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ARTISTIC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS APPARATUS FINALS DAY 2

USA ACHIEVE 1-2 AGAIN WITH RECORD MEDALS HAUL AT WORLD’S! FINAL MEDAL TABLE AND REPORTS HERE! 

LIUKIN WINS 2ND WORLD TITLE IN DEBUT AND 4 MEDALS AS ALICIA ALSO CLAIMS GOLD ON FLOOR!

WOMEN’S FLOOR FINALS

WORLD TITLE FOR ALICIA! 

A fantastic atmosphere which built to a crescendo as news came that Australia’s favourite gymnast was to appear in the Floor Final following the sad with drawl of Great Britain’s Beth Tweddle after Beth scraped her knee during yesterday’s A-Bars Final. Beth must have been so disappointed after qualifying in 5th place, but she has had a fantastic World Championships winning bronze on Bars and 4th in the All Around, and helping GB achieve our best ever results at World’s. 

The predominantly Aussie crowd were buzzing with anticipation. Would Monette bring home another medal in front of her home town fans following her bronze in the All Around? We did not have long to wait as the noise was deafening as the gymnasts were announced!

Nastia Liukin ( USA ) - The new USA sensation at these World Championships has a very Russian style with beautiful elegant dance influenced by her Russian Choreographer, combined with strong tumbling sequences. Her forte is her powerful twisting tumbling runs as all of her tumbles involve variations of twists rather than multiple somersaults. Her first tumble was handspring, straight front into 2 and a half twists. 2nd Tumble Round off triple twist and her 3rd two and a half twists to score 9.425 from a start value of 9.900. Would it be enough for Gold?

Alicia Sacramone ( USA )- Very powerful and dynamic routine, began with double tucked Arabian followed by half in, half out. So far very solid tumbles. Her 3rd tumble was 2 and a half twists through to straight front demonstrating greater variety in her tumbles. The crowd held it’s breath as Alicia had a medal within her grasp in her first World Championships. Her final tumble was triple twist and she nailed her landing with a superb performance to earn a 9.612 from a Start Value of 10.00.   

Elena Zamolodchikova ( Russia) - Qualified in 6th place and opened with her double straight followed by full twisting front step out through to double pike displaying very modern style choreography. Her third tumble of triple twist to end with full in back out. We felt that this was not quite her best performance and the judges agreed awarding Elena 9.162 from a relatively low SV of 9.700.

Monette Russo ( Australia ) - The audience erupted as Monette stepped up, with two very strong opening tumbles both were full in back out in the tucked and piked positions. But her middle tumble was weaker, with only a whip back and flic through to double pike. The noise was deafening as Monette completed a good routine, but she had not yet displayed the power of Sacramone or the grace of Liukin. Monette received a 9.100 from SV of 9.700, but her bronze in the AA promises a fascinating battle with Beth in next year’s Commonwealth Games.

Emilie Le Pennec ( France) - Qualified in 4th place on Floor and opened with full in back out in the piked position. Her second tumble was a disappointing two and a half twists into tuck front but she did not have enough power and sat the front somersault down. The third tumble was triple twist, a good routine but lacked the powerful tumbling and choreography of earlier competitors.

Suzanne Harmes ( Netherlands ) - Qualified in 8th place but unusually for Harmes she appeared a little shaky on jump landings, however included an excellent clean triple twist to score 9.212 from her SV of 10.0 and earn a place on the Podium in bronze position.

We were very disappointed to see Diane Dos Santos ( Brazil ) down in 7th place with only an 8.837 after her excellent performances in the past. Overall Nastia Liukin and Alicia Sacramone who really stood out, Liukin for her beauty and poise, and Sacramone for her power and steely determination. Another USA 1-2 and a well deserved Gold Medal for Alicia and Silver for Nastia.

WOMEN’S BEAM FINALS 2005

NASTIA CLAIMS HER SECOND WORLD TITLE IN ANOTHER USA 1-2!

Teen sensation Nastia Liukin claimed her second World Title in 2 days, just a month after her 16th birthday in an emotional Final where only 2 gymnasts per nation could qualify. And Olympic Champion Catalina Ponor was not happy with the judges!

Zhang Nan ( China) - Qualified in 8th place and 3rd in the All Around in Athens and the last World Championships in Anaheim. She began with a good, high front somersault and linked a sheep jump to a full twisting Korbut flic. Zhang also performed free walkover through to flic, layout to finish with a stuck double tuck dismount. Overall, apart from a few balance checks, it was a good routine and received 9.487 to set a good opening standard

Chellsie Memmel ( USA ) - The newly crowned All Around World Champion opened with a very impressive front somersault half turn. Chellsie also includes very difficult jumps full turn straddle jump and a very high standing Arabian somersault as she packs in the difficulty. Her beautiful front somi, flic layout combination to finish with double piked somersault but took a hop on landing. Overall a good routine with higher difficulty than Zhang Nan but perhaps lacked her grace. Memmel received a 9.512 to take her into first position.   

Catalina Ponor ( Romania) -  The Olympic Champion on Beam, Floor and Team and qualified for the Beam Final in 1st place with a 9.562 which would be good enough to take the World Title if she could repeat her performance, following her Silver Medal in Anaheim.  Unfortunately Catalina had a disappointing opening with a half twisting flic through to free walkover but had to take a balance check and could not link the flic, one armed flic to layout which followed. However Catalina recovered to perform full twisting flic, flic, to straight somersault and stuck her double piked dismount. Ponor still displayed the class of her performance in Athens and overall a good routine but failed to sell the routine as she had in Athens with her stand out performance.  Heavily penalised by the judges who awarded her a 9.500 and Catalina was visibly disappointed with her score.

Monette Russo ( Australia ) - The second final of the day and bronze medalist in the AA. Monette opened with a flic, layout, layout but wavered a little at the end. However she showed much more confidence on her full twisting tuck jump to full twisting Korbut flic. She performed some amazing change leg leaps showing terrific amplitude. Her dismount was flic to 1, flic to 2, double tuck but unfortunately had to take a step back on landing. She didn’t include quite as much difficulty as Memmel and Ponor but performed very well especially with the added pressure of a noisy home crowd to score 9.462.

Nastia Liukin ( USA ) - Second in the All Around and started with a very determined flic, layout, layout. Already after her opening sequence, you could see she was going to pose a very strong challenge. She executed a perfect cat leap to side somersault and also includes a half twisting flic and free walkover to a sheep jump. So far very sure inch perfect and so sure footed. She has the elegance of her Mother and power of her Father, both of whom were Olympians. Liukin finished with a triple twist dismount but did not quite make her triple to land a two and three quarter, but she oozed class and confidence throughout her routine. She displayed the difficulty of Ponor and added her own touch of elegance with her long lines to score a 9.612 and become the new World Champion on Beam!

It was disappointing to see Anna Pavlova down in 6th place with 8.762 and China’s Fan Ye in 8th place with only 8.025.

Overall a good competition with strong challenges for the honour of becoming a World Champion, and yet another USA Gold and Silver for Liukin and Memmel as the USA continue to dominate the World Championhips.  

World Championships Reports by Natasha Summerfield