bars ResultsIf you see gymnasts given the same score in the Finals then ties will be broken using the highest execution (E) score. If this is the same then the difficulty (D) score will be used to break the tie instead. In the All Around competition ties will be broken by taking the total from each gymnast’s best 3 (WAG) or 5 (MAG) apparatus scores.
- Nadia Comăneci scored her historic perfect 10 here in Montreal, 40 years ago, helping gymnastics soar in popularity.
She is therefore official spokesperson for this championships, and a new public space has been opened and dedicated to her to mark the occasion and her return to the stadium.
- 16 new elements!
16 new skills have been submitted this championships, to be added to the Code of Points if their owners complete them successfully in competition. One of these is “the Fenton” from our very own Georgia-Mae!
Learn more on the 9 new WAG elements here: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/news_display.php?idevent=13465&idnews=1902&keyword= And learn about the 7 new MAG elements here: https://live.fig-gymnastics.com/news_display.php?idevent=13465&idnews=1896&keyword=- Extra gymnast in the MAG Floor final
Although the maximum number of gymnasts per final is 8 (unless there are ties), due to a problem with the equipment (a hole under the floor) the judges have allowed Tomas Gonzalez (CHI) to be added to the Men’s Floor final, after he submitted an appeal. This is very unusual!
I could talk more about all the scoring changes (Have you noticed Beam scores are much lower?) and further individual triumphs and tragedies- but this wasn't meant to be a novel so I'll end it here!
If you enjoyed reading this blog please let me know on Twitter @zonegymnastics or @jempin515. I hope you enjoy the rest of the World Championships. Go GB!