USA Gymnastics announced the field set for this year’s AT&T American Cup, to be held in Newark, N.J. on March 5.

In addition to the previously-announced American gymnasts Gabby Douglas and Maggie Nichols, the women’s field will include Lorrane Oliveira of Brazil, Ellie Black of Canada, Amy Tinkler of Great Britain, Tabea Alt of Germany, Carlotta Ferlito of Italy, Mai Murakami of Japan, and Tisha Volleman of the Netherlands.

All gymnasts set to compete have worlds experience with the exception of Alt, a first-year senior in 2016 who won the German junior national all-around title last year and the junior European beam bronze in 2014. She is expected to be a big help for the German program, and the American Cup will mark her senior debut.

Oliveira is the 2015 Brazilian national champion, Black is the 2015 Pan American Games and Canadian all-around champion, Tinkler is the 2015 British national champion and world team bronze medalist, Ferlito is the 2015 Italian national beam champion, Murakami was the silver medalist at the All-Japan Student Championships last year who stepped in as the second alternate at worlds and finished sixth in the all-around, and Volleman – the Dutch junior national champion in 2014 – helped her country qualify a full team to the Olympic Games at last year’s worlds, putting up hit routines on three events.

As always, you can expect tweaks and changes for this event straight up until the week before as athletes deal with injuries and other setbacks at this typically awkward early point in the elite season. But overall, while the American women should have a somewhat easy time battling it out for the top podium spots here, there could be quite a nice fight for bronze, especially between Black, Tinkler, and Murakami.

For more information and to purchase tickets to the American Cup, please visit the official event website.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

British Gymnastics announced the gymnasts set to compete at this year’s World Cup event in Glasgow, which is the second of three in the FIG World Cup series for 2016.

The competition in Glasgow features a stellar cast of international gymnasts with world championships experience, and includes Maegan Chant of Canada, 2015 world team bronze medalist Claudia Fragapane of Great Britain, Maria Kharenkova of Russia, Enus Mariani of Italy, Kelly Simm of Great Britain, three-time world medalist Mykayla Skinner of the United States, Asuka Teramoto of Japan, Lieke Wevers of the Netherlands, and Xie Yufen of China.

All of the countries represented in Glasgow have qualified full teams to the Olympic Games this summer, and the majority of these gymnasts are those who still have something to prove to their national programs. With the exception of perhaps Wevers and Teramoto, none of these gymnasts are locks for their countries, and that includes Fragapane, who will face tremendous depth in the British team this summer.

Several of these gymnasts – including Chant, Skinner, Mariani, and Xie – were either alternates or left off of their nations’ 2015 worlds teams entirely, and while Simm competed for Great Britain during prelims, the British women’s team elected to not use her in any event during team finals. Kharenkova, meanwhile, was a key member of the Russian team but due to injury, only competed three events in qualifications despite being the 2015 European silver all-around medalist, and was relegated to just beam in finals.

In Glasgow, all of these gymnasts will hope to show their national team coaches that they have something to offer to their Olympic teams in 2016, and in the process, a pretty excellent battle with no clear-cut podium picture should make this a very exciting meet to help kick off the beginning of the elite season.

As a side note, though British Gymnastics announced Skinner’s participation, she could just be the placeholder nominative gymnast for the U.S. team. USA Gymnastics has not confirmed her selection, which will likely be finalized at the women’s national team camp in February (along with several other international assignment spots up for grabs in March, including the Stuttgart World Cup) depending on her readiness. U.S. women’s national team coordinator Martha Karolyi generally sticks with her nominative decisions, but no decision is ever final without her word.

The Glasgow World Cup will be held at the Emirates Arena on March 12. For more information, visit British Gymnastics.

Edit- As of February 1, Chant has withdrawn from the competition due to injury. She will be replaced by teammate Madison Copiak.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

With the love for gymnastics growing in Azerbaijan following the Russian invasion putting them on the map and with the sport’s successful showing at the European Games last summer, Baku is now one of the host cities for the popular FIG World Challenge Cup series, which kicks off February 19.

The challenge cups feature both MAG and WAG competitors from around the world competing on individual events only, with qualifications held followed by the top eight on each event qualifying into finals. In Baku, 21 women and 46 men will contend for titles and prize money while getting valuable experience as they continue to prepare for the Olympic Games. Following Baku, additional challenge cups will be held in Qatar and Germany in March, Slovenia and Croatia in April, Bulgaria and Brazil in May, and Portugal in June.

The host country will feature all four of its elite women, including Yuliya Inshina, Marina Nekrasova, Kristina Pravdina, and Mariia Smirnova, all of whom are hoping to get the one individual spot available to them at the Rio Test Event in April. On the men’s side, the super popular Oleg Stepko is bound to be a big draw for fans, especially after taking home a worlds bronze medal in Glasgow last year.

Brazil’s Rebeca Andrade will make her return to the sport on bars at Baku, joined by fellow Olympic hopeful and test event teammate Flavia Saraiva. Six-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina will represent Uzbekistan, joined by other veteran favorites including Dorina Boczogo of Hungary and Tjasa Kysselef of Slovenia.

The young Israeli Tzuf Feldon, known for her impressive work on beam last season, will also attend, as will fellow 2015 worlds competitors Lisa Ecker and Elisa Hämmerle of Austria, Emma Larsson of Sweden, Dilnoza Abdusalimova of Uzbekistan, and Ekin Morova, Demet Mutlu, and the powerful Tutya Yilmaz of Turkey.

Finally, we’ll also be treated to the senior debuts of Florine Harder and Lina Philipp of Germany as well as Lara Omahen and Lana Voler of Slovenia.

A full list of MAG and WAG participants is below. For more information, visit our coverage guide.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

The gymnasts set to compete in the international session at this year’s WOGA Classic have been confirmed.

17 seniors and 13 juniors will contend this weekend, including three-time world gold medalst and 2015 uneven bars co-champion Madison Kocian alongside fellow Olympic hopeful teammate 2014 world gold medalist Alyssa Baumann. WOGA will also send Irina Alexeeva, who qualified to elite and to the Secret U.S. Classic at the Gliders Invitational over the weekend, as well as elite hopeful Sloane Blakely.

You’ll also recognize some familiar international names on the roster, including the legendary Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, the 40-year-old who is preparing for her seventh Olympic Games after competing in every Games since 1992. She will contend once again at the Olympic test event this April, where she’ll have to compete in the all-around in order to earn a spot, and is using several competitions in the next couple of months to get in some practice along the way.

The powerful vaulter Alexa Moreno of Mexico will also compete, as will Olympic test event contenders Thema Williams and Marisa Dick of Trindad & Tobago, the new Canadian senior Shallon Olsen, French worlds team member Loan His and her first-year senior teammate Oreane Lechenault, worlds team member Thea Nygaard of Norway, and Japan’s top new senior elites Koko Dobashi and Nagi Kajita.

The WOGA Classic, a big weekend for Junior Olympic competitors, will feature its international elite competition on the evening of Saturday February 13 in Frisco, Texas. The full list of competitors is below. For more information, visit our coverage guide.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

The 2016 WOGA Classic was held on February 13 in Frisco, Texas.

Senior All-Around Final Results

Junior All-Around Final Results

The international session at the WOGA Classic is an annual fan favorite, as it’s one of the only meets in the U.S. each year with some international competition. It’s also a relatively low-key meet with everyone getting back into fighting form, so the atmosphere is a bit more forgiving than you might see later on, which makes for an all-around fun meet.

This year’s field included gymnasts from the United States, Canada, Japan, France, Norway, Trinidad & Tobago, Mexico, Uzbekistan, and Belgium, and saw some awesome standout performances from a great mix of athletes from all over the globe. Check out our top eight takeaways from this meet below!

1. Oreane Lechenault’s Brilliant Floor

The French are known for putting out floor choreography that is borderline crazy. And that’s exactly what Oreane Lechenault’s work on floor was here in Frisco. The first-year senior isn’t the strongest tumbler, but she more than makes up for it with innovative dance performed so expressively, so creepily, so awesomely. It’s unlike pretty much any other floor routine, and though I don’t have video from this particular meet, here’s one from late in 2015, though I wish the angle at the beginning was from the opposite side so you could see her face. This was hands-down my favorite routine at WOGA, and Lechenault finished fourth with a 53.2 in her senior debut.

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2. Trinidad & Tobago’s Plot Thickens

If you haven’t heard, there’s been quite a bit of drama for T&T gymnasts Marisa Dick and Thema Williams since worlds. Long story short, T&T promised whoever came out on top in Glasgow would get the nod for the test event, which was Williams. But then they went back and reevaluated and decided to choose at a later date to make sure the best-prepared gymnast was going. Williams’ camp was rightfully upset and went to the press about T&T going back on their word, noting that Williams should be focused on preparing for Rio and now instead she’s focused on earning a spot she already earned. T&T responded by saying the spot would definitely go to Williams, but she and Dick would continue to face internal tests along the way “just in case.” Fishy.

But at the WOGA Classic, Dick actually defeated Williams by almost three tenths, with the two finishing at 51.85 and 51.6. Uh oh. Williams would’ve put a cushy two-point margin ahead of her teammate had she not fallen twice on bars and again on floor, and her worlds all-around score of 52.466 remains the highest score reached by a gymnast from their nation. In watching the two at WOGA, Williams is clearly the strongest in both her ability and execution, and she did some remarkable work on beam, but Dick is a more level-headed competitor, even though she too had mistakes at WOGA.

It will be interesting to see if T&T keeps their word and sends Williams, or if they seriously consider their international results this spring as reason to send Dick in her place.

3. Japan Putting Two on the Podium

Because the live coverage of this event didn’t include final scores, many fans watching assumed Shallon Olsen of Canada was the champion, only to be shocked a few days later when the official results had first-year senior Nagi Kajita of Japan at the top with a 55.65. The Japanese team looked great last year, helped out tremendously at worlds by two new seniors Aiko Sugihara and Sae Miyakawa, and it didn’t seem with their depth that there would be room for anyone else, but Kajita – who does the WOGA Classic pretty much every year and was in the top three on all four events in Texas – proved that she is going to add a great deal to that depth, especially with her lovely work on bars.

Her teammate Koko Dobashi, also a first-year senior, was the bronze medalist with a 53.65, showing some solid work though she doesn’t necessarily have a standout event. It was also nice to see Yuna Hiraiwa back in action. She competed everywhere but bars, and her floor score of 12.9 was enough for silver. She had a nice routine there, with the most random assortment of music ever, including The Addams Family theme song and part of the Home Alone 2: Lost In New York soundtrack. It certainly was…different?

4. Madison Kocian Increases Her Value

We have to start out here by saying that Madison Kocian‘s scores of 15.7 on bars and 15.55 on beam were gross overestimates of what she’d actually receive internationally. Scoring overall was a bit over the top for everyone there, so this wasn’t unique to Kocian, but since she’s the gymnast coming away with huge scores that make her “guaranteed” to get an Olympic spot, it’s important to set things straight. Her uneven bars, for example, weren’t anywhere near as tidy as her gold medal-winning set was last October, and yet the score here was four tenths higher. And her beam execution here at 9.35 was nearly a point higher than it was at worlds, despite the multiple wobbles.

That said, she did show some impressive upgrades on beam, including getting her standing arabian back in addition to adding a triple flight series and a double pike dismount. With her start values hovering around 5.5-5.6 on average last season, she now boasts around a 6.3 if everything is credited, and a hit routine internationally could definitely get her into the high 14s, a major help given that this was Team USA’s lowest-scoring event by a long shot last year.

Despite the early season wobbles and form breaks, Kocian looks fantastic. That in addition to the retirement of the 2012 bars and beam specialist Kyla Ross makes Kocian look super strong for that spot, if that ends up being a spot in the whole messy team puzzle.

5. Little Louise Lopez

Years ago, a very young gymnast from Mexico – she was maybe 9 or 10 at the time – added me on Facebook. I occasionally saw updates about her training and she was always posting pics of herself with gymnasts when she got to attend the big meets in her country, like the Mexican Open. Imagine my surprise when I saw her name on the roster?! Louise Lopez, born in 2003 and one of the youngest in the junior field, was there with her team from Agimnasia and placed fourth all-around with a score of 50.15. Her difficulty isn’t immense, but she performs her gymnastics with such purpose and passion, making her a pure joy to watch. She also stuck pretty much everything and has an insane attention to detail on her form. Watch out, 2020.

6. Irina Alexeeva’s Dominating Win

The gymternet has been after this girl since she was only nine. Always touted as the next big thing from WOGA, the issue was whether Irina Alexeeva would compete for the U.S. or Russia, where she was born, and she never actually got anywhere at the elite level here despite her great potential. Turning 14 next month, Alexeeva is officially going to compete for the U.S. this year and earlier this month, qualified to junior international elite status.

The WOGA Classic this year was her first big “I’m actually a U.S. elite now” meet and it went VERY well, getting her to a 57.05 all-around to win the gold in the junior field by nearly six points (and it blasted the senior all-around gold medalist’s score by over a point). Her super clean FTY got a 14.4, she hit bars for a 14.6, she had a 14.35 on beam even with a fall (thanks to a 6.4 difficulty!), and she also hit floor for a 13.7. Again, the execution scores here are a liiiiittle overzealous, but still, Alexeeva was fabulous and should do very well this summer on the elite scene.

7. Shallon Olsen Showing Improvement

Canada’s Shallon Olsen didn’t get quite the start she’d hoped for when she made her senior debut at Elite Canada this year. Though her DTY was as good as ever, mistakes and form errors on her remaining events meant just a 50.625 in the all-around, where she finished shockingly in 14th. At WOGA, she improved her score to a 54.4 after a mostly great day, with her bars score of 13.6 one of the highest in her career, truly reflecting a job well done there. It wasn’t a perfect day, but it was absolutely a step in the right direction, and her DTY as always was her incredibly strong standout.

8. Loan His is Killer on Bars

2015 worlds team member Loan His of France only competed on bars at this meet, but it was worth traveling overseas for this routine. His was the first reserve for the bars final at worlds with a 14.466 there, and her score of 14.5 at the WOGA Classic was one of the more accurate in play. Her work was calm and steady, with clean work on her transitions, a big straddle Jaeger, and a full-in dismount. She could stand a couple of upgrades to make her truly stand out in the deep French field this year, but even without them, she’s definitely her country’s strongest on this event.

9. Chuso

That’s it, just…Chuso. You needed something more? Fine. Oksana Chusovitina didn’t do much here aside from some slightly watered-down vaults, including a handspring layout half and a tsuk full, each down half a twist from what she performed at the world cup in Baku a week later. In Texas for about a month at this point, training with Svetlana Boginskaya and getting some all-around practice in at the HNI meet a week earlier, Chusovitina took it “easy” here and enjoyed the rotations she had off watching from the sidelines, paying special attention to floor.

Full results from the 2016 WOGA Classic are available here.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

This weekend marks the big 25th anniversary International Gymnix competition, and it’s going to be an excellent year, with big names from around the world competing at several levels.

The Senior and Junior Cup events will feature teams of gymnasts sent by their national programs, while the Challenge will feature both juniors and seniors competing mostly for their club gyms, though the smaller program federations of Chile and Trinidad & Tobago have registered gymnasts for this event as well.

Three Canadian and two Belgian teams make up the bulk of the Senior Cup, with the Netherlands and Japan also sending gymnasts. Recent 2016 Elite Canada champion Isabela Onyshko will lead the “Canada Power” team while the “Canada Rams” and “Canada Max” teams all feature young seniors hoping to impress as they work toward spots on the Olympic team, including standout first-year Rose-Kaying Woo.

For Belgium, nine of their Olympic hopefuls will contend after going through a selection event a couple of weeks ago. Their first team includes Laura Waem in addition to the three new seniors expected to make major waves this year as they attempt to qualify a full team to Rio, Nina Derwael, Axelle Klinckaert, and Senna Deriks. The second team has veterans Julie Croket and Gaelle Mys on the roster as well as 2015 worlds standouts Cindy Vandenhole and Rune Hermans alongside new senior Julie Meyers. I believe based on their selection results that due to the four-member teams here, Croket’s scores won’t count toward the team totals, so this will be more of a personal test for her.

The Netherlands has only two gymnasts competing, including new senior Kirsten Polderman alongside fan favorite Eythora Thorsdottir. Maartje Ruikes was expected to be the third member, but she unfortunately ruptured her Achilles over the weekend while performing on floor at the Sidijk Tournament. And for Japan, we’ll see new senior and recent WOGA Classic champion Nagi Kajita in addition to Yuna Hiraiwa and the powerful Sae Miyakawa.

The big excitement with the Junior Cup this week was the official announcement of the U.S. team, which features Jordan Chiles, Emma Malabuyo, Gabby Perea, and Deanne Soza. Their biggest competition will be the Canadian team –  where the young superstars Jade Chrobok and Ana Padurariu will lead Victoria Jurca and Haley de Jong – as well as the Russian team, featuring Anastasia Ilyankova, Ulyana Perebinosova, Valeria Sayfullina, and Varvara Zubova.

Other top contenders here include Romania with Olivia Cimpian and the superb vaulter Denisa Golgota headlining their squad and Great Britain featuring the 2016 Welsh junior champion Maisie Methuen. Japan, Belgium, and France will have teams in attendance as well.

The big names on the list for the Challenge include Marisa Dick of Trinidad & Tobago as well as the Chilean gymnasts Simona Castro and Makarena Pinto. Both of these nations have Test Event spots open in April and are still deciding on the gymnast who will represent them in Rio, so this will be a great opportunity for these three to show what they are capable of.

Otherwise, several clubs from Canada, Mexico, Belgium, France, Scotland, and the United States have registered gymnasts here. WOGA will send their newly-qualified junior elite Irina Alexeeva, Kidsport is sending senior Lexy Ramler, Parkettes has five young gymnasts on the roster, Dynamo of Canada will send four up-and-comers (including Brooklyn Moors, who impressed on floor at Elite Canada), and City of Glasgow’s gymnastics club will send 2016 Scottish champion Cara Kennedy.

The Senior Cup will be held on Friday at 6:30, the Challenge meet on Saturday at 12:30, and the Junior Cup on Saturday at 6:30. The Senior and Junior Cups will feature team and all-around competitions while the Challenge meet will be all-around only; additionally, all three will act as qualifiers for apparatus finals, with the eight best gymnasts on each event from each division competing for event titles on Sunday beginning at 1:30.

Full lists of all International Gymnix competitors are below. For more information, check out our coverage guide.

Senior Cup 

Junior Cup

Challenge

Article by Lauren Hopkins

Two-time Olympian Catalina Ponor is a standout in a super-starry field of contestants set for the upcoming FIG World Challenge Cup in Doha, Qatar later this month.

The Romanian will join her 2012 Olympic teammates Larisa Iordache and Diana Bulimar as they continue their preparation for the Rio Test Event, where they’ll hope to lead their country in qualifying to this year’s Games. Ponor will compete only on beam, slowly easing her way back into her three events after an injury took her out last fall, while Iordache will do all but vault and Bulimar will compete on bars and floor.

The Romanians aren’t the only ones getting in as much practice as possible leading up to April’s qualifier. While Brazil has already named five members of their test event squad, there is still one spot up for grabs, which first-year senior Carolyne Pedro and 2015 worlds team member Thauany Araujo are both hoping to take, so a strong outcome here will be crucial in whether or not they’re considered. We should also see Rebeca Andrade compete here; Andrade, already named as one of the five, has nothing to prove in that respect, though she does need to show that she’s healthy enough to handle the pressure of major international competition. She’s expected to compete at Jesolo the week before this, and should be on bars and beam at both.

Getting ready for the test event is a theme at this meet. In addition to Romania and Brazil, we’ll also see some of Switzerland’s top contenders in Giulia Steingruber, Ilaria Käslin, and Stefanie Siegenthaler, while Germany is sending two young gymnasts with potential to fill some of the available spots.

Countries with individual test event spots are also represented, both by those who are already set to compete and are looking for more competitive experience – like Marcia Vidiaux of Cuba, Vasiliki Millousi of Greece, Farah Ann Abdul Hadi of Malaysia, and Ana Filipa Martins of Portugal – as well as those who are still fighting for the opportunity to compete in Rio.

With Hungary almost certainly giving one spot to Dorina Boczogo, their second spot will most likely go to world all-around finalist Noemi Makra or the hot young first-year talent Zsofia Kovacs. Sweden also has two spots, with Jonna Adlerteg and Emma Larsson considered the top hopefuls, though Marcela Torres – last year’s national champion at 26 – is a threat and this competition should help narrow it down for these three. Fierce vaulters Tjasa Kysselef and Teja Belak of Slovenia will continue to go head to head for their country’s one spot, and this meet could also be a big decider for the women from Turkey, Argentina, and Azerbaijan as well.

China is also getting in on the fun, sending three of their young gymnasts including 2014 world beam silver medalist Bai Yawen, who missed out on the worlds team last year due to a lack of consistency throughout the majority of her season. We’ll also see Xu Chujun as well as first-year senior Luo Huan. None of these are necessarily top contenders for the Olympic team this summer, but considering the little international experience most Chinese gymnasts get, this could be valuable as they attempt to make their dreams come true this summer.

The World Challenge Cup in Doha will be held from March 24 through March 26. A full list of MAG and WAG contenders is below.

Article by Lauren Hopkins
Photo thanks to Catalina Ponor, care of jeni_alexandria

The 2016 International Gymnix was held from March 3 to March 6 in Montreal, Quebec in Canada.

Senior Cup All-Around Results

Senior Cup Team Results

Senior Vault Final Results

Senior Bars Final Results

Senior Beam Final Results

Senior Floor Final Results

Junior Cup All-Around Results

Junior Cup Team Results

Junior Vault Final Results

Junior Bars Final Results

Junior Beam Final Results

Junior Floor Final Results

Challenge All-Around Results

Challenge Vault Final Results

Challenge Bars Final Results

Challenge Beam Final Results

Challenge Floor Final Results

The 2016 American Cup was held on March 5 in Newark, New Jersey.

All-Around Results

The 2016 Glasgow World Cup was held on March 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

All-Around Results

Welcome to the live blog for the 2016 American Cup! Refresh your browser for updates every few minutes. The most recent updates will appear on the top.

3:01 pm. Final Results

1. Gabby Douglas 60.165

2. Maggie Nichols 59.699

3. Ellie Black 57.132

4. Amy Tinkler 55.932

5. Carlotta Ferlito, 55.598

6. Mai Murakami 54.431

7. Tabea Alt 54.399

8. Tisha Volleman 52.666

9. Lorrane Oliveira 50.298

2:56 pm. Douglas’ score is 14.833 (6.0 / 8.833). She wins with a 60.165! Almost exactly half a point ahead of Maggie aka the difference between Maggie’s Amanar and DTY. But Maggie’s Amanar prob wouldn’t have gotten an execution as well as her DTY did.

Black, Canada, FX- One more routine Ellie!!! 2.5 through to double tuck, steps OOB. Front double full to front tuck. Solid front full through to double pike.

2:52 pm. Nichols’ score is 15.2 (6.3 / 8.9)!

Douglas, USA, FX- Solid double Arabian to stag and then hits tucked full-in. Nails double pike. More crowd clapping. Nails double tuck. Great work.

2:45 pm. Tinkler’s score is 13.066 (5.9 / 7.166).

Nichols, USA, FX- Sassy walk out, LOL. Bless. Double double, good. Slight hop back. Tucked full-in with a hop. Piked full-in, good landing. Crowd clapping along. It’s ALY ALL OVER AGAIN. Double tuck to finish is low and hopped back but overall a great job.

2:43 pm. Tinkler, Great Britain, FX- Full-twisting double layout, great! Tucked full-in, little scoot back. 1.5 through to double tuck, crashed. After SUCH a good day. Finishes with a double pike. Well, Ellie, it’s all yours now!

2:40 pm. Murakami’s score is 13.866 (5.6 / 8.266).

2:36 pm. Alt’s score is 12.5 (5.4 / 7.2 / -0.1)

Murakami, Japan, FX- Good double layout, slight hop. Hit second pass well. Quad turn! 1.5 to front full is good. GUESS WHO ELSE HAS THE XTINA MUSIC randomly in the middle of this routine. Carlotta’s probably like NOOOOO MEEEEEEEEE. Double pike with a hop.

2:32 pm. Ferlito’s score is 14.266 (5.6 / 8.666).

Alt, Germany, FX- Ugh, crashes double layout and somersaults out of it. NOOOOOOO. High double tuck. Double pike stepped back OOB. #Cries

2:29 pm. Ferlito, Italy, FX- Stuck tucked full-in. Stuck double tuck. People are loving this routine. This is SO GOOD LIVE YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW. Nails double pike. DAMN CARLOTTA.

2:27 pm. Volleman’s score is 12.733 (5.6 / 7.233).

2:24 pm. Oliveira’s score is 11.466 (5.4 / 6.166 / -0.1 ND).

Volleman, Netherlands, FX- SO EXCITED FOR THIS. Quad turn right off the bat. High double tuck, just bounced back a little. Her weird L turn with the knee bend (which she tried to submit as a skill) and a pirouette. UGH, crashes triple full.

2:20 pm. Oliveira, Brazil, FX- UGH, sits the Dos Santos. LORRAAAAANE WHY. Tucked full-in is low. This music is from an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and also from the Laurence Rees Aushwitz documentary and it’s always super awkward when I hear it on floor, which is surprisingly frequent, especially as a techno remix like this one is. Sits her double tuck to finish. LAWD HAVE MERCY ON THIS CHILD.

2:16 pm. Current standings…

1. Gabby Douglas, 45.332
2. Maggie Nichols, 44.499
3. Ellie Black, 43.066
4. Amy Tinkler, 42.866
5. Tabea Alt, 41.899
6. Carlotta Ferlito, 41.332
7. Mai Murakami, 40.565
8. Tisha Volleman, 39.933
9. Lorrane Oliveira, 38.832

2:15 pm. Nichols’ score is 14.833 (6.3 / 8.533)!

2:11 pm. Volleman’s score is 12.9 (5.2 / 7.7).

Nichols, USA, BB- Get it girl! Wolf turn 2.5 and then a double wolf turn, that’s fun. I thought she was gonna decide between the two but I guess she’s doing both! Means she will count all D skills and above which is great. Front aerial to sissone to split jump, side somi, wolf jump to front tuck, side aerial, switch ring, bhs loso is decent, not her best. Double pike is good, slight hop back!

2:07 pm. Ferlito’s score is 14.566 (6.1 / 8.466).

Volleman, Netherlands, BB- I hope she hits. Nails front tuck mount, yay! She fell on that in training. Front handspring is supposed to go into a front tuck but she misses the connection and does the front tuck separately. Double turn. Split leap to wolf hop to side somi, yay! Full turn to opposite direction full L turn. Switch leap. Random back walkover because why not. Sheep jump, slight check. Ooh, Steingruber dismount, aka a gainer layout full off the end! That’s an upgrade I’m 99% sure. But she’s missing a flight series unfortunately.

2:04 pm. Tinkler’s score is 14.2 (6.1 / 8.1).

Ferlito, Italy, BB- Front aerial to sheep jump, tiny bobble. Bhs bhs layout with a slight check, split ring, side aerial (slight check), switch ring with a step forward, good double pike…probably the best of those doing double pikes. Just a hop back but she’s the only one who has had her chest up.

2:01 pm. Tinkler, Great Britain, BB- Crowd loves her split mount! I’m holding my breath for her triple loso series. Super nervous for it. YAS IT’S LITERALLY PERFECT. GAINER LOSO LOSO LOSO!!!! Front aerial to split jump to full turn, tiny check. Side aerial, switch half a little low, standing full, a little low but hits! DAMN AMY. Hits leaps. Triple full with a step. LOVE! Remember when she just became a brilliant little beam worker?!

1:56 pm. Black’s score is 14.4 (6.2 / 8.2).

1:51 pm. Alt’s score is 13.3 (6.1 / 7.2).

Black, Canada, BB- My heart is now exploding. Please, Ellie. I will die. Check after double turn, punch front pike with a little wobble but holds it, bhs layout is solid, just some leg sep. Phew. Test still to come though and my heart is like, not living anymore. Here we go, big prep, bhs tuck full wobble but HOLDS IT ELLIEEEEEEEEEEE I’M IN TEARS. Switch to switch half. Oh my goodness. Just FINISH IT. Punch front tuck with a slight step back, 2.5 with some leg form issues but rotated well. YAS ELLIE YAS.

1:46 pm. Oliveira’s score is 12.4 (5.4 / 7.0).

Alt, Germany, BB- EEK holding my breath for this. Please be amazing! Side aerial loso loso is AMAZING and she gets so much applause!!! YAS TABEA!!! Switch to straddle jump, NOOOOOOOOOO misses her footing on her switch ring and falls. NOT HAVING IT. Full turn, front aerial with a slight check, sissone to side somi has a little check but love the combo. Check on switch half. Double pike, chest down and a little jump back.

1:41 pm. Murakami’s score is 12.833 (5.9 / 6.933).

Oliveira, Brazil, BB- Punch front tuck mount, a wobble but she saves it. I’ll be devastated if she falls here. Split ring, solid bhs losofront aerial with a check, misses connection to sheep jump. Switch, UGHHHHH. Misses her footing and scrapes her butt on the side of the beam. I’M OUT OF HERE, not having this, gym gods. Split jump to sissone, full L turn, double tuck is a bit short, step forward.

1:38 pm. Douglas’ score is 14.966 (6.3 / 8.666).

Murakami, Japan, BB- Bhs bhs layout, UGH, FALLS. Hits jumps, side aerial, form issues on sheep jump, switch to back tuck, double pike is way short and she takes a step forward.

1:34 pm. Douglas, USA, BB- Literally can’t hear because this crowd is HERE FOR THIS. Punch front pike to split jump, legs are a little tucked but she hit the connection. Clean bhs loso. I’m so far from beam so excuse me if I miss little form things. NAILS standing full. DAYUM. I TOLD you this girl doesn’t train well but then nails it. DON’T BE A JINX. Switch to switch half. Nails punch front tuck. Full L turn which she fell on twice this morning. Switch ring is clean. THIS GIRL IS ON FIRE FOR REAL. Front aerial to split jump to pike jump. Double pike a little short with a slight hop. DAAAAAAYUM.

1:32 pm. I wanna be the timer who yells out how many seconds are left in warm-ups!!!

1:30 pm. Current Standings:

1. Gabby Douglas, 30.366
2. Maggie Nichols, 29.666
3. Amy Tinkler, 28.666
3. Ellie Black, 28.666
5. Tabea Alt, 28.599
6. Mai Murakami, 27.732
7. Tisha Volleman, 27.033
8. Carlotta Ferlito, 26.766
9. Lorrane Oliveira, 26.432

1:29 pm. Ferlito’s score is 12.666 (5.5 / 7.166).

1:26 pm. Tinkler’s score is 13.833 (5.7 / 8.133).

Ferlito, Great Britain, UB- Chow to bail to stalder full to Ray, stalder to stalder half to front giant to Jaeger, huge height! Short handstand before giant half, and then UGH she sits her arabian double front. Like no height off the bar for that dismount at all, doesn’t even look the least bit surprised when she lands it right on her butt.

1:24 pm. Black’s score is 13.866 (5.8 / 8.066).

Tinkler, Great Britain, UB- Toe full to toe-on to Maloney to Tkachev, caught close but she got it first try! Pak with leg sep, van Leeuwen with leg sep, front giant, high stuck full-in! AMY!!!!!

1:21 pm. Alt’s score is 13.933 (5.9 / 8.033).

Black, Canada, UB- Here comes my heart attack! Though I think I should save that for beam for Ellie today. Clear hip to Shang is good, loses form a little going into the Jaeger to pak, more leg sep and form issues. Toe-on to van Leeuwen, leg sep. That’s just par for the course right now. Giant full, layout toe-front half, hop. The form wasn’t cute but she made it through!

1:15 pm. Oliveira’s score is 11.466 (4.9 / 6.966 / -0.3 ND)

Alt, Germany, UB- Toe-on to toe full to Maloney, clean, to pak, leg sep. Van Leeuwen is very nice! Toe half to Jaeger, good. Full-twisting double layout is a little short and she steps forward but better than training!

1:12 pm. Murakami’s score is 13.066 (5.4 / 7.666).

Oliveira, Brazil, UB- Toe-on to van Leeuwen, nice. Blind change to front giant to big piked Jaeger and she lands SO far forward, not safely at all. Like, on her sternum it looked like. Looks like she whacked her chin. Shame…she fell on that once Thursday but it looked good today. Crowd is really behind her though, aww. Poor thing. Maloney to bail to toe shoot. Short handstand before blind change, front giant full to double front with a step back. Oof. Welp, there goes my bronze prediction. Shame because she looked SO prepared in training…

1:09 pm. Douglas’ score is 15.266 (6.5 / 8.766).

Murakami, Japan, UB- Toe-on to Maloney to Gienger, clear hip, blind change to piked Jaeger, bail, giant full, full-in with a small hop.

1:07 pm. Nichols’ score is 14.633 (5.8 / 8.833).

Douglas, USA, UB- Eep my heart! Toe full to piked Tkachev to pak is good. Inbar half to Endo half to stalder to Chow half, a little crooked but she catches. Inbar, then she winds up for the double layout, tiny hop. Not the cleanest but better than she trained it. Crowd is bananas. A small child is SHRIEKING behind me. I. Will. Find. You.

1:05 pm. Volleman’s score is 13.033 (4.9 / 8.133).

Nichols, USA, UB- Toe full to Maloney to pak to toe-on to van Leeuwen, good. Toe-on to toe half to Jaeger, flexed feet. Double layout stuck. GET IT.

1:04 pm. Volleman, Netherlands, UB- Blind change to Jaeger, good bail, clear hip to toe-on to toe shoot, WOW. She looks REALLY good. Short on handstand, giant full to full-in with a step. WOW. Well LOOK AT THAT, TISHA.

12:58 pm. Okay, so Gabby and Maggie are in the lead now. Apparently there’s a lot of nonsense about Gabby’s vault not being great, but like…did you not see her training? It was a freaking mess in training. Relatively that was a fantastic vault. So it lacked distance. It’s also MARCH. Clearly you know very little about Miss Gabby Douglas and peaking.

12:57 pm. Black, Canada, VT- Handspring front layout full, leg form is a little meh and she’s a little piked, but she sat that earlier today and only has a little hop now so good for her!

12:55 pm. Alt’s score is a 14.666 (5.8 / 8.866).

12:54 pm. Alt, Germany, VT- She’s gonna go for the DTY!!! Deep breaths. A tiny bit short and maybe a little messy in the legs as she lands but damn, what an awesome upgrade for her!!!

12:53 pm. Oliveira’s score is a 14.866 (5.8 / 8.066).

12:52 pm. Oliveira, Brazil, VT- DTY, also very clean. Not a ton of distance, though, and she takes a slight step to the side.

12:51 pm. Murakami’s score is a 14.666 (5.8 / 8.866).

12:49 pm. Murakami, Japan, VT- DTY, mostly clean in the air, chest down and a little scoot back on the landing.

12:47 pm. Back after the mid-rotation break. Vault is still warming up a little while rings is going on.

12:45 pm. Douglas’ score is a 15.1 (5.8 / 9.3).

We’re watching Carly Patterson music videos for some reason.

12:44 pm. Douglas, USA, VT- People are losing their freaking minds. I MEAN, FOR OBVIOUS REASONS. It’s Lady D. Stuck DTY cold and walks off with a look on her face like “suck it.”

12:42 pm. Nichols’ score is a 15.033 (5.8 / 9.233).

12:41 pm. Nichols, USA, VT- Ooooh son here we go! DTY…SUPER clean, tiniest hop back. To be picky, her ankles got a tiny bit crossed on the second twist. But otherwise great.

12:40 pm. Volleman’s score is a 14 (5.0, 9.0)! Good for her.

Bitencourt on rings, good job I guess.

12:39 pm. Volleman, Netherlands, VT- FTY, excellent! Great landing. Piked down a little at the end though.

12:38 pm. Ferlito’s score is a 14.1 (5.3 / 8.8).

Brägger on rings looked a little rushed and stumbled his dismount to the side.

12:37 pm. Ferlito, Italy, VT- Yurchenko 1.5, looked mostly clean in the air, but she stumbled it forward a couple of steps. Just a slightly loose body line in her latter half twist.

12:36 pm. Tinkler’s score is a 14.833 (5.8 / 9.033).

Mikulak on rings now. How is it even physically possible to do any of rings? Stumbled back his dismount.

12:35 pm. Tinkler, Great Britain, VT- DTY, clean! Nice form in the air. Over-rotates it a tiny bit on the landing and takes a step back. SO much power!

12:33 pm. Here we goooooooooooo!! Men are going first on rings. I’ll keep my idiotic MAG commentary to a minimum. Whittenburg up first. I wish we had rings mounts instead of coaches just lifting them up like babies. Double pike front, his arms are like “we are steel,” hit dismount with a step.

12:32 pm. Good vaults so far. Excellent FTY from Tisha. Decent DTY from Maggie though not as good as it looked in training earlier…a tad short and a hop. Gabby’s was great though.

12:29 pm. Here  come the women!

12:28 pm. I just had to wave to like 400 people so I missed Wei’s routine but he got a 15.033 so I’ll go back and watch that I suppose. Bretschneider is up now, muscles the handstand before his dismount.

12:22 pm. Kato up now. His air flairs become CRAZY hahahaha but he keeps his momentum going and hits, albeit not great. And yet his e-score is an 8.066 so I guess everything else was great. Park also hit his routine.

12:20 pm. Warm-up for the second half of the pommels rotation. A dad is getting silly stringed. Typical competition.

12:17 pm. Bitencourt up now, I think Brägger was a bit messy, am I good at pommels now? Bitencourt slows his speed a bit at one point and then loses his momentum and opts to come off.

12:15 pm. Brägger’s turn for torture. Hey how was Sam’s e-score with a fall higher than Donnell’s without a fall? Donnell had that handstand struggle but can someone explain to me what was wrong with Donnell’s routine? Genuinely curious!

12:13 pm. Sam’s up on pommels now. Crashes his legs into the horse at one point and has to come off. Hit the rest, dismount was pretty I suppose.

12:11 pm. Big applause for Donnell as he goes up for pommels. The current leaders yo. So far so good…applause as he gets closer to the end to keep him pumped, oh, struggles on a press handstand before his dismount but he hits!

12:08 pm. Wilson first on pommel horse. Not even going to pretend I know even the slightest thing about this event. He had a fall, that’s all I can tell you.

12:07 pm. For live scores, by the way, you can follow along at MyUSAGym.

12:05 pm. Shoutout to volunteer coordinator Craig Zappa, aka coach to Olivia Dunne!!

12:03 pm. Wei stumbled out of his first pass but nailed a gorgeous double layout. 2.5 with a little bobble. The rest looks good. Again the crowd is like WHAT ARE FLAIRS YAS. He’s over time. Triple full to finish, chest down. Donnell owned that rotation.

12:00 pm. Park…double layout was a little stumbled back. I was talking to someone for most of this…but what I saw it looked hit. Not a difficult routine though.

11:57 am. I missed the first floor back because of shenanigans. So much easier with WAG when you are a toddler (like me!)and the shiny music clues you into a new routine. Kato up now. Lots of twisting. All good, mostly, some looked a little short in terms of chest down, but nothing really under-rotated that I could see. Roll-out skills terrify me.

11:51 am. Pablo time. Pike double front (bends knees before landing) and a tucked double double. Hands down on his third pass.

14.166 for Sam.

11:48 am. Mikulak sexy pants time. Lots of cougars are swooning. 2.5 to double front! Bananas. Front full to front double full I think. Damn I’m bad at twists, I need to be fully focused and I never am. 1.5 to front layout??? Okay. Puts his hand down on his last pass, I think a triple full.

15.433 for Donnell!

11:46 am. Whittenburg’s looking good. His front tumbling is bananas. Just did the front double pike aka…THE DOWELL. #MomentOfSilenceForBrennaAlways Looked like a great routine.

11:42 am. Wilson on floor now, had a mishap on his second pass. 2.5 to barani side pass and for his flairs the crowd is like oh. my. LANTA!!!!! Front double full to hitch kick, LOL YAAAAS. We need more hitch kicks. Last pass is half a twist short so he jumps it around.

11:41 am. I’m back! I’m bad at MAG so I won’t seriously live blog it but I’ll let you know if anyone has a major dilemma or does something really pretty. I think Bretschneider just hit floor. I came back in the middle of his routine. #Applause

11:15 am. Okay, training is done! I’ll be back around 11:30 or so, I guess? When this whole shindig starts.

11:13 am. Carlotta time again. Chow to bail to stalder full, that’s it. Ellie’s back. clear hip to clear hip, balks the Shang, maybe was just working the clear hip aspect. Mai’s doing a toe-on to Maloney to Gienger, NICE. Clear hip arches over and she comes off with a smile on her face.

11:11 am. Toe-on to Maloney from Mai. Big full-in dismount. Tabea time! Beautiful toe full, full-twisting double layout looks clean but she lands it on one knee. Lorrane does a front giant full to double front dismount very well in what I think is her last turn up.

11:10 am. Ellie on bars…clear hip, holds the handstand for 40 years, Shang is great but then breaks form on her hop change. Pauses for a second, Jaeger to pak (leg sep). At least she seems to have calmed down a little from vault and beam.

11:09 am. Carlotta catches the Jaeger with a spot this time. Good handstand before her giant into the double arabian dismount.

11:07 am. Good FTY from Tisha. Excellent piked Jaeger to pak from Lorrane this time, super clean. I think vault is done.

11:06 am. Maggie just stuck a DTY cold. PLEASE keep this forever unless your Amanar looks exactly like this vault just did. SO GOOD.

11:05 am. Great DTY from Gabby, just a little short with her chest angled down. Lorrane looks good on bars, big piked Jaeger, tries to connect to pak but tucks her legs. Amy crashed her DTY. Carlotta just tripped on a mat LOL. Bless. She’s on bars now…Chow to bail to stalder full to Ray, nice! Stalder to stalder half to front giant to straddle Jaeger, a million miles from the bar but her coach catches her.

11:03 am. Mai on bars. Toe-on. That’s it. Hahaha she’s like “nope.” Tabea, toe full to Maloney to pak (leg sep), SUUUUPER clean van Leeuwen. GIRL KILL IT TODAY.

11:02 am. Basics…Yurchenko timers from vault. Giants on bars. Did you know Tisha is training a DTY? That would be a huge get for her. Ellie’s doing toe-on work, Maloney. FTY timers from the Americans. Good toe-front half from Ellie off bars.

10:57 am. Carlotta and Tisha are having a little chat while Carlotta chalks up and Tisha gets ready to leave the podium. #PALS I hope Ellie has a good bars warmup or else I’m going to cry and cry and cry.

10:56 am. Lorrane’s doing the DTY! I’m still fully all about her getting bronze. I think it’s gonna happen. She just looks so calm and together. DTY for Mai as well.

10:54 am. Gabby’s definitely having some struggle bus moments. Tisha has a nice giant full to full-in with a hop. Carlotta hit her Yurchenko 1.5.

10:52 am. Gabby on bars, inbar full to piked Jaeger to pak, catches with her elbows. OOF. Inbar half to Endo half to Chow half is good. Inbar, and a double layout with a hop.

10:51 am. Great full set from Maggie just now, and Ellie just sat something on vault but I missed the entry. Again she looks super frustrated.

10:48 am. Gabby looks 800% better on bars right now. Inbar work and Endo half on the low bar is all super duper clean. Amy has a clean pak, van Leeuwen, full-in with a hop.

10:46 am. Just basics so far on bars and vault. Now Maggie’s up. Maggie’s toe full to Maloney to pak to van Leeuwen looks great. Toe-on to toe half to Jaeger (flexed feet), good double layout.

10:43 am. The Americans, Amy, and Tisha have just moved to bars with the rest over at vault.

10:41 am. I’m like crying at this 2003 video, tbh. What a magical year. Now the U.S. winning gold at worlds is like “yawn, again? How many points this time?”

10:37 am. Oh no, there’s a Courtney Kupets interview up and she’s screaming NCAA commentary style. Bless. It’s like a tribute to Martha Karolyi and the camp system. Oh and to 2003 worlds. No Chelsie Memmel in this though. OH HERE SHE IS YO CHELLSIE. She was literally the hero of this meet and better be there. (Still waiting on equipment to go up, by the way.)

10:31 am. Bars are still going up. LOL shoutout to a commercial for Nastia’s book on the arena screen.

10:30 am. Bars are about to go up (they have to take the high bar down) and then the ladies will rotate there and to vault.

10:28 am. I love watching guys warm up because when they know they’re about to fall, they don’t try to save it, they literally just like, make the fall look as ridiculous as possible, flailing and yelling. Why not?

10:27 am. Good bhs bhs layout from Mai. Switch ring with a hop forward. Tabea also busts out a bhs bhs layout, a really good one too. ANOTHER fall from Ellie who looks SO freaking frustrated.

10:26 am. Ellie’s off on her tuck full series, the bane of my existence. I hope she has someone in the crowd using the force on her this year the way Mykayla Skinner had last year…if by “the force” you mean having a CRAZY GOOD CORE. Good 2.5 dismount but she gets right back on and does the tuck full again, and is off again UGHHHH I will jump into a fire.

10:25 am. Carlotta just sat her double pike off beam after a great set. Tabea’s side aerial + loso + loso was FLAWLESS. I hope she really surprises here…she has low expectations for her meet today, it being her senior debut and all, she’s just kind of hoping to make it through with no mistakes, but I think she could pull off a high finish if she’s at her best.

10:24 am. Double pike from Mai off beam and a double tuck from Ellie. Maggie and Gabby look like they’re having a dance-off with Martha watching. Can we get Martha as a judge on some reality show like that? I’d be here for that.

10:23 am. I haven’t seen much tumbling from the Americans on floor…mostly just a few dance elements. Actually I don’t think I’ve seen any of Maggie’s tumbling. She’s working her cool new choreo bit now with the leg hold into the back walkover.

10:20 am. Tabea’s missing a couple of connections on beam, Ellie’s looking GREAT now though. Solid turn connection, double to full. Ooh, Tisha’s also going for a triple full on floor!! A little under-rotated. Ellie’s going for her tuck full now and hits it with just a step.

10:17 am. Amy’s double layout is a tiny bit short but SO perfectly straight, arms right by her sides. Double pike from Gabby. Little kids are yelling WE LOVE YOU GABBY and she’s like #ignored. Nice front aerial to sheep from Carlotta, Tisha puts her hands down on her tucked full-in, which tbh is pretty ambitious tumbling considering she’s from the Netherlands!

10:16 am. Good double tucks from Gabby and Tisha, and Ellie is having a few wobbles on beam, including one where she just took a step back and casually almost fell, LOL. I LOVE HER.

10:10 am. Tisha’s off on her mount again and her gainer layout off the end looks a little piked. Maggie hit her switch to back tuck. SOMEONE BRING ME PIZZA. Ellie’s 2.5 through to double tuck is a little short but she holds it up no problem.

Looks like beam training is done and they’re about to rotate.

10:08 am. Ellie just did a double full and then jumped around to get to the 2.5 but stumbled right off the mat and directly into her coach’s arms. Someone make a rom com where this happens!!!!! But age appropriately.

10:07 am. Gabby’s punch front pike is definitely more piked today. Front tuck to wolf jump is solid. Off on a full L turn, LOL, of all things. Oh Gabster. Wobbles on it the second time. Is this an upgrade for her? Front aerial, misses connection to jumps, does it a second time and gets it to the split jump to pike jump.

10:06 am. Mai Murakami is here by the way. I know I freaked out about her not being at podium training. Big double layout off the bat. Maggie is doing her 2.5 wolf turn so I’m thinking we’ll get that instead of the double today…she trained both on Thursday. Otherwise looks good. Side aerial looks much better. Little stumble on the switch ring.

10:03 am. Great Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands are on beam. I don’t have a great view of leos from here but it looks like Gabby and Maggie are in sparkly purple. Many are still in training leos.

Tisha just fell on her punch front mount. Front aerial to front tuck was an awesome connection. BEAUTIFUL double spin. GOD I love the Dutch. Full pirouette to opposite direction L turn.

Ellie’s hitting some solid tumbling on floor.

9:58 am. Just arrived at the Prudential Center! General stretch is underway at the moment.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

Welcome to the live blog for the 2016 International Gymnix Junior Cup! Refresh this page every few minutes for updates. Most recent updates will appear at the top.

9:17 pm. Gabby Perea wins with a 56.475! Deanne Soza second with 56.275 and Emma Malabuyo third with 56.25.

9:14 pm. Team Scores

1. United States 170.35
2. Russia 163.8
3. Canada 162.675
4. Japan 161.65
5. Romania 161.475
6. France 160.075
7. Great Britain 159.35
8. Belgium 150.25

9:09 pm. Sorry, no rankings available yet, NATURALLY. Because that’s not an important part of a gymnastics competition at all.

8:58 pm. I’ll try to get the full results ASAP!

8:55 pm. 14.275 for Malabuyo’s UB, 14.225 for Lapp’s BB.

8:53 pm. Potoms FX- Missed the beginning but finished with a great Rudi. Very cute choreo.

8:49 pm. Lapp BB- Bhs bhs loso, solid. Beautiful! Full turn. Switch to split, side somi, switch ring, great work!

Brassart FX- Hit routine.

Ugh Crisan is crying so much.

8:48 pm. Crisan UB- Maloney, toe-half to Jaeger, pak, Ray, toe full, full-in crashed. NOOOO.

8:47 pm. Khnifuss fell on her triple flight series. Nice Onodi. Good routine aside from the fall.

8:45 pm. Sorry, my internet is being slow! There was just the most adorable group hug EVER with Zubova in the middle.

8:38 pm. Zubova VT- Handspring front tuck half, a little messy.

Charpy BB- Front aerial, Onodi, side aerial, good.

A Russian just crashed a DTY, but I couldn’t see who.

8:36 pm. No scores going up that I can see but I think Soza got a 14.4 on bars!

8:34 pm. Methuen FX- Double tuck with a step back. Double pike with a small hop. 1.5 to stag. Front handspring front full. Good work.

8:28 pm. Perea UB- Toe-on to Chow half, inbar half to Jaeger, toe full to pak, super clean. Van Leeuwen, and a clean double layout with a step. Great work.

Hanawa BB- Switch to back tuck, bhs bhs layout a little low but hit. Bhs loso loso with a wobble. Double tuck with a step. Great from what I saw.

Kinsella FX- “Fiddler on the Roof.” 1.5 through to 2.5, good. Hit second pass. Hit double back. Hit last pass as well.

Jurca VT- Tsuk back pike, a little messy. Second is a Yurchenko layou, little bounce.

Chiles UB- Toe-on to toe half to Jaeger, Tkachev to bail, NICE. Right up to a toe shoot, toe full to Gienger, full-in, stuck!! Excellent!

8:27 pm.  Chrobok VT- Yurchenko 1.5, a couple of steps forward. FTY second vault, bounce back.

Kuwajima BB-Saw from the L turn, a little wobble. Front aerial, straddle to wolf jump, double pike to finish, a little low. Good day for her!

James FX- 1.5 to front layout was a little messy but she hit. Big 2.5.

8:25 pm. Padurariu VT- FTY, she’s like laughing to herself before. Vault is very clean, small hop. Big smile after.

Soza UB- Toe full to Tkachev, nice! Ray, toe half to Ezhova, AWESOME!!!!! Toe-on to inbar shoot to high, full-twisting double layout with a step. FINALLY!!!!!! YES DEANNE!!!!!!!!

8:22 pm. De Jong VT- FTY, not the best form but hit well. Handspring front tuck second vault.

Malabuyo UB- Toe-on to stalder full to Tkachev, very nice! Super clean pak, Ray, stalder to stalder half to front giant half, full-in with a step. VERY nice.

Oguchi BB- A couple of stumbles so far. Beautiful switch leap though. Punch front full dismount.

Oates FX- Hit routine. I only saw the double tuck final pass.

8:18 pm. SCORES! Botnaru 13.6, Crisan 13.725, Cimpian 13.95, Lapp 12.0, Khnifass 12.925, Senders 11.15, Potoms 12.975, Brassart 10.95, Zubova 13.025, Ilyankova 13.7, Perebinosova 13.55.

8:15 pm. Saifullina FX- Tucked full-in bounced back and OOB. Double full. Pink Panther music! Hit middle pass, started with a 1.5 but I missed the end. Good double tuck to finish.

Muller BB- Messy wolf turn. Bhs loso with a check. Side somi. Side aerial with a check but she fights and holds it. A little wobbly on some jumps, and a double full with a bounce back.

8:11 pm. Brassart BB- Front walkover mount. Switch, stumble, to split jump. Full turn, front aerial with bent legs, bhs loso, slight stumble. Fell on something right after but I missed the skill.

Perebinosova FX- Whip whip through to double tuck, 2.5 to punch front tuck.

8:08 pm. Golgota VT- DTY, nice, just a tiny hop. Second vault is an FTY. Bounces in place.

Ilyankova FX- Full-in to start, 2.5 to punch front, hit. Double pike, slightly short. Hit double tuck, looked stuck. Hit third pass. OH YES this is the crazy freaking music with birds tweeting LOL. This music is bloody terrible.

Potoms BB- Wolf turn, good leaps, little stumble on bhs loso, punch front, low switch half, double full with a hop. Punch front off again.Hit side aerial, double tuck with a hop.

Mouffok UB- Toe-on to Maloney, to bail to Ray I think, I missed a little of that. Blind change to straddle Jaeger, giant full, double layout with a step.

Charpy UB- I saw the van Leeuwen, piked Jaeger, and double layout, stuck! Great routine from her! After a super long wait too.

8:05 pm. Cimpian VT- Huge FTY, big rebound back.

Khnifass UB- Maloney, front giant to Jaeger, bail to stalder full, stalder to Ray, full-in with a tiny hop.

8:04 pm. Botnaru VT- FTY with a step forward.

Lapp UB- Nice stalder to toe-on, giant full is a little messy, blind change to front giant half, peels off early for double layout but hits it anyway.

Senders BB- Front aerial to sheep jump. Fell on something but I missed it.

Zubova FX- THE CUTENESS IS STABBING ME IN THE FACE. Casual triple full from this tiny little majestic creature. Hit next pass. Finishes with double pike, a bit low, then a Shushunova to her finish. She is an angel.

Crisan VT- hit FTY well.

8:01 pm. SCORES! Perea 14.15, Malabuyo 14.05, Soza 15.025, Chiles 15.4, Kuwajima 13.15, Oguchi 12.325, Hanawa 12.25, Oates 12.8, Methuen 13.025, James 12.425, De Jong 13.15, Padurariu 13.75, Jurca 13.475. Guessing Padurariu didn’t sit the front tuck then…just was short!

7:58 pm. Chrobok FX- Music issue. Whip through to double tuck,2.5 with a stumble forward. Double full. Double pike is solid.

Kinsella BB- Does that crazy British beam mount that is terrifying and insane where they’re backwards on a springboard and fling themselves upside-down at the beam. British gymnasts are born with this ability, can anyone else even do it? Double spin is nice. Switch leap. Side aerial loso, wolf jump to sissone, front aerial with a wobble, 2.5 with a step.

7:55 pm. Jurca FX- Piked full-in, a little low. “Take Me to Church” floor music. Double tuck. Finishes with double pike.

James BB- Wobble on bhs loso. Punch front. Off on a side aerial. 2.5 with a hop.

Hanawa and her coaches are laughing about her arched handstand. Seriously, that was a Gabby Douglas muscling out of her Endo in 2010 kind of save.

7:54 pm. Chiles VT- Second vault is a DTY. Big and clean, small hop.

Hanawa UB- Hit Jaeger, pak, over arches a handstand to a full pak position and then brings it back LOL!?!?!?! MAGIC I TELL YOU. DAMN. Double layout with a step.

7:53 pm. Chiles VT- Amanar, a bit low but right down the middle and doesn’t budge her feet! NOT BAD!!!

7:50 pm. Oguchi UB- She’s been chalking the bars for 35 years. Looked like she struggled on something but I couldn’t see. Giant full, hit dismount.

Methuen BB- Straddle mount is nice, nails bhs loso loso. Full turn, and hit 2.5 dismount with a step.

Soza VT- Second vault is a clean Yurchenko layout with a little wobble on the landing.

Padurariu FX- Hit first pass. I think she sat her second pass. The punch tuck out of it. 1.5 to front full to stag. Double pike a little short.

7:49 pm. Soza VT- DTY, big and clean! Just a step back.

7:47 pm. Perea VT- FTY with a hop back.

Kuwajima UB-Stalder to inbar to toe-on to giant half to straddle Jaeger, interesting. Clean pak. Toe shoot. Giant full, and a hit full-in dismount! This kid is great.

Oates BB- Saw from punch front, no issues before this. Side somi. Double tuck dismount, step.

De Jong FX- Good double pike. 1.5 through to double full. Double tuck with a hop.

Malabuyo VT- FTY, clean.

7:46 pm. Kuwajima leads AA right now, then Malabuyo, Perea, Hanawa, Zubova, Ilyankova, Chrobok, Botnaru, Cimpian, Oguchi, Mouffok. Japan also leads team followed by USA, Russia, Romania, Canada, France, Great Britain, and Belgium.

7:44 pm. More scores…Saifullina 12.2, Ilyankova 14.1, wow, didn’t realize hers was that strong as well! Zubova’s was a little more impressive skill-wise. 14.2. Golgota 13.4, Botnaru 13.5, Crisan 12.775, Senders 10.95, Muller 11.875, Potoms 11.75, Brassart 11.45, Lapp 13.775, Khnifass 13.75, Mouffok 13.725, Charpy 13.05.

7:40 pm. Perebinosova BB- Okay broken nose. Wolf turn, bhs bhs layout, fall. There’s the Russia we know and love on beam. Hit jump series, side aerial, check on a front aerial, double tuck with a step.

Cimpian FX- Good tucked full-in. Nice double pike, her sharp angles work very nicely for her on floor in her presentation and choreo. Triple full a little under. Nails double tuck.

14.2 for Zubova!!!! National TREASURE! Russia, NEVER LET HER GO.

7:36 pm. Crisan FX- Hit tucked full-in. Double tuck. Hit routine!

Zubova BB- Lovely front walkover mount into her front aerial front aerial sheep jump series, YES YES YES. Bhs loso loso is solid. DO WE HAVE A BEAM WORKER, RUSSIA?! Roundoff layout omGGGGGG. Lovely leaps right into a Korbut, she is SO QUICK AND FLUID. Great double tuck.

Brassart UB- Caught pak at her hips basically. Stalder half to Ray, front giant to big piked Jaeger, toe half arches over to giants, giant full, double pike turns into a double tuck on the second pike.I can’t tell if she’s laughing or crying.

7:35 pm. Potoms UB- Toe full, Tkachev, her giants are a bit piked, toe-on to bail (leg sep) to toe shoot, short hanstands, giant half to front giant half, double pike sat. UGH.

Khnifass VT- Second vault is just a Yurchenko layout, big bounce back.

7:33 pm. Lapp VT- FTY, not bad, little hop back.

Ilyankova BB- Full turn, roundoff layout, form isn’t great but she hit. Bhs loso, front aerial, side somi, full Y turn, double tuck with a step back.

Botnaru FX- Tucked full-in, good. Solid double pike, double tuck a bit low but she stands up quickly out of it. Double full.

Khnifass VT- FTY, decent form, little hop.

7:32 pm. Muller UB- Toe-on to bail, stalder to toe shoot, clear hip, blind change to front giant to front giant half, giant full, double pike with a step.

7:30 pm. Charpy VT- FTY, a bit piked.

Senders UB- Toe-on to bail, toe shoot, sat double pike.

Saifullina BB- Hit everything so far, side aerial, round off layout, switch half with no amplitude and she falls. Punch front tuck. Double tuck with a step back to finish.

Golgota FX- I missed her opening pass. Hit the double tuck. Hit third and final pass.

7:27 pm. Soza 13.175, Perea 13.275, Malabuyo 14.1! Chrobok 13.95, Padurariu 13.075, highest bars for GB was Oates 12.95, Hanawa 14.225 and Kuwajima 14.85 on vault, that last one for her awesome DTY. Some great talent coming up from Japan! What else can I see…James 12.675, Methuen 11.5, Kinsella 12.55, Jurca 12.475.

7:22 pm. Kinsella UB- Toe half to straddle Jaeger, toe full, pak, catches, then lets go as she swings under and lands on her butt. Oof. Toe-on to Maloney to bail (leg sep) to Ray, double layout with two steps forward.

de Jong BB- Front aerial to wolf jump, side aerial, nice leaps, bhs loso loso with bent legs, switch leap, switch side, side somi. Full-twisting bhs. This routine is stacked! Double pike to finish.

Chiles FX- Big double arabian. Yes! Front double full, comes in too short to hit punch front but she goes for the tuck and sits it. :( 1.5 to 2.5 and a double tuck.

7:21 pm. Malabuyo FX- Still with “Angry Birds.” Tucked full in stuck cold! 1.5 through to 2.5 to stag. Front double full to stag. Great double pike.

7:19 pm. Padurariu BB- Switch ring, side aerial loso loso, UGH, with a fall. All my faves today. Except Ellie. Switch to sheep, great extension on switch to switch half, full turn, front aerial with a wobble, wolf jump to sissone, side somi, 2.5 with a step to the side.

Kuwajima VT- Second vault is a stusk full, a little low.

7:17 pm. Perea FX- Tucked full-in. 1.5 through to 2.5, good. Great triple full. Double tuck, slight hop OOB.

Kuwajima VT- Wow, nice DTY! Great landing.

Methuen UB- Toe full, Maloney to clear hip to Tkachev, good. bail to toe shoot, full-in with a tiny hop.

7:14 pm. Oguchi VT- Handspring pike half. I missed her second vault.

Chrobok BB- Switch to switch half, Hit flight series, front aerial to sissone, side somi, double pike, chest down.

Oates UB- Good pak, toe on to toe shoot, big double front dismount!

7:12 pm. Hanawa VT- Handspring pike half-out. Second vault is a handspring front pike.

James UB- Hit Tkachev, toe-on to Ray, bail, then fell on something. Toe shoot, giant full to full-in with a hop back.

Soza FX- Hit opening pass, tucked full-in I think. Good 1.5 through to double tuck. 2.5 with a step. Nooo, fell on her double pike I think.

Jurca BB- Punch front, off on bhs back tuck series. Hit dismount.

7:07 pm. Trying to get some scores for you…for the U.S. Perea had 14.525! Soza was at 13.675, Malabuyo at 13.825. Chiles was around 12 something. Padurariu had 13.75 on bars, biggest on vault was Kinsella’s 13.875, my little favorite Oguchi on floor had the high there of 13.975.

7:02 pm. Ilyankova UB- Saw it from the Tkachev, clear hip to Ricna to pak, great! Maloney, oh NO. In handstand she slipped onto the bar like onto her armpits?! That was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen. Giant full to full-in. Almost done and that stupid fluke fall!!!

Golgota BB- I’m obsessed with her on vault and floor. I don’t think I’ve seen her on beam though. Great leap series. Wobble on side somi. Side aerial. Lovely switch half, though misses connection to back tuck. Great double tuck. YES!

Lapp FX- Swan Lake, yes please. She’s a gorgeous performer too. OH YES. OHHH YESSSSSS. Double pike skidded a little but I’m crying at how good she is performing this DEAR LORD. 2.5 to front tuck skidded back. Stumbled on her third pass a bit as well. Finished I think with a Rudi. DAMN THIS WAS A GREAT ROUTINE.

6:59 pm. Perebinosova UB- A commenter just told me her name translates to BREAK NOSE. Obsessed. Let’s go, broken nose. Chow, stalder half to Ezhova!!! Maloney to pak, clean on the latter. Toe-on to van Leeuwen. Toe full to Tkachev, full-in nearly stuck. YOU GO BROKEN NOSE!!!!

Cimpian BB- Hit everything I saw, including a turn with a wobble, and a bhs tuck full series. Side somi with a check. She’s very lanky and her movements are almost…broken? Not fluid. Like she’s a very angular gymnast and all I can think of is that she looks pointy in her movements if that makes sense. Hits dismount. She just looks like she’s grown a ton since I last saw her here, maybe that’s affecting her movement?

Khnifass FX- Ooh, very creepy style routine, thank you France. Piked full-in, good! Solid double pike. Good double tuck as well.

6:58 pm. Brassard VT- Clean FTY with a little hop back. Best vaulter of the bunch by far.

6:56 pm. Saifullina UB- Inbar to inbar half to Jaeger, pak, toe shoot, hit the rest.

Crisan BB- Hit flight series. Wobble on switch side. Has another flight series, bhs bhs layout. Front aerial (bent legs), side aerial, no connection between the two. Split jump to sissone. Switch half. Check on full turn. Nearly stuck double tuck. A bit sloppy but not that bad.

Charpy FX- Double arabian, low. Rudi. Sat double pike.

Potoms VT- Stumbled forward on her FTY.

6:55 pm. Senders VT- Yurchenko layout, not bad.

6:51 pm. Muller VT- Yurchenko pike.

Zubova UB- I missed her first release, toe full to Tkachev to super sloppy pak, clear hip half to toe shoot, double layout a bit piked. She is a tiny wee thing.

Botnaru BB- Clean full wolf turn. Bhs layout is piked but oh well. She hit it very well. Switch ring, stumble. Rest is good, double pike with a step back.

Mouffok FX- Good double pike. Hit last pass as well. That’s all I saw from her.

6:49 pm. Next half of the rotation is Muller, Senders, Potoms, and Brassart on vault, Zubova, Saifullina, Perebinosova, and Ilyankova on bars, Botnaru, Crisan, Cimpian, and Golgota on beam, and Mouffok, Charpy, Khnifass, and Lapp on floor.

Can we come up with a nickname for Perebinosova real quick because that is a pain in my LIFE to type. Perbs? That is awful. Perby Perbs.

6:46 pm. Malabuyo BB- Goes for double wolf turn but loses it about halfway through and squats up out of it. Then gets back into position like yeah, I mean to do that. Bhs loso loso is solid. This is an excellent beam team, for real. Making up for last year’s worlds beam team, haha. Sheep jump. Punch front tuck. Standing arabian, side aerial, both great.Front aerial with pause into her jump series. Switch ring, back foot a little flexed. Double pike, chest low but whips it up.

6:43 pm. Chiles BB- She put her hands down on something at the very beginning? I didn’t see…dance element I think. Nails triple flight series. Leapes a little short. Side somi is good. Nice front aerial to sissone to pike jump, then a side aerial. Hit double tuck dismount.

James VT- FTY skidded on the landing.

Oguchi FX- WOW, big double layout to start! Then a 2.5 to front layout. I missed her last two passes (details) but she hit them both. What a fantastic little floor worker!

Padurariu UB- Jaeger, inbar piked Tkachev caught close, inbar to Ray, giant full, big full-in with a great landing. She looks THRILLED.

James VT- Second is just a Yurchenko layout bounced back.

6:41 pm. Chrobok UB- Great handstand, inbar pked Tkachev, bail to inbar to Ray, nice! Toe-on to Takchev, also great. Giant full, front giant to double front, sat. UGHHHH.

Methuen VT- Second vault is a handspring front pike. Landed very well.

6:39 pm. Kinsella VT- Does a Yurchenko layout as a second vault.

Soza BB- Switch to Onodi, YES. Punch front tuck, slight stumble, missed connection to jump. Good bhs loso. Stumble on the switch half. Double pike with a step back.

Kuwajima FX-Hit so far, nice double tuck. Double pike to finish.

de Jong UB- Saw a decent pak, toe on, toe full, toe shoot. Hit dismount.

Methuen VT- Handspring pike half-out, nice!

6:38 pm. Kinsella VT- FTY with a slight hop. Mostly clean.

6:35 pm. Perea BB- Standing full like it’s no problem. Split to sissone. Nails bhs bhs layout. Switch to switch half. She’s SO steady. Front aerial, side somi. 2.5, hit. Great routine!

Jurca UB- Ray, nice. Toe full, then didn’t see anything else until the Maloney. Hit double front dismount, looks super happy.

Hanawa FX- Hit routine.

Oates VT-Handspring front pike with a step forward.

6:33 pm. Okay, vault will be Oates, Kinsella, Methuen, James. Bars is Jurca, de Jong, Chrobok, Padurariu. Beam is Perea, Soza, Chiles, Malabuyo. Floor is Hanawa, Kuwajima, and Oguchi.

6:13 pm. Warm-ups just finished! I’ll be back shortly to live blog this meet.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

Welcome to the live blog for the 2016 International Gymnix Junior Cup! Refresh this page every few minutes for updates. Most recent updates will appear at the top.

5:28 pm. That wraps it up for today! I’ll post official results when they’re available.

5:26 pm. Senior Cup Floor Medalists

Axelle Klinckaert, gold
Isabela Onyshko, silver
Shallon Olsen, bronze

5:25 pm. Senior Cup Beam Medalists

Meixi Semple, gold
Nina Derwael, silver
Nagi Kajita and Eythora Thorsdottir, bronze

5:21 pm. Senior Cup Bars Medalists

Nina Derwael, gold
Senna Deriks, silver
Isabela Onyshko, bronze

5:18 pm. Senior Cup Vault Medalists

Shallon Olsen, gold
Sae Miyakawa, silver

LOL Sae thought she got bronze and went to the bronze podium!!! She is cracking up hahahaha.

5:14 pm. Junior Cup Floor Medalists

Emma Malabuyo, gold
Ana Padurariu, silver
Alice Kinsella and Olivia Cimpian, bronze

5:13 pm. Junior Cup Beam Medalists

Emma Malabuyo, gold
Varvara Zubova, silver
Alisia Botnaru, bronze

5:10 pm. Junior Cup Bars Medalists

Anastasia Ilyankova, gold
Gabby Perea, silver
Deanne Soza, bronze

5:06 pm. Junior Cup Vault Medalists

Jordan Chiles, gold
Deanne Soza, silver
Kiko Kuwajima, bronze

5:03 pm. Challenge Floor Medalists

Brooklyn Moors, gold
Enya Pouliot, silver
Montana Fairbairn, bronze

5:02 pm. Challenge Beam Medalists

Lexy Ramler, gold
Sophie Marois, silver
Sayge Urban, bronze

4:59 pm. Challenge Bars Medalists

Irina Alexeeva, gold
Emilie Dumont, silver
Lexy Ramler, bronze

4:57 pm. Challenge Vault Medalists

Sophie Shaver, gold
Shannon Archer & Ilka Juk, tied for silver

4:56 pm. Ooh, Nansy Damianova is one of the award presenters! Along with Ellie Black of course.

4:54 pm. Medalists coming out now! I’ll post official medalists soon.

4:46 pm. I thought Polderman and Waem were tied for third on bars but it looks like Deriks’ score was changed from 13.975 to 14.175, so they’re now tied in fourth. Still waiting on official results though.

4:32 pm. Scores from the final rotation…will update in a minute with who medals on each event! Ceremony starting in a moment.

BARS

Alexeeva 14.05
Dumont 13.75
Ramler 13.625
Castro 12.9
Dick 12.6
Scandella 11.75
Lopez 11.15

BEAM

Malabuyo 14.825
Zubova 13.8
Botnaru 13.775
Hanawa 13.75
Chrobok 13.225
Perea 13.15
Lapp 13.05
Ilyankova 12.775

FLOOR

Klinckaert 14.275
Onyshko 14.25
Olsen 13.975
Thorsdottir 13.925
Rousseau 13.85
Kajita 13.5
Meyers 12.325
Hiraiwa 11.0

4:29 pm. 14.275 for Klinckaert on floor, 13.05 for Lapp on beam.

4:27 pm. I think that’s it! Will post scores in a minute when I see them.

4:23 pm. Klinckaert FX- Can’t get enough of Axelle in this routine. Big double layout, step back. Nails tucked full-in. Falls out of Memmel turn a little. Big double tuck, small hop. Excellent double pike, and once again the crowd LOVES HER.

Lapp BB- Before she goes up she walks up and down the length of the beam slapping it, hahaha. Looks like she’s karate chopping it. Bhs bhs loso, ugh, stumbles back and falls. Side somi, switch ring, steps forward. Side aerial to sissone, good combo, front aerial to sheep jump. 2.5 with a hop.

12.325 for Meyers on floor. 13.75 for Hanawa on beam.

4:20 pm. Meyers FX- Double pike, stumbled OOB, two steps out. Double back a bit short. Switch ring, nice tour jete half, falls out of wolf turn, love this choreo before her last pass! 2.5 with a stumble I think OOB again.

Hanawa BB- Wolf jump to split jump, front aerial, wobble, sheep jump, wobble. Switch to back tuck. Bhs bhs layout is great. Bhs loso loso is also great! Switch ring with a check. Double tuck with a step.

Castro UB- Giant full, Jaeger, toe-on to messy bail, toe shoot, hit double front dismount.

14.25 for Onyshko on floor.

4:19 pm. Dumont UB- Maloney to bail to toe full to toe shoot, Endo half to Markelov, double layout with a hop.

4:16 pm. UB- Piked Jaeger, caught but she can’t hold it, looks a little in pain. Crashed double layout in tears and just leaves the arena. Not sure who this is…stream still has Alexeeva’s name up, sigh. Looks like she’s from Massilia possibly? Alix Scandella?

Perea BB- Full turn, standing full, excellent. Hit jumps, bhs bhs layout, big wobble, holds it, another big wobble, and a fall. Switch to switch half, big wobble. Front aerial to side somi, 2.5 with a step back.

Onyshko FX- Whip whip through to double tuck, little hop back. Tucked full-in. Hit last pass.

Rousseau 13.85 on floor. Zubova 13.8 on beam.

4:12 pm. Alexeeva UB- Toe full to Maloney (leg sep) to Gienger), good. Toe half to layout Jaeger, nice! Great layout form! Bail to toe shoot, double front with a step.

Zubova BB- Her hair in the full-on cornrows tied into pigtails with big white bows is probably the greatest thing on this planet. Front walkover mount to two front aerials to sheep jump, DROOL. Bhs bhs loso, yes! Roundoff layout is perfect. AGAIN RUSSIA, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING WITH HER. Onodi held for a second in handstand then landed on two feet going right into a leap, leap into Korbut, UGH this is bananas good, I can’t even keep up, she’s going so quickly. Double tuck with a step. I’M OBSESSED.

Rousseau FX- Hit first pass and arabian double front second pass. Middle pass hit, 1.5 to double tuck I think. Double pike to finish. Good work!

4:11 pm. Olsen had a 13.975 on floor, 13.625 for Ramler on bars, Botnaru had 13.775 on beam if I missed that before, 13.5 for Kajita on floor.

4:09 pm. Warm-up at the halfway point. Hiraiwa’s floor score changed to 11.0.

4:05 pm. Chrobok BB- Switch to switch half is good. Bhs loso is solid, double turn, slight check. Front aerial, check. Side somi. Switch to split, double pike a tiny bit short.

Thorsdottir FX- She’s standing on the side on her toes for FOREVER, OWWWWW! Her ankles and feet are so heavily taped it looks like she’s wearing Uggs. Double L turn to full pirouette. Double pike stumbled back a little. Leaps and dance are excellent, as per usual. Just love watching her perform. She is haunting. 2.5 to front tuck to stag is perfect. Great routine.

14.825 for Malabuyo on beam!!!!!! WOW. No one’s competing with that. 11.4 for Hiraiwa on floor.

4:02 pm. Malabuyo BB- Double wolf turn, a tiny bit shaky but she controls it. Solid bhs loso loso. Sheep jump. Punch front to sissone. Standing arabian is good. Side aerial, front aerial to split jump to straddle jump, nicely connected. Little stumble on switch ring. Nails double pike.

Hiraiwa FX- Oh good, I get to hear the Addams Family / Home Alone 2 remix again! SERIOUSLY THE WEIRDEST MUSIC COMBO EVER. Hit first pass. Sat double tuck. Also sits 2.5 to finish. Oof.

13.775 for Botnaru on beam. Just now seeing Golgota’s vault average which was 14.225.

3:59 pm. Botnaru BB- Wolf turn is clean. Switch to back tuck, good! Hit bhs layout flight series though it was a bit piked. Leaps and side aerial are good. Great double tuck.

Olsen FX- Double double a bit short, hops. 1.5 through to double tuck with a hop. Triple full, great rotation! This might be one of her best floors yet. Hit double pike to end.

Ramler UB- Endo half to shaposh to pak, van Leeuwen, Tkachev, toe full to full-in. No more Bhardwaj! But a good routine.

13.5 for Kajita on floor. 12.725 for Ilyankova on beam.

3:58 pm. Lopez UB- Struggling a bit on the low bar. Gienger (leg sep), giant half to front giant to double front with a hop.

3:55 pm. Dick UB- Hit Jaeger, pak, toe shoot and full-in. Hit routine!

Ilyankova BB- Roundoff layout with heinous form on the layout, nowhere close to hitting, and she falls. :(  Bhs loso is hit. Switch to split, full Y turn, double tuck with a step back.

Kajita FX- 2.5 to front layout full. Triple full is a little short. Hit middle pass, I think a 2.5. Double tuck to finish.

3:50 pm. Scores for the third rotation…

BARS

Perea 14.275
Soza 14.0
Perebinosova 13.975
Charpy 13.975
Methuen 13.4
Jurca 12.85
Padurariu 12.15

No score for Ilyankova because I don’t think the team streaming the meet knew she competed…they still had Jurca’s name up the whole time Ilyankova was on bars and didn’t acknowledge her.

BEAM

Semple 14.125
Derwael 13.975
Kajita 13.875
Thorsdottir 13.875
Mys 13.675
Onyshko 13.475
Hiraiwa 13.325
R. Woo 13.2

3:46 pm. Derwael BB- Switch to ring leap, excellent. Front aerial to sheep jump, little stumble. Side somi, bhs bhs loso with a wobble, lovely turn, nice extension on her side aerial and she lands it well, Steingruber dismount with a hop. Good work!

13.675 for Mys on beam.

3:43 pm. Mys BB- Switch ring, Onodi with a wobble, think she was supposed to connect it to something. Hit flight series. The rest is good…double pike with a step back.

Soza UB- Giant full to Tkachev, Ray, great handstand before toe half to Ezhova, hit! Toe-on to inbar shoot to high. Full-twisting double layout with a step. Great work!

13.475 for Onyshko on beam.

3:41 pm. Padurariu UB- Inbar half to straddle Jaeger, way too much height and she can’t reach for it. NOOOOO. This was great in warm-ups. Inbar piked Tkachev, bail to stalder to Ray, giant full, big full-in, college stick, definitely looks a bit bummed.

3:39 pm. Onyshko BB- Solid bhs bhs layout! Excellent. Switch to side aerial with a slight adjustment. Hits bhs tuck full but then second guesses the landing and falls. UGH. NOOOO. She’s going to give me as much stress as Ellie does with this skill. Split to wolf jump. Front aerial to switch half, full turn, switch ring, double tuck with a step back.

13.2 for R. Woo’s beam.

3:38 pm. Perea UB- Short first handstand, toe-on to Chow half, very clean! Inbar half to Jaeger caught a bit close. Late toe full to pak, clean van Leeuwen, great last handstand, super straight and clean double layout with a step forward. Just little mistakes.

3:34 pm. Charpy UB- Toe full to Maloney to pak, all good. Van Leeuwen, toe-on to toe half to piked Jaeger, double layout with a tiny hop. Great work!

R. Woo BB- Wolf hop to front aerial, side aerial. I think she wants to connect that as a whole series. Front tuck, wobble and fall. Ugh. Switch ring, weird back leg. Full turn, solid bhs layout, switch to split leap, switch half, double pike with a hop. Great routine fall aside.

13.875 for Kajita on beam.

3:31 pm. Warm-ups now for the second group.

3:29 pm. Fairbairn VT- Handspring front tuck with a hop forward. She has a lot of power for a tiny one! Second vault is a Yurchenko layout with a step back.

Kajita BB- Wolf jump to sissone, switch to back tuck, front aerial to split jump, bhs bhs loso, full Y turn, switch ring, side aerial, triple full with a little hop. Good work!

14.125 for Semple on beam.

3:28 pm. Shaver VT- Second vault is a tsuk layout, good!

3:24 pm. Dick VT- Second vault is a handspring front tuck which she crashes.

Semple BB- Nice bhs loso bhs. Switch to switch half is clean. Side aerial. Double tuck to finish.

Ilyankova UB- Shaposh to clear hip full to Tkachev, great. Ricna, pak a little close, Maloney, front giant half to full-in, step.

Shaver VT- Front handspring pike half-off, a little messy.

13.975 for Perebinosova on bars. 13.875 for Thorsdottir on beam.

3:23 pm. Jurca UB- Ray, giant full, pak catches close and she has to kip cast out of it, toe-on to Maloney, toe-half to front giant, tuck toe-front half. Good work!

Dick VT- FTY, a little short, step back.

3:19 pm. Archer VT- Good FTY. Handspring front tuck for the second vault.

Methuen UB- Toe full to toe-on to Maloney to clear hip to Tkachev, great! Bail to toe shoot. Stuck full-in.

Thorsdottir BB- She’s going in over Polderman. Sissone to side aerial to Korbut, YES. Onodi to sheep jump, slight wobble. Illusion turn, already this is 900% better than Friday. Split leap to front aerial to scale down into her little beam hold in a split. Full L turn, switch to full Y turn to full pirouette, little wobble but YES. Split jump to wolf jump. 2.5, excellent. YAY!!!!!

13.325 for Hiraiwa on beam.

3:17 pm. Perebinosova UB- Saw it from the pak but everything before was hit, some stalders and a Chow maybe, she started before I had my blog up. Toe-on to van Leeuwen, slight form break. Toe full to Tkachev, full-in with a step.

Hiraiwa BB- Front aerial, pause into sheep jump, wobble. Roundoff layout, stumbles but holds onto it. Switch ring with a step. Double wolf turn is a little wild.

Juk VT- FTY, not bad. Handspring front tuck is her second vault, steps back.

3:09 pm. Scores from last rotation, still missing Phillips’ floor score. No vault scores yet.

BARS

Derwael 14.375
Onyshko 14.1
Polderman 14.0
Waem 14.0
Deriks 13.975
Kajita 13.75
Miyakawa 13.275
V. Woo 13.275

FLOOR

Moors 13.55
Pouliot 13.5
Fairbairn 13.325
Pedersen 12.65
Kennedy 12.575
Oke 12.55
Castro 12.4

3:07 pm. Phillips FX- Good double tuck to start. Her music is “Bring Him Home” from Les Mis!!! A good cut too. Punch front full. 2.5 with a step forward. Beautiful!

Pouliot got a 13.5 on floor.

3:05 pm. Soza VT- Second vault is a super clean Yurchenko layout with a step back.

3:02 pm. Golgota VT- Second vault is an FTY, step to the side.

Deriks UB- Toe-on to Komova II to pak, nice! Stalder to Chow to stalder half, giant full, Tkachev, full-in with a slight hop.

Pouliot FX- Good double pike to start out. Very fun routine. Great 2.5. Double tuck is short and she jumps forward.

Soza VT- DTY, very clean, just a step back to steady it.

3:01 pm. Golgota VT- DTY with a slight hop back, just loses ankle form a little right before she lands it.

2:58 pm. Chiles VT- Amanar, deep squat and a big lunge forward. She sat it in warm-ups so that was better. Second is a DTY, second guesses the landing and has a little hop.

Moors FX- Double front, a little too much power and she takes a big step forward and out-of-bounds. Front double full is a tiny bit short. Great extension on her leaps. Rudi. Stumbles her double attitude turn around. 2.5 to finish.

Woo UB- Shaposh to clear hip half, clear hip half to Jaeger, clear hip and then the feed freezes, got it back for the Ray to high but think I only missed the bail, giant full, double layout with a tiny hop.

14.0 for Waem on bars.

2:57 pm. Onyshko UB- Maloney to clear hip full to Tkachev, slightly bent knees. Ricna, pak, slight leg sep. Van Leeuwen form is a litle off. Toe half to front giant to double front with a step forward.

2:54 pm. Kuwajima VT- DTY, very nice form, just a step back. Second vault is a tsuk full with a step over the line.

Waem UB- Ooh Weiler half! Chow to pak, Maloney to bail to toe shoot, toe full to Tkachev, full-in with slightly messy legs.

Fairbairn FX- She is ridiculously adorable. 1.5 through to double tuck, 2.5, double full, all good. Solid double pike to finish! Great job.

2:52 pm. 14.375 for Derwael!

2:49 pm. Warm-ups now for the second half of the rotation.

2:47 pm. Kennedy FX- Scottish national champ! Hop L turn full, 1.5 through to double tuck is solid. Full L turn to full pirouette. Oof, double pike to her knees.

13.275 for Miyakawa on bars. 12.65 for Pedersen on floor. I didn’t see Derwael’s score come up.

2:46 pm. Hanawa VT- Second vault is a handspring front pike with a step forward.

2:45 pm. Hanawa VT- Stuck handspring front pike half-out!

2:42 pm. Methuen VT- Second vault is a handspring front pike with a tiny hop.

Miyakawa UB- Clear hip to stalder to stalder full to blind change to front giant to piked Jaeger. Pak caught super close but she muscles out of it. Toe shoot, and an awesome piked double front!

Pedersen FX- Double tuck, a little cowboyed. Hit 1.5. Solid double pike.

2:41 pm. Methuen VT- Handspring front pike half-out, step back. Good form!

2:39 pm. Castro FX- Goes for Memmel and falls. I think that’s the first time I’ve seen a fall on a turn?! Like a legit fall. Double pike with a hop. Double full with a hop. 2.5 to finish is stumbled.

Derwael UB- Stalder full to Chow to Bhardwaj, YES!!!!! NINA!!!!!! Maloney, Ricna, toe-on to pak, clean van Leeuwen, blind change to front giant half, full-in with a step back.

Kinsella VT- Second vault is a Yurchenko layout with a step back.

13.75 for Kajita’s bars. 14.0 for Polderman!!!

2:38 pm. Kinsella VT- Clean FTY with a step to steady herself.

Looks like Derwael got swapped into the bars final!

2:37 pm. Polderman UB- Inbar to Komova II to pak, beautiful! Toe-on to Maloney to bail to toe shoot, also very nice. So much potential in this routine. Giant full is late, blind change to straddle Jaeger is clean.Toe half, giants, full-in with a hop. Excellent job!

2:36 pm. Chrobok VT- Second vault is an FTY, rebound back.

2:34 pm. Chrobok VT- Yurchenko 1.5, huge rebound forward.

Kajita UB- Inbar half to Jaeger, pak, stalder to inbar to toe shoot, clear hip, stalder full, full-in with two small steps back. Good work!

Oke FX- Double tuck to start is good. Nails double full. Stumbles out of triple pirouette. Double pike with a hop forward.

2:29 pm. The juniors are now on vault, seniors on bars, and Challenge competitors on floor.

2:28 pm. Yes, Malabuyo gets a 14.35 to finish on top of the junior floor field!

2:24 pm. So that’s rotation one! 13.95 for Padurariu on floor. Here are the scores…just missing Malabuyo’s on floor, which I’ll post if they share it. Padurariu is currently leading but Malabuyo could come out on top.

VAULT

Olsen 14.887
Miyakawa 14.612

BEAM

Ramler 13.0
Marois 12.9
Pouliot 12.85
Urban 12.525
Bastien 10.875
Phillips 10.775
Castro 10.725

FLOOR

Malabuyo 14.35
Padurariu 13.95
Cimpian 13.6
Kinsella 13.6
Ilyankova 13.55
Botnaru 13.3
Perebinosova 13.2
Oguchi 12.175

2:22 pm. Malabuyo FX- Great tucked full-in. Wolf turn is a little wild. 1.5 through to 2.5 with a little hop forward. Front double full to stag, a little tiny bit under-rotated. Nails double pike!

The Parkettes girl who was supposed to be in the beam final for the Challenge group must’ve scratched. Tunnell I believe. 13.6 for Cimpian on floor.

2:19 pm. Padurariu FX- 2.5 to barani, nice! She is 800% adorable. 1.5 to front full to stag. Tour jete half to split leap is connected beautifully. Nails double pike. Great work!

2:17 pm. Phillips BB- Front aerial with a little stumble. Split to wolf jump, feet a little flexed. Bhs loso is solid. Full turn, side aerial with a stumble, switch half also stumbles a little. Side somi, another wobble. I don’t know what she was going for on her dismount…a punch front tuck full maybe? She missed her footing and crashed it.

13.7 for Perebinosova on FX. 13.0 for Ramler on beam.

2:15 pm. Cimpian FX- Tucked full-in with a hop. Good double pike. Double attitude turn. Lovely switch ring, then a tour jete half. Triple full with a little stumble. Double tuck, nearly stuck cold. WOW. This was beautiful.

2:12 pm. Ramler BB- Bhs loso loso, great! She just committed to Minnesota, by the way. Nice double turn. Switch to Onodi, lands low and then falls. Nooooo, that was a beautiful combo! Side aerial to wolf jump, check. Switch ring with a wobble. 2.5 with a hop.

2:09 pm. Urban BB- Front aerial, wobble. Side somi. Bhs layout, a little piked. Side aerial. Wobble on full turn but controls it. Double tuck stumbled back three or four steps.

Oguchi FX- LOVE this routine. Big double layout with a hop. 2.5 to front layout with a little skid. Punch front full to front tuck a little low. Stumbles out of 1.5 to finish, and then bows to the judges and then to the crowd. Definitely not as good as yesterday but still love her!

2:07 pm. The second group is warming up now.

2:05 pm. Pouliot BB- Fall, I think on a leap. Good bhs loso, front aerial, side aerial, full Y turn. Side somi is nice. Hit 2.5 dismount very well.

Perebinosova FX- Whip whip through to double tuck, slight stumble back but controls it. 2.5 to front tuck is powerful. 1.5 through to double full. Good LORD this music makes me feel insane. Do we really need the birds tweeting?! Double pike, knee a bit bent on the landing but she stands it up.

2:04 pm. Rose-Kaying Woo opted out of the vault final after warm-ups…I didn’t see her get hurt so I hope she’s okay?!

13.6 for Kinsella on floor.

2:02 pm. Marois BB- Saw it from the full turn but didn’t notice any mistakes before it. Weird back leg on her switch half. Hit double full dismount.

Botnaru FX- Hit tucked full-in and double pike second pass. Stuck double tuck cold. Double full with a little stumble.

1:56 pm. Bastien BB- Off on her flight series. Otherwise okay, and hits double full dismount.

Kinsella FX- “Fiddler on the Roof” which I can’t tell between yesterday and today if I love or hate. Hit first and second passes. Double pike is great. Double tuck with chest down but feet are good.

Miyakawa VT- She crashed pretty much everything in warm-ups. Cheng is super short but she hits it at least. Second vault is a handspring front layout, a huge downgrade from her Rudi. Hop forward.

Olsen had a 14.887 average. Ilyankova had a 13.533 on floor.

1:55 pm. Olsen VT- Her second vault is a Yurchenko half-on 1.5 tuck off, a little messy but hit.

1:53 pm. Olsen VT- Hit DTY, perhaps a little short.

Castro BB- Front aerial with a wobble. Bhs layout is pretty piked. Switch to wolf jump. Full turn. A wobble on something after that. 2.5 is a half rotation short, and she kind of stumbles it around from a double.

Ilyankova FX- Her walk out is super regal. Tucked full-in with a slight hop. 2.5 to front tuck, good. Hit double pike. Clean double L turn. Finishes with a solid, albeit slightly cowboyed double tuck.

1:51 pm. Here we go!

1:46 pm. The athletes are marching out now.

1:45 pm. Ellie is addressing the crowd now. She’s talking about dreams and working hard for 2016 and achieving dreams and enjoying the competition. Sweet.

1:40 pm. They’re bringing out Gymnix ambassadors, including Ellie Black to HUGE applause, announcing her as a medalist at yesterday’s American Cup.

1:37 pm. They’re just finishing the flash mob dance performance thing, so the athletes should come out in a minute.

1:32 pm. Beginning in rotation one we’ll see…

Vault- Rose-Kaying Woo, Shallon Olsen, Sae Miyakawa

Beam- Simona Castro, Marjorie Bastien, Sophie Marois, Claire Tunnell, Enya Pouliot, Sayge Urban, Lexy Ramler, Megan Phillips

Floor- Anastasia Ilyankova, Alice Kinsella, Alisia Botnaru, Uliana Perebinosova, Mana Oguchi, Olivia Cimpian, Ana Padurariu, Emma Malabuyo

1:31 pm. They’re still doing pre-meet stuff, I think they’re just about to have the march-in.

1:25 pm. Event finals will be underway in about five minutes with the seniors starting on vault, the Challenge competitors starting on beam, and the juniors starting on floor.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

Enjoy these photos from the senior all-around and team warm-ups and competition on Friday evening, thanks to Alexandra Leask.

Team Canada

Yuna Hiraiwa, Japan

Rune Hermans, Belgium

Rune Hermans, Belgium

Eythora Thorsdottir, Netherlands

Shallon Olsen, Canada

Rose-Kaying Woo, Canada

Victoria-Kayen Woo, Canada

Shallon Olsen, Canada

Isabela Onyshko, Canada

Yuna Hiraiwa, Japan

Yuna Hiraiwa, Japan

Isabela Onyshko, Canada

Victoria-Kayen Woo, Canada

Cindy Vandenhole, Belgium

Yuna Hiraiwa, Japan

Yuna Hiraiwa, Japan

Sae Miyakawa, Japan

Eythora Thorsdottir, Netherlands

Kirsten Polderman, Netherlands

Eythora Thorsdottir, Netherlands

Eythora Thorsdottir, Netherlands

Isabela Onyshko, Canada

Photos thanks to Alexandra Leask

Four years after defeating Jordyn Wieber to unofficially win the American Cup title, 2012 Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas has done it for real.

With one of the strongest overall performances of her comeback and perhaps one of her best beam sets ever, Douglas has reached yet another milestone on the “still don’t think my comeback is real?” measuring stick. As if winning a silver medal a point behind Simone Biles at worlds last year wasn’t proof enough.

Though she looked a bit shaky in training earlier in the week, we knew it was nothing to worry about. Douglas is a competitor above all else, meaning she may not put it all out there behind closed doors, though when the pressure’s on, so is she. Though she came onto the table a bit low on vault, causing lower-than-normal amplitude and leading the gymternet to somehow assume this means she is severely degressing (you guys aren’t dramatic or anything, are you?), her clean form and stuck landing got her a meet-best 15.1 and the rest of her day was fantastic, with top scores on bars and beam as well.

On bars, she added the Chow half – a stalder shaposh with a half twist – into the mix, picking up some difficulty there, while on beam she looked more confident than I’ve ever seen her. Her standing full led to multiple falls in training, but she nailed it with a smirk when it counted, one of the highlights of her aggressive “told ya so” set on Saturday afternoon. And while floor still isn’t a standout event for Douglas, she did well enough there to seal the deal, finishing five tenths above silver medalist and 2015 worlds teammate Maggie Nichols with a 60.165.

For Nichols, it was the first time we really saw her step into the spotlight on her own as an all-arounder. Two years ago, in her second year as a senior, she mostly tagged along behind top dogs Simone Biles and the now-retired Kyla Ross, winning bronze behind them at both classics and nationals before an injury at Pan Ams took her out of contention for a spot at worlds.

When she returned from injury six months later, we saw the makings of a brand-new gymnast. She had upgrades everywhere, and while a fluke fall at Jesolo kept her down in the standings there, by the time summer came along she was basically now the one to beat in the playing field that doesn’t include Biles. A silver medal finish at nationals and a surprise bronze on floor at worlds upped her star quite a bit, cementing her A team status and putting her on the fast-track to Rio.

