Euros Random Thoughts (live updates)

———FINAL RESULTS———

1. Aliya Mustafina — 59.032

2. Larisa Andreea Iordache — 58.432

3. Anastasia Grishina — 57.932

4T. Giulia Steingruber — 57.056

4T. Diana Laura Bulimar — 57.065

———ROTATION FOUR———

Cue obvious shot of Svetlana Khorkina in the audience. Awwww, look at her ham it up once she realizes the cameras are on her. 

Bulimaron bars. Very steady, slow, methodical. Maybe too cautious. She has very little swing, but she hits just about everything, minus the hand stand after transitioning to the low bar. That’s a biggie. Solid dismount with small step. This was probably the best she could have done. Score: 13.666

Steingruber on beam. Punch front (or pike?), slight shuffle on landing. decent layout series. She hits the easy full turn. Good split leap to side somi combo. OK switch half, but that back leg wasn’t 180. Gainer dismount! Lovely surprise there. Score: 14.366! Well deserved!

Iordache on bars. Good swing, but she’s missing too many handstands. MASSIVE form break on the high to low transition. She’s lost the gold here. Stuck dismount. Score: 13.833. 

Grishina on beam. CAN SHE DO IT? lol. Hits the round off + layout combo. Slight wobble on full turn. Bends at the waist on the side somi. Took her time on the Onodi-Illusion combo, but it  was pretty nice! Good double pike dismount with a step back. This will do it! A medal for Grishy! Score: 14.133

Mustafina will do a victory lap on bars. Lovely work. She still looks like an Olympic champion on this event. Had to fight a bit after overrating a turn, but she pulls it out. Hit dismount with a hop. There’s your 2013 European All Around Champion. Score: 15.133 (overscore, but that’s alright). 

———STANDINGS AFTER THREE———

1. Larisa Andreea Iordache — 44.599
2. Aliya Mustafina — 43.899
3. Anastasia Grishina — 43.799
4. Diana Laura Bulimar — 43.399
5. Giulia Steingruber — 42.79

Mustafina has this all but wrapped up. She’s only 0.7 points behind Iordache going into bars. Iordache needs to hit the bars routine of her life AND she needs Musty to make a significant mistake. The hunt for bronze is getting even more interesting now. Bulimar is only 0.4 behind Grishina. If Grishina falls, Bulimar can swoop in and grab the bronze (provided she actually “hits” her bars). Steingruber finishes on beam, too, but I don’t see her contending outside of major mistakes from others.  

———ROTATION THREE———

Mustafina on vault. Beautiful double twisting yurchenko. Some form in the air, as usual, but STUCK. She’s going to win this thing. Score: 15.033.

Campana on vault. It’s another FTY. Clean, hop on landing. 

Bulimar on vault. DTY. It’s MUCH cleaner in the air than Musty’s, but she has a decent sized step out of it on landing. Score: 14.766. A bit low, honestly. 

Iordache on vault. DTY. Very, very good. Small hop on landing and good form in the air. Don’t think this will get close to Musty’s score either. Score: 14.90

Steingruber on bars. She’s got such a nice, agressive swing, but she has so many small form breaks in all of her elements. She also seems to be short on every hand stand. She had good initial form on the double front dismount, only to pull a crazy cowboy midway through. Score: 13.800

Grishina on bars. Will she be a contender for the bronze? We’ll see. good so far. She’s hitting all of her skills. STUCK DISMOUNT. Grishina is IN IT TO WIN (the Bronze) Y’ALL. Score: 15.033. Well deserved. 

———STANDINGS AT THE HALF———

1.Larisa Andreea Iordache — 29.699
2.Giulia Steingruber — 28.899
3.Aliya Mustafina — 28.866
4.Anastasia Grishina — 28.766
5.Diana Laura Bulimar — 28.633

 

Iordache clearly leading the way, but she finishes the night on bars, which WILL be a low score for her. She’s in danger of letting Mustafina slip ahead of her. Mustafina, if she hits bars, will gain significant points on Iordache (close to or even over a full point). That’s more than enough to win if their vaults are relatively even. The race for bronze will be interesting. Can Bulimar get in with a bad bar set? Most likely not on her own. She’ll need mistakes from Grishina, who looks OK tonight but has a history of losing it on bars and beam. 

———ROTATION TWO———

forgive me if I skip some lesser known gymnasts. I’m trying to follow the Boston Bomber manhunt situation simultaneously. 

Mustafina on floor. This is the test. HUGE double arabian + stag. Great. Crappy 2.5 + full (?). Crazy helicopter legs and hop on landing. Double back with a hop and then shuffle of her feet. Great leaps and dance, as should always be expected from her. She goes for the triple helicopter on dismount. ALMOST all the way around, but not quite. She takes a hop and salutes the judges. She survived. Let’s see how Iordache does on bars. Score: 14.466

Steingruber on vault. solid Rudi. good height, huge step on dismount. Score: 15.066

Grishina on vault. NICE double twisting yurchenko. Slight form in the air and a near stick on landing — just a small step. Score: 14.90

Bulimar on floor. Missed the start b/c of commercials. Good double layout — near stick. Double back looked fine. Love this routine. The music is lively, and she’s got the perfectly cute personality to pull it off.  Double pike dismount with large step. Score: 14.233 

Iordache  on floor. Nice double double with small step. Good full twisting double with hop on landing. Nice leaps. Again, love this routine. Triple full with obvious leg form and large step on landing. Near stuck double back dismount. Good routine. This should score very well. Score: 14.866

Some lovely slow-mo footage of a spray bottle being used. Riveting television from Russia. 

———ROTATION ONE———

Grishina starts on floor, pretty double double but looks like a two foot bounce out of bounds. Routine is gorgeous with pretty clean tumbling and great dance. Score 13.866

Iordache on beam in her pikachu leo.  Rock solid back full and combo to lay out. Missed the switch (?) half. Back leg not to 180 and a significant wobble. GOOD triple full dismount, slight ankle crossing and a step on landing, but SOLID routine.  Score: 14.833

Mustafina in a lovely red leo up next on beam. Rough arabian with a significant break there. She almost puts her hands down. AGAIN she almost puts her hands down after wobbling out of her full turn. Big leg up on her combo work. She is wobbly today (no surprise)! Good double back dismount witha small step. Survived this one.  Score: 14.40 seems a bit generous there, judges. 

Ruby Harrold (UK) on vault. Decent yurchenko full. Some form in the air and bounced out of the landing.  Score: 13.90

Elisa Meneghini (ITA)  on beam. Looking good so far. She’s hitting her combos. Big bend at the waist on her side somi. REALLY nice double pike dismount with slight hop.  Score: 14.00

Giorgia Campana (ITA) on vault. Another yurchenko full? I thought the board said 5.8? Hmm. Bent knees in the air, but good landing.  Score: 13.90

Bulimar on beam. Slight wobble on the bhs + layout combo. She’s not really hitting these leaps as well as you’d hope. Pretty good routine with a decent double pike dismount + large step. Score 14.40. Hmm. 

Charlie Fellows (UK) on bars in a Nastia approved leotard. Her knees are bending a lot in this. I suck at bars hits. So..hey she stayed on! I don’t think this was a terribly difficult routine, but she stuck the double layout dismount! Score: 13.20

Steingruber on floor. NICE full twisting double layout followed with a weird double layout as her next pass. Legs wide apart on that one. Apparently you CAN cowboy a layout. Meh double pike dismount. Underrotated, causing her to step.   Score: 13.833