Senior Women's Apparatus Results
3 May 2010
Winners
Vault - Ekaterina Kurbatova
Bars - Beth Tweddle
Beam - Elena Racea
Floor - Beth Tweddle
Reports courtesy of British Gymnastics
VAULT
This first of the senior women’s finals was more open than has been the case in recent years, with Oxana Chusovetina having failed to qualify and defending champion Ariella Kaeslin (SUI) not looking quite at her best in qualifying. In the end it was yet another gold medal for the Russian team with Ekaterina Kurbatova solidly competing her double twisting Yurchenko and layout Podkopayeva (14.287). The most stylish gymnast in the final was undoubtedly Dufournet of France, who kept her legs locked together and straight throughout her two vaults but was just slightly lower on difficulty than the Russian, using a one and a half, rather than double twisting Yurchenko as her first vault (14.275). Tatiana Nabieva (RUS) picked up bronze for Russia. She had great height on her double twisting Yurchenko and Podkopayeva vaults but was slightly raggy in the legs (14.15). Kaeslin had to concede her tital today – despite having the most difficult vault by way of her handspring piked front with one and a half twists, she struggled on the landing and had to settle for fifth place today. Great Britain’s Nicole Hibbert was the last finalist up. Spurred on by the cheers of the crowds Nicole, if anything, gave her one and a half twisting Yurchenko a little too much and bounded forwards on landing. The reverse was true on her second vault where she could not stay on her feet. Not the result Nicole would have wished for but she deserves great credit for making this final in her first year as a senior gymnast.
BARS
Great Britain had two representatives in this bar final. As well as defending champion Beth Tweddle, Becky Downie had also qualified and was hoping for a good result. Nataliya Kononenko (UKR) was the first gymnast up and set an early standard with some excellent combinations including Tkachev to catch in mixed grip, immediate Jaeger between the bars. With 14.75, Kononenko hung on for bronze, Ukraine’s sole medal and bright spot of this championship. She was followed by Aliya Mustafina who Beth would surely have seen as one of the biggest challenges to her chances of a successful defence of her title. Aliya hit her difficult routine well for 15.05 and the silver. Becky Downie was roared on by the crowd and swung with energy through her toe on entry to piked Tkachec, Ricna and well flighted bar transitions to her full in back out dismount. 14.625 gave her an excellent sixth place and she should be very proud to have hit this testing routine three times out of three this week. If she is able to connect some of her difficuloties together to add a tenth or two to her difficulty score, she may well be in the fight for medals herself in the not too distant future. She was followed on the apparatus by the queen of the bars, Beth Tweddle. Her routine had the crowd screaming with excitement from start to finish, with the absolute most made of every swing and a nailed landing for a far higher execution score than the other finalists, which when coupled with her 6.8 difficulty score gave a total of 15.875. This was a total seemingly out of reach for the remaining gymnasts. However Youna Dufournet (FRA) was not going to let Beth have everything her own way and actually managed to match Beth for difficulty with a 6.8 score for her routine which included the rarely seen Def (full twisting Geinger) release. However, it appeared that the coach brushed the gymnast when safe guarding that massive skill and a 0.5 penalty was taken from Dufournet’s score which dropped her from what would have been a bronze medal, down to sixth place. So, disappointment for the French girl but delight for Beth and the home crowd, as this truly great gymnast takes another gold on bars.
BEAM
With top qualifier Ana Porgras (ROM) withdrawing from the final due to injury, the competition was thrown wide open. In the end it was the gymnast who stepped in to replace Porgras, Elena Racea, also of Romania that went away with the gold medal. She added a new combination of free cartwheel immediate tuck back and was solid and stable in opening the final for 14.40, which no-one could surpass. As in the junior final, there were a number of errors and falls, from Myzdrikova, Demyanchuk and Preziosa and those that went clean found themselves propelled towards the top of the leaderboard. Mustafina took silver with a beautiful triple spin but some slight losses of leg form, and the second Romanian Raluca Haidu who had some very ambitious combinations some of which came off and others which were broken, collected bronze with 13.95.
FLOOR
Such have the expectations for Beth Tweddle’s medal haul lifted dramatically over the last couple of years, that despite her gold on bars, many would have been disappointed if Beth had walked away with just the bars title. As it was Beth achieved the rare feat of successfully defending both of the title she won in Milan last year winning floor here too. This was perhaps a less comfortable victory for the experienced Tweddle – who was off line on her opening tumble and looked to be millimetres away from landing outside the boundary and incurring a heavy deduction. However the flag stayed down and from there Beth was hugely impressive through to her final combination tumble. 14.825 put her half a mark clear of the field underlining her supremacy on both of her chosen specialisms. Myzdrikova had opened the final in dramatic style with a fantastic opening tumble of whip through to double Arabian and some beautiful dance work for 14.325. Niamh Rippin knew that if she could repeat her performance from yesterday’s team final she had a shot of a medal but it was not to be today, Her double Arabian landed slightly short and she stepped out after her one and a half step out through to triple combination. With the landing penalties as harsh as they are, Niamh finished the final in sixth position. She looked disappointed, but must take many positives from her performances here. Diana Chelaru closed the final, and the championships, with a crowd pleasing exercise to which she added a double layout at the start to the routine she had used hitherto. Her score of 14.125 gave her the bronze.
All results are provided by Longines and are available by clicking here.
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