Getting the American Cup assignment was still a surprise to Nichols, however. She’s still getting used to her gymnastics stardom, though if there are nerves they didn’t show for even a second this weekend. While her performance could still withstand some fine-tuning, especially in the form department, judges seem to love her and her big beam upgrades – taking her up six tenths from worlds – were very well-received.

She did downgrade from the Amanar to the DTY, which worried some fans, though it seems like both she and Douglas said they were taking it slow at their first meet of the season. She’s also missing a few connections on bars, where I was hoping to see the most improvement this year, but it seems the focus is on cleaning up what she already has before going for broke this summer. A 59.699 this early in the season is certainly great, so if she can use that and build from it, it’s going to be a fantastic year.

In all, the Americans were prepared, confident, and solid, their early season performances showing yet again why they’re so successful when it counts later on. Given their hiatus since worlds and trying to peak five months from now, I didn’t set super high expectations, and both Douglas and Nichols exceeded what I imagined from them both.

Ellie Black of Canada was the only non-U.S. gymnast to make it through the competition with no falls, so it was no surprise to see her come in for the bronze medal with a 57.132. She pushed some warm-up struggles on vault and beam out of her mind to come back mentally on fire for the competition, hitting everything including her tricky tuck full on beam. It wasn’t the cleanest performance, but it was without a doubt one of her most solid, an especially big deal coming back from multiple falls at Elite Canada a month earlier.

The British gymnast Amy Tinkler wasn’t far behind Black going into the final rotation, and given her typically strong work on floor when she hits, it looked like she might actually sneak up and take it. Unfortunately, however, she just lost stamina coming out of her 1.5 into the double tuck, her third pass, and crashed it, getting a 13.066 on the event and finishing fourth with a 55.932.

But even though it didn’t work out for Tinkler, she came into the meet with some major new upgrades, including getting her standing full back on beam in addition to adding a triple layout stepout series there as well as a tricky Maloney to Tkachev combo on bars. She hit all of these upgrades like she’d been doing them for years, and proved to be a fantastic little beam worker, getting her best score ever on that event – a 14.2 – thanks to her new 6.1 start value (her highest   score before that was a 13.8, so yeah, this is big). Given that beam is a huge question mark for the British team, I’d say Tinkler’s day was a major success and should give her a ton of confidence going into the selection process later this year.

Carlotta Ferlito of Italy was right behind Tinkler with a 55.932, showing a mostly strong performance aside from a fluke bars dismount fall, hitting her arabian double front after getting zero height off the bar. Otherwise, she seemed very relaxed at this meet, and seemed to be truly enjoying herself.

Though her execution score doesn’t really reflect it, Ferlito had the best floor routine of the day, hands down, sticking nearly everything while putting her heart and soul into the performance aspect. It was seriously a highlight of the competition, though her difficulty definitely holds her back a bit. The gym where she trains lacks proper floor equipment, so she is shooting for some upgrades there – including a double layout – but can only train these skills once a week at Brixia Brescia, so they’re not coming along quite as quickly as she’d hope. But even so, the work she does do is fantastic, and she also put up gorgeous work on beam, making her bars fall the only sour point in her day.

Rounding out the field were Mai Murakami of Japan in sixth with a 54.431, Tabea Alt of Germany in seventh with a 54.399, Tisha Volleman of the Netherlands in eighth with a 52.666, and Lorrane Oliveira in ninth with a 50.298.

Perhaps it was the long flight from halfway around the world, or not attending a couple of the podium training sessions, but Murakami looked a bit tired and unprepared at this meet, which was a bummer as she’s usually one I really look forward to. Alt, meanwhile, made her senior debut looking fresh and hitting big skills – including a side aerial to layout stepout to layout stepout – but second-guessing herself on her easier skills, falling on a straddle jump of all things on that event. Still, her score of 13.3 on beam was better than what most German beam scores reach for hit routines, so a little more high-pressure experience could definitely help her out.

With her low difficulty across the board, Volleman was never really in the meet, though I was impressed with her beautiful FTY vault and a hit bars set. Her all-around score was a couple of points shy of her potential, however, after a fall on her triple full in her awesome new Brazilian-style floor routine as well as a stumble on beam that caused her to get docked in execution in addition to missing out on a flight series. Still, I enjoyed her and her attitude and passion going into the meet, and think she’s definitely on the short list for those who can help the Dutch make it to the team final in Rio.

Finally, Oliveira. Oliveira, Oliveira, Oliveira. My heart broke for this kid, the one with the cleanest and strongest work in training all week but who kept getting more and more frustrated with each mistake, finishing last on each event (except vault) when she should have been in the mix for bronze. It looked like a case of wanting it too badly, her adrenaline on overdrive and causing her to miss skills she can hit in her sleep.

Her lovely piked Jaeger on bars got way more height and distance than necessary, resulting in a scary first fall of the afternoon, as she seemed shocked by her positioning in the air and didn’t have time to brace correctly, bouncing forward and looking stunned by the impact. Like Alt, she hit her difficult skills and combos on beam, but then went for a switch leap combo and missed her footing for her second fall of the day. By the time it was her turn for floor, she seemed frustrated but super mad, and I was really hoping for a revenge routine…but she sat both the Dos Santos in her first pass and then her double tuck to finish.

I think every year at the American Cup there’s someone who comes in and just blows it completely, like Claudia Fragapane last year. There’s no doubt in my mind Oliveira – who is the reigning national champion and one of the five already named to Brazil’s team for the test event – can come back from this looking better than ever. She has the skills and the talent, and now she even has the disaster meet out of the way. Every gymnast has one. At least for Oliveira, it happened here, and not in front of a home crowd in Rio next month.

She still has a few more opportunities to put this behind her – including the low-pressure Jesolo meet next week – and if anything, she can use this as a learning experience. Her rise to the top last year was almost too good, going from a maybe for the worlds team to having the best performance for her country in Glasgow and then becoming national champion a month later. This was a kick in the pants every athlete gets at one time or another, and how she rises up from failure is only going to make her a better gymnast in the future when it counts.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

The lineup for the World Cup in Glasgow has undergone many changes since it was first released in January.

Due to an injury, Maegan Chant of Canada has been replaced by teammate Madison Copiak and Vera van Pol of the Netherlands will replace her teammate Lieke Wevers, who is not injured but wasn’t yet ready for competition. In addition, Kelly Simm of Great Britain, Xie Yufen of China, and now Maria Kharenkova of Russia have all withdrawn, with Germany’s Elisabeth Seitz stepping in as a replacement.

The remaining competitors in the list of seven include Claudia Fragapane of Great Britain, Enus Mariani of Italy, Asuka Teramoto of Japan, and MyKayla Skinner of the United States.

Though she was only an alternate for the worlds team last year, Skinner is coming into this competition as the one to beat. She has looked fantastic in training so far this year, hitting this super impressive Amanar a couple of days ago, and with hit routines she’s capable of reaching 58+ in the all-around, putting her in a really good place at the top of the field. It’s a good reminder that while she’s not considered the ‘best of the best’ at home, she is still a dominating force internationally, a testament to the immense depth in the United States.

Fragapane also has a lot to offer and has the benefit of competing at home, though I’m leery as to where she stands right now. Due to injury, the last time she competed all four events was at European Championships nearly a year ago, though she looked absolutely fabulous on vault and floor at worlds in October. She tends to start out a bit weak at the first meet of the season and build from there, and her generally low-scoring bars are a bit of a mystery, so I’m still at a loss as to how she’ll do tomorrow. If she hits all four, she could be fantastic and has the ability to challenge Skinner…but if she really struggles, especially the way she did in her first meet last year, we could see her at the bottom of the barrel. In the interest of a good meet, I’m hoping for the former.

Another big contender is Teramoto. She is generally a pretty consistent competitor with pretty solid routines everywhere but floor, and if she hits everything, she could end up in the 56-57 all-around zone pretty easily. Her Rudi vault boosts her quite a bit if she hits, though it’s something she has struggled with several times in the past, and both her bars and beam should score well enough to make up for a lower score on floor. But hitting will be key, so let’s hope her game is on this early in the year.

Then there’s Seitz, who on paper should be a top contender for the podium, but who often struggles with hitting all four events when it counts. She’s fortunate to have already competed once this year at last weekend’s National Team Cup in Germany, winning the bronze medal even with a fall on bars. Realistically, she’s capable of scores in the high 55-low 56 range on a good day, but she really does rely on a big score from the uneven bars to carry her through. Last year, she competed on bars 13 times and had only two routines with falls, which is a fantastic record, but her struggles on beam and floor often left her short at big meets like the European Games and the all-around final at worlds.

Mariani won’t challenge for the podium unless she has a perfect day and one of the above four makes big mistakes, though if she comes in strong and hits all four, she’s capable of a solid score in the mid-55 range. She’s competed at two of Italy’s Serie A meets so far this year, meaning some of the new-season jitters are out of the way. Last weekend, she added an inbar into her Jaeger on bars – a great upgrade for Italy! – but didn’t count the Jaeger and counted a fall there. However, she was third-best on beam with a 14.0. In February, she had the highest bars score of the meet but had a disastrous beam for just an 11.35. Clearly, when she hits her scores are good enough to make her one of the top gymnasts on each event in her country, but whether she can make it through from start to finish without issue is the big question.

I don’t think Copiak or van Pol will put up much of a fight, with Copiak earning two mid-53 range scores so far this season at Elite Canada and Gymnix and van Pol averaging about a 52 in 2015, but again, you never know what can happen, especially with Copiak. While her routines don’t boast much in terms of difficulty, she is generally quite good at staying consistent with everything, so it would be cool to see that carry over here. But generally these two, both of whom are subbing in for teammates and weren’t on their respective worlds teams, realistically will not challenge.

The Glasgow World Cup begins tomorrow at 1 pm local time (Glasgow is five hours ahead of EST). For more information, including how to watch, check out our coverage guide.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

Welcome to the live blog for the 2016 Glasgow World Cup! Refresh your browser for updates every few minutes. The most recent updates will appear on the top.

12:07 pm. Final standings…

1. MyKayla Skinner, USA, 56.999
2. Elisabeth Seitz, Germany, 55.732
3. Claudia Fragapane, Great Britain, 55.398
4. Asuka Teramoto, Japan, 54.765
5. Enus Mariani, Italy, 54.432
6. Madison Copiak, Canada, 53.233
7. Vera van Pol, Netherlands, 51.465

12:03 pm. 13.633 for Skinner means she will win the gold with a 56.999! Remember when her bars were her second-best event today?! LOVE IT. But floor scoring was BRUUUUTAL for everyone.

12:00 pm. Floor scoring has been MONSTROUSLY tight today. It’ll be interesting to see how they take in Skinner’s work. AWWWW SEITZ is SO happy when she sees her score!!!!

Skinner, USA, FX- Double double layout is back, but it’s VERY loose and she’s OOB. Tucked double double is AWESOME though, nearly stuck. Leaps look better for sure. Wolf turn is actually super controlled. Tucked full-in right into the corner, small hop. Triple full is under-rotated about a quarter turn. Had its good moments but also its bad.

11:56 am. 13.233 for Seitz means she’ll finish at 55.732 ahead of Fragapane. Skinner will need a 12.367 to come up for gold.

11:54 am. Seitz, Germany, FX- 2.5 with a step forward, good start, looked clean in the air. 1.5 through to double tuck, a bit low in the chest but great landing with her feet. Good amplitude on her leaps. Sassy choreo before her double full. Probably just wants to hit well and isn’t going overboard with difficulty. Double pike, knees bent on landing but she hits well and is SO happy. Good for her!

11:51 am. 13.033 for Teramoto, meaning Fragapane will jump ahead and medal! 54.065 for Teramoto. Now Seitz needs a 12.9 to come in for silver.

11:49 am. Teramoto, Japan, FX- Triple full is lovely to start her off. Great landing and pretty much perfect rotation. Falls out of Memmel turn into the full pirouette though. 2.5 to front tuck with a skid forward, looked like her foot grazed the line. Triple spin is short. Front double full with a slight hop. SUPPLE ALERT. Her leaps are supple. Eeeeesh. Double pike with a hop back.

11:42 am. Warmups for the second flight!

11:39 am. 14.366 on floor brings Fragapane to a 55.398 all-around! AGAIN, SHAME about the bars fall. Teramoto will need a 13.666 to tie her.

11:34 am. Fragapane, Great Britain, FX- Full-twisting double layout is landed very well. Form might be a tiny bit loose. Good double arabian to stag. Triple full a little shy in terms of rotation. Double layout a tiny bit short, hops forward, but overall, she’s gotta be VERY happy with that. Shame about the bars fall.

11:32 am. Christine is acting like Mariani hasn’t been back for nearly a year and a half at this point, lol. She definitely came back at the Mexican Open in 2014…13.433 for her on floor, for a 54.432!

11:29 am. Mariani, Italy, FX- They need to stop pronouncing her name “ANUS.” Tucked full-in, good height, some loose form, step back. Double tuck. Tour jete full. I know her music from the opening dance hall scene from Schindler’s List. “Por una Cabeza.” Double pike with a small hop. Good work.

11:27 am. 12.833 for Copiak, who finishes her day with a 53.233.

11:23 am. Copiak, Canada, FX- Tucked full-in, good landing, just slightly down with her chest. Switch to tour jete half, good control. 2.5 with a great landing and solid form throughout. Good double pike with a slight hop. Great day for her, really.

11:22 am. 12.566 for van Pol’s floor. She finishes her day with a 51.465 all-around.

11:19 am. Van Pol, Netherlands, FX- Double arabian to start, big step forward. 2.5 with a slight stumble. Memmel turn is a little short. Good double pike. Nice to see her hit…that was the least “Dutch” floor routine I think I’ve seen this quad! Still some great aspects to her choreography though.

 11:13 am. Floor lineup is van Pol, Copiak, Mariani, Fragapane, Teramoto, Seitz, then Skinner.

11:12 am. Going into the final rotation…

1. MyKayla Skinner 43.366
2. Elisabeth Seitz 42.499
3. Asuka Teramoto 41.732
4. Claudia Fragapane 41.032
5. Enus Mariani 40.999
6. Madison Copiak 40.4
7. Vera Van Pol 38.899

11:07 am. 13.5 for Skinner’s beam, narrows the gap between her and Seitz but she still has a huge lead going onto her second best apparatus. 43.366 going into the final rotation.

11:03 am. Skinner, USA, BB- Needs a 12.633 to reach Seitz. Bhs tuck full, big wobble but holds it. OY tuck fulls are going to be THE DEATH OF ME. Side aerial to sissone. Switch to switch half to back tuck, probably her best amplitude EVER on the switch half though she sacrificed some back leg form for it. Full L turn to full pirouette, nice. Standing back pike. Split jump to wolf jump. Double tuck, tiny bounce.

11:02 am. 13.766 for Seitz on beam, one of her better scores there.

10:59 am. Seitz, Germany, BB- Split jump mount. Punch front tuck, wobble. Bhs layout, a little piked but solid. Side somi, front aerial, double turn with a check, but of the double spins so far it’s the most controlled. Side aerial, switch to split amplitude is off on both, stuck gainer layout off the end. For her that was great and must be such a relief!!!

10:57 am. 13.566 for Teramoto.

10:54 am. Teramoto, Japan, BB- Double turn, check. Onodi, a check then a bobble, side somi. Wish she connected the two! Bhs bhs loso is solid and clean. Switch half. Switch to side aerial, step back after a check. Front aerial to sissone, wobble. Split leap to split jump. 2.5 with a little hop. Wish she didn’t have all of the balance issues!

10:44 am. 13.4 for Mariani.

10:40 am. Mariani, Italy, BB- Split jump to wolf jump. DRINK, Christine called her supple! Ring jump, but back leg isn’t bent much at all, switch to front aerial to scale. Bhs loso has great extension. Full Y turn. Switch, no amplitude. Sissone to side aerial, check. Side somi, piked, lovely extension. As much as I dislike tucked side somis, that’s how much I love them piked. Christine called her supple again! Double pike with a step back. Best beam so far.

10:39 am. 12.9 for Copiak’s beam. 4.9 D.

10:36 am. Copiak, Canada, BB- Switch to back tuck, nice. Double spin, very clean, just a check at the end. Side aerial, leg up. Split jump to wolf jump. Switch half, leg up. Great side somi. Solid bhs loso. She’s gonna be SO good for Washington next year, I’m already so excited for them. Gainer pike off the end. Again, easy, but mostly clean work aside from the wobbles. Good job, Madison!

10:34 am. 14.066 for Fragapane! Imagine if she could clean that up? 6.5 D.

10:30 am. Fragapane, Great Britain, BB- Standing arabian with a big bobble but she fights. Switch to sheep, flexed feet and open knees. Bhs layout full is super piked and she wobbles but Christine thinks it’s “REALLY good!” Full turn, slight check. Standing full, leg up. Well, granted, she’s staying on for some HUGE skills. Hits jump series. Side aerial, slight adjustment. Double pike with a hop. Form and wobbles aside that was great for her.

10:29 am. 12.366 for van Pol on beam.

10:26 am. Van Pol, Netherlands, BB- Solid bhs loso loso! Just slight form errors with her knees. Quick switch to switch side, but again with loose knees. Full-twisting back handspring but is a little off-center and falls, sadly. Standing back tuck. Ooh, a switch 3/4! Messy again though. 2.5 with a step. Promising but I don’t think she EVER hits when she needs to.

10:22 am. Lineup for beam is van Pol, Fragapane, Copiak, Mariani, Teramoto, Seitz, and Skinner.

10:16 am. 14.3 for Skinner’s bars! HA. Second best. YAS QUEEN.

10:14 am. Skinner, USA, UB- Hop change to Weiler half to Maloney to pak (leg sep, flexed feet), actually a really solid connection series though so that’s good for her, van Leeuwen (messy), toe full (late and messy) to Tkachev, Ray, full-in nearly stuck. Definitely gonna be deduction-heavy, she’s certainly looked cleaner, but hit!

10:13 am. 12.5 for Fragapane.

10:10 am. Fragapane, Great Britain, UB- Oof, here we go. Toe-on to Maloney, toe-half (ankle sep, short) to piked Jaeger, grasps the bar but pings off onto her feet. Church to pak, knees are FULLY bent on the pike lol, it’s literally fully tucked, toe shoot, toe full to double layout, with a hop. Cool dismount sequence with a pirouette straight into a DLO! It’s a big deal to see a pirouette into a tucked full, so this is awesome.

10:09 am. 13.933 for Teramoto. 5.9 d-score. They must’ve hammered the form on her pirouettes.

10:06 am. Teramoto, Japan, UB- I love the gold glitter on this leo. Inbar full (ankle sep) to Gienger, nice. Inbar to stalder half to Jaeger, stalder full (messy legs) to bail to toe shoot, and she finishes with a full-out, STUCK COLD!!!!! YAS Asuka.

10:05 am. Warmups for the second flight!

10:01 am. 13.3 for Copiak.

10:00 am. Copiak, Canada, UB- Hop change to pike Jaeger, great! Clear hip to toe full to pak, form is actually looking great today. Toe-on to Maloney to bail to toe shoot, all superb. Short handstand before giants, full-in comes off a little early, step forward and chest down. Easy routine comparatively but she keeps getting better and better at it.

9:59 am. 13.666 for Mariani.

9:58 am. “This is the first major competition Mariani has competed in after all of her injuries following her 2012 junior Euros win” – Christine who apparently doesn’t consider world championships last year “major” enough.

9:56 am. Seitz gets a 14.8, 6.6 start value.

Mariani, Italy, UB- Wonder if she’ll try the inbar half into the Jaeger today? Maloney to bail to stalder full to Ray, good. Stalder half to Jaeger, good, no inbar risk. Ricna, a bit low. Stalder half a little short in handstand, and a double layout with a step forward. She’ll take it!

9:53 am. 12.7 for van Pol. Ugh, a 13.7+ would’ve been AWESOME for her.

Seitz, Germany, UB- Maloney to Ricna, yas! Muscles hop change to straddle Jaeger, a Downie to pak I think?? I think it was a Downie, but it froze a bit, either way it was def a Tkachev release of some sort, van Leeuwen, toe full to full-in with a slight step. A little watered down I think? But still great!

9:51 am. Van Pol, Netherlands, UB- Great handstand to start, toe-on to Tkachev to pak (legs apart and feet fully flexed), Maloney to bail to toe shoot, some form issues. Blind change to straddle Jaeger, she’s a very frantic bars worker. Hop full to messy form double arabian dismount, and she sits it. UGH. Too bad. Wasn’t the cleanest routine but she was hitting from start to finish.

9:50 am. This feed gradually keeps getting more and more terrible which wasn’t so bad for vault because it was quick but I feel like it’s going to be obnoxious during bars and the rest.

9:46 am. Lineup for bars is Van Pol, Seitz, Mariani, Copiak, Teramoto, Fragapane, and Skinner.

9:41 am. Big 15.566 for Skinner, so a 9.266 e-score, best of the day! And it puts her over a point ahead of the rest of the competition going into the second rotation.

9:40 am. Skinner, USA, VT- Eeeee here we go! Actually an EXCELLENT Amanar in the air, form is tight until the final bit of the twist when her knees start to get a little loose, lands straight down the middle, step forward.

9:38 am. 13.933 for Seitz.

9:36 am. Seitz, Germany, VT- Excited to see her today. Hope she can actually hit all four. Huge FTY, great height and distance. Clean leg form, slightly piked hips, hop back.

9:34 am. 13.833 for van Pol…that bounce back did her in a bit in her e-score.

9:33 am. Van Pol, Netherlands, VT- Huge and beautiful FTY! A little too much power so she rebounds back again but YAS, best vault so far in terms of form I think.

9:29 am. Warmups for the second flight now. Back in a few!

9:28 am. 14.233 for Teramoto.

9:26 am. Teramoto, Japan, VT- I didn’t see her warmup vault so I don’t know if she’ll do the Rudi or not…I hope! Oh, nope, just the handspring front layout half but it’s GORGEOUS, much better than her Rudi has ever EVER looked. Pikes down a bit at the end but for the most part it’s lovely. Slight hop back.

9:25 am. Oh, Fragapane’s vault was 14.466. That makes much more sense.

9:24 am. 13.933 for Mariani.

9:23 am. Mariani, Italy, VT- FTY, again a little piked in the hips, but her leg form is better, a little angled down on the landing and she hops forward.

9:22 am. I think Fragapane had a 14.666 and Copiak had a 14.2.

9:19 am. Copiak, Canada, VT- Yurchenko 1.5, landed right down the middle but basically with locked legs almost, takes a small step back. Her hips are a bit piked, and she loses leg form.

9:15 am. Fragapane, Great Britain, VT- Looked similar to her warm-up. Very open tucked DTY, landed maybe half of a quarter short in rotation rather than a full quarter. Hops back to center.

9:12 am. Claudia’s warmup DTY is super tucked and about a quarter twist short. Copiak did an FTY and then hopped around a half so maybe she’ll go for a 1.5 in the competition?

9:11 am. The order for vault will be Fragapane, Copiak, Maraini, Teramoto, van Pol, Seitz, and Skinner.

9:09 am. About to begin live blogging in a few moments when the women begin! No offense to the men but I am terrible at doing quick hits for MAG so trust me, you don’t want to see that.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

While MyKayla Skinner didn’t get the chance to compete in Glasgow at the world championships last October, instead watching her team win gold from the sidelines, she returned to the Scottish city to earn a gold medal all her own at the world cup this weekend.

Skinner went into the meet as the favorite to win, based on her strong levels of difficulty as well as her impressive ability to hit when it counts. Though she faced some big competition from gymnasts like Germany’s Elisabeth Seitz and the local favorite Claudia Fragapane (whose own history in Glasgow included multiple gold medals at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 as well as an historic team bronze for Great Britain last year), Skinner went four-for-four to come out with a win that set her over a point above the competition.

Her Amanar has given her some trouble in recent years, with the Cheng and her excellent DTY her go-to vaults instead, though she’s been working very hard on bringing it back with her Glasgow performance the litmus test. She actually did a fantastic job with it, getting a great block and looking clean in the air, bending her knees only slightly in the last half twist to prep for the landing, which had a big step forward. Even with the minor mistakes, it earned a 15.566 to set her over a point ahead of the competition going into the second rotation.

Her score of 14.3 on bars was her best score ever on this event, domestic and international competition combined. While she did have some noticeable form breaks on her pak, van Leeuwen, and toe full, the rest of her routine showed how hard she’s been working on the event, which shows much better technical ability and some awesome aggressive skills like her hop change to Weiler half to Maloney to pak (I loooooved this combo!) as well as a Tkachev and a Ray. It’s like watching Aly Raisman’s own improvement on bars…you know this event will never be a strength, but her sheer determination and work ethic at turning a bad event into what ended up being her second-best score of the day after mistakes on beam and floor is incredibly admirable. Many in her situation give up completely on their weak events, but Skinner has raised her start value to a 6.1 while also improving on her form. Kudos to her.

Beam was okay for Skinner, though her difficulty there was actually quite low in comparison to her other events as well as to the other competitors, so a big wobble on her tuck full flight series took a toll, giving her a 13.5 on what was a very tightly-judged event. But as with bars, the name of the game here for Skinner was improvement, which is exactly what we saw with the amplitude on her leaps. She is finally hitting 180, and though she did sacrifice a bit of back leg form on her switch half , it was otherwise strong work and a noticeable improvement. The same can be said for her leaps on floor, which never hit 180 but did this weekend. She did face some huge deductions on the event, however, as her form on her Moors was a bit loose (she’s bringing it back to competition after scrapping it for a little while) and she also under-rotated her triple full by about a quarter turn, though given that this is a big upgrade from 2015, I’ll give her some time before I get too critical. In addition to her great work on her leaps, she had an awesome tucked double double and a beautifully-controlled wolf turn, earning a 13.633.

The day wasn’t perfect, but for every glitch, she had twice as many positives, coming away with a 56.999 all-around score and the confidence that comes with a big international win this early in the season, which should surely help her as she goes into Jesolo this weekend.

Seitz, in second place with a 55.732, looked so unbelievably happy after finishing her own four-for-four performance a week after counting a fall at the National Team Cup in Germany. With a big and clean FTY earning a 13.933 and a huge bars routine getting a 14.8, Seitz got off to a great start on her two best events, though I always get concerned when it comes to her beam and floor.

No need for concern this time, though! Her beam was one of the best I’ve seen from her, earning a 13.766 for one of the calmest sets of the day, including on her nicely-controlled double spin. She watered down her floor quite a bit, going for consistency over big difficulty, but the choice was a good one, as she looked mostly clean overall for a 13.233.

As a side note, in general I thought all floor scores were about half a point lower than they should’ve been. Seitz is a good example, as she had no real issues aside from minor deductions, and yet had only a 7.933 execution score, which I found quite low given her performance. There were only two e-scores above an 8.0, with Fragapane’s 8.166 the highest. The judges were at least consistent in their stinginess, but in addition to my confusion regarding the scores, you could also see it on the athletes’ faces as they saw their low totals come up for fully hit routines.

Speaking of Fragapane, once she got through her two weak opening routines, she started showing shades of the gymnast we know and love. Her DTY on vault has never been clean, but it’s certainly seen better days, looking almost fully tucked and still coming in short on the landing for a 14.466. And on bars, she added some great upgrades – including a monstrously cool giant full straight into her double layout dismount! – but her form was mostly messy and she counted a fall on her piked Jaeger to score just a 12.5. I have to give her credit, though, because like Skinner this is generally a weak event for her, and yet she does some very difficult work, which is commendable.

But this didn’t matter, because she didn’t let this early fall get to her later in the meet. In fact, she came back bigger and stronger than ever on beam with an immense 6.5 start value that included huge skills and combos like a standing arabian, a layout full flight series, and a standing full, because why not do two fulls in one beam set?! Last year I worried about the Brits getting big beam sets together but with Amy Tinkler’s upgrades at American Cup and now Fragapane’s equally impressive work here, I think they’ve figured it out. She was very wobbly throughout, earning just a 7.566 e-score for a hit routine, but she’ll get that under control.

Finishing up on floor, Fragapane gave us one of the best performances of the day, earning a 14.366 after hitting her full-twisting double layout, a double arabian to stag, a triple full (a bit shy of full rotation), and a double layout in her final pass. Some of her form and landings weren’t great, but it was a mostly excellent job and she managed to pull herself up to a 55.398 all-around even with her bars fall.

Asuka Teramoto of Japan was fourth with a 54.765. She had no major mistakes in her competition, but lots and lots of little mistakes added up, unfortunately leaving her unable to take advantage of Fragapane’s fall. She opted for a handspring layout half on vault, which was her best work of the day, looking beautiful in the air before piking down on the landing for a 14.233. Moving to bars, she earned a 13.933, getting quite hammered for messy legs and ankle separation on nearly all of her pirouettes, including her inbar full and stalder full, though the rest was lovely work and she stuck her full-out cold.

She’s a world class beam worker, but in Glasgow, Teramoto wobbled or had adjustments on nearly every skill aside from her flight series, earning just a 13.566 for a hit routine, which is probably about a full point (or more!) lower in execution than she’s capable of. A shame, as it was her best way to bring in a big score, with her work on floor not difficult enough to earn much there. While her tumbling on floor was clean, aside from a skid forward on her 2.5 to front tuck, she fell out of both of her turn sequences for just a 13.033.

Italy’s Enus Mariani had a day comparable to Teramoto, with hit routines but not enough difficulty to challenge, placing fifth with a 54.432. She showed some slight form issues on her FTY for a 13.933 and did some solid work on bars for a 13.666, where there were no real form breaks, though she doesn’t quite have the confidence there to make her skills look big and bold.

On beam, she showed beautiful extension on her side somi and on her bhs loso, but her leaps needed work and she had a couple of balance adjustments for a 13.4, getting a relatively good e-score of 8.0 though her difficulty was definitely not all that impressive. The same can be said about her floor, where I think she actually had the cleanest and one of the best-performed routines of the day, but again her difficulty was unfortunately too low for her score to look stronger than a 13.433.

Madison Copiak of Canada also had a successful – albeit low-difficulty – competition for a 53.233, hitting a Yurchenko 1.5 for a 14.2, a simple but beautiful bar routine for a 13.3, another simple but lovely beam routine for a 12.9 (her d-score was only 4.9 but she had one of the cleanest routines of the day), and then – you guessed it – a simple but nicely-performed floor routine for a 12.833.

Finishing in last place with a 51.465 was Vera van Pol of the Netherlands, the alternate for their worlds team last year. Starting her day with a huge and lovely FTY for a 13.833, she moved on to earn a 12.7 on bars for what was a hit routine until she sat her double arabian dismount, a bummer after seeing her do so well until that point. She is a very frantic and frenzied bar worker, and maybe got ahead of herself causing her to come off a little earlier than she intended to not get the rotation she needed to hit.

Van Pol earned a 12.366 on beam where she showed some big skills like a switch 3/4 and a full-twisting back handspring, though she unfortunately fell on this skill to count her second fall of the day. Finally, her hit floor routine went for a 12.566. For the Dutch, her tumbling was a little more than what we’re used to seeing, including a double arabian, a 2.5, and a double pike, though she had considerable landing deductions, and she didn’t bolster her difficulty with intricate turn sequences, leaving her still a bit low in that department at a 5.0 start value.

In all, I think the day went almost exactly as I had expected it to go, and I’m not surprised that Fragapane was able to find herself on the podium with a fall after coming back with such difficult work on beam and then her untouchable performance on floor. I did hope we’d see better work from Teramoto, but in the end even with the super tight scoring on both beam and floor, I think everyone finished exactly where they were supposed to finish in the rankings.

It wasn’t the most thrilling Glasgow World Cup ever, with so many last-minute swaps and withdrawals affecting the quality of the field, but for the three at the top especially, it really helped put things into perspective going into the Olympic year.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

The 2016 All-Japan Championships were held from April 1 through April 3 in Tokyo, Japan.

All-Around Qualification Results