Roxana Popa is a Romanian born first year senior who made her debut competing for Spain at the European Championships and the World Championships this year. She showed promise as a Junior and competed well at the 2012 Junior European Championships, where she qualified to the vault and all-around final (11th place).
Romanian-born Popa competes for Spain (credit: FIG)
Roxana was one of the standout rookie gymnasts at the 2013 World Championships held last month in Antwerp, Belgium. She was particularly impressive on bars where she has a strong swing and and floor where she shows much class and charisma for a young gymnast. She finished in 12th position with 53.366 behind Italy's Carlota Ferlito and Canada's Victoria Moors. Not bad at all for a first year senior!
Here she is on bars at Worlds
Here is her qualification floor routine from Worlds
Roxana is a very strong gymnast, which is clear from her bar work and her powerful vaulting and tumbling. She is also a strong all-arounder and is a great hope for Spain (who qualified strong teams to the Olympic finals in 2000 and 2004). It is lovely to see another Spanish gymnast achieving good results on the World stage. We hope to see you at the 2016 Rio Olympics, Roxana, keep up the great work! Also see her responses to The Couch Gymnast's 15 Questions here Article by Imogen Browne (Follow me on Twitter @IFlip4GymBlog)
The Gymsports National Championships were held in Napier, New Zealand last week, where we got a chance to see how the elites are progressing. Five girls, all from Christchurch School of Gymnastics competed in the Junior section: Charlotte Sullivan, Hanna Malloch, Mackenzie Slee, Courtney McGregor and Millie Williamson
The all-around competition was close, with less than 0.1 between 1st and 2nd, and just over a point between the top three. 1st- Charlotte Sullivan, 47.533 2nd- Millie Williamson, 47.460 3rd- Courtney McGregor, 46.433 4th- Mackenzie Slee, 45.677 5th- Hanna Malloch, 44.167 All girls scored 13+ on vault and were generally stronger on floor and beam than bars. Millie did extremely well in the event finals, taking home 3 of the 4 possible golds (BB (1st=), UB and FX). Courtney was 1st on vault, 2nd on floor and third on bars. Charlotte was 1st on beam and 3rd on bars, Mackenzie 2nd on vault and bars and Hanna 3rd on floor. Vault 1st- Courtney McGregor 13.450 2nd- Mackenzie Slee 13.15
Bar 1st- Millie Williamson 11.500 2nd- Mackenzie Slee 11.067 3rd- Charlotte Sullivan 10.867 Beam 1st= Charlotte Sullivan 12.500 1st= Millie Williamson 12.500 3rd- Corurtney McGregor 12.45 Floor 1st- Millie Williamson 13.433 2nd- Courtney McGregor 13.10 3rd- Hanna Malloch 12.87 Overall a great effort for the juniors, they are looking very good, with both new skills and higher scores as they look forwards to the Commonwealth Games next year in Glasgow. It is great to see them adding more difficulty to their routines, they have plenty of time to iron out the mistakes! Here is Courtney on floor, trying out a double arabian as her opening tumbling pass. She also tries some daring release moves on bar and overall has great swing- a lot of potential there!
Courtney McGregor on floor, competing for Christchurch (3rd AA)
Courtney trying out some newer skills on bars
The girls also competed in the Australian Nationals earlier this year, presumably to gain some competitive experience. They produced good results there, Mackenzie 3rd on vault, Charlotte 3rd on bars and floor.
Millie's lovely floor from the all-around finals at the 2013 Australian Nationals
Charlotte's beam routine from the all-around
And Charlotte on bar, where she shows good difficulty and a great double layout dismount!
Hanna shows off her lines on floor (AYOF 2013- couldn't find a more recent video!)
And finally watch Mackenzie's floor from the Australian nationals here
The gymnastics World Championships only happen once every year, and the gymternet always explodes with live hits, blogging, tweeting, you name it! This year is no exception, where competition is in the beautiful city of Antwerp, Belgium. Although I am not there to see the action myself, much information from numerous bloggers is available; The Couch Gymnast, the Gymnastics Examiner- Blythe Lawrence and Gymnastike among many! Thanks in advance for the great work that you always do! Here I have outlined some of the highlights from the Qualifications round.
9- Chuso (Oksana Chusovitina- GER) On Vault
Ok, this woman is amazing. She has been competing at the international level since before most of her fellow competitors were born, and she's still producing vaults like these to qualify for World Championships vault finals- respect.
Chuso, the gymnastics legend! Qualified 6th into the VT final
8- Mustafina's Bars (RUS)
Aliya, the most decorated gymnast of the Russian Olympic Team in London had a very rough qualifying round (although somehow managed to qualify for BB final with a very sub-par routine). She somewhat redeemed herself on bars by pulling off this excellent routine, complete with a daring new transition from low to high bars. Let us hope that she gets it together for the AA final. I have faith that she will, because she is Mustafina.
I could watch her on bars all day. Qualified 5th into the final
7- Ellie Black's Floor (CAN)
Really enjoyed this Canadian's floor routine, a very polished performance with great expression, music and tumbling to match. Thankfully we will get to see it again in the finals, Ellie qualified in 8th place! Team-mate Victoria Moors sadly faltered on her new I-rated (read: impossibly difficult) double-twisting double layout, and did not advance to finals. We will see both Ellie and Victoria in the AA finals.
6- Iordache on Beam (ROM)
Come on, you know you love her! After an extremely long wait on the podium, Iordache went up and rocked this beam routine. I love watching Romanians on beam, you can really relax and enjoy the routine! She is one of my favourites both for the AA and the beam and floor finals. I wonder if she will add a full-twist to her layout for finals...
Very confident performance from Larisa on beam- top qualifier to the beam final
5- Best Newcomer- Roxana Popa (ESP)
Roxana Popa, a Romanian-born gymnast who cpmpetes for Spain has been on the radar for a while as a Junior gymnast. She delivered today to qualify in 10th position for the all-around final. I'm pretty sure this is the highest a Spanish gymnast has finished for a while, she is a great hope for the country! I particularly enjoyed her floor routine, where she shows a real flourish for matching her dance with the music. Tumbling is pretty great too!
Popa's great floor routine today, contributing to a good all-around finish
4- McKayla Maroney is back (USA)
An unsual choice for the US to compete McKayla Maroney as an all-arounder, nevertheless she did well apart from a fall on beam. Interesting to see her on other apparatuses besides vault, which she is still amazing at by the way. I am sure that she will successfully defend her World Championships title on vault this year.
Freaking incredible. Do the triple already! Top qualifier to vault final (only final due to the 3 per country rule)
3- Duo from Great Britian in Bars Final!- Ruby Harrold and Becky Downie
These two gymnasts from GB have both had trouble with their bar routines this year, but both pulled out excellent routines to qualify for the bars final! This is a great achievement for Team GB and we wish both girls all the best for finals!
Becky on bars (4th place qualifier)
Ruby qualified in 7th place, love her unique transitions!
2- Izbasa (ROM) and Yao (CHI) doing what they do best
Beautiful music, beautiful choreography and beautiful tumbling from Romanian veteran Sandra Izbasa. She will be looking to medal on floor after a disappointing mistake during the 2012 Olympic Games on floor. She is a real treat to watch on this event, and this very well may be the last we see of her :(
So elegant, so Sandra, love it!
What would a World Championships be without the Chinese on bars? Beautiful routine from Yao Jinnan (3rd qualifier to all-around), who qualified in first place AND is capable of adding the Mo salto to her routine (wonder if we will see it in competition?). Would love to see her win the bars title in Antwerp.
1- Simone Biles- A name to remember (USA)
This bubbly first-year senior powerhouse from the US will be World Champion on Thursday if she hits 4/4, which she is certainly capable of doing. She also qualified to ALL FOUR event finals. Think Shawn Johnson in 2007, she is hands-down the best gymnast in the World right now. Go Simone!
Best event of the day for Simone was floor, it's going to make for an exciting all-around final (floor competed last)
Should be a good World Championships!
Article by Imogen Browne (Follow on Twitter @IFlip4GymBlog)
Team USA today announced that only three athletes, Kyla Ross, Simone Biles and McKayla Maroney would compete on all four events in the qualifications early next week. Nothing was said of the fourth team member, Brenna Dowell, who is now 'the alternate'. This is certainly a shocking heartbreaking decision for Brenna, who was clearly expecting to have a chance to compete. Watch her emotional interview with gymnastike here
Sadly we won't be seeing Brenna on bars in Antwerp
The World Championships this year is an individual affair, with no team competition to take place. Each country is allowed to put up three athletes on each event, a maximum of two can qualify for the finals. Simone and Kyla are obviously locks for the all-around. Current World Champion McKayla Maroney is somewhat a specialist on the power events, whereas Brenna is strong everywhere, especially on bars.
Maroney has been named as the 3rd all-around athlete, despite clear weaknesses on bars and beam. I am happy that she has the chance to see how she stacks up at an international competition, but am really scratching my head over the decision to put her into the all-around, when Dowell has a really good shot at qualifying for the bars final. Maroney could still compete on vault and floor. What's more, Maroney is unlikely to qualify for the all-around final if Biles and Ross hit.
Why would Marta pass up the opportunity to give Brenna some valuable World-stage experience, when Maroney has already had bucketloads? If it was always the intention that Brenna was to be an alternate, why get her hopes up and name her to the team in the first place? Many US athletes could have filled the fourth spot on the team, but Brenna showed the consistency and determination required. Imagine all of those months of hard training, all of that sacrifice, the joy of making the team, only to then to find out that you have traveled halfway across the world to be an alternate. It's just plain cruel and Brenna deserves more than that. I bet her coaches are fuming, I would be too. Brenna will be an excellent team player over the next quad, she has great execution and can produce good routines on any apparatus. Let's hope 2014 will be her year.
Article by Imogen Browne (Follow on Twitter @Iflip4gymblog)
Kayla Williams from the US is a former World Champion on vault. She won the title at the 2009 World Championships in London with two fabulous vaults in her first major international elite competition. This was all the more impressive because she had only moved from the JO program in early 2009 (where she won the AA, vault and floor). In 2010, she quietly retired back into the JO program at Cincinnati Gymnastics.
Kayla winning vault at the 2009 World Championships in London (credit: zimbio.com)
I remember seeing her reaction after nailing her second vault- a perfectly executed and stuck DTY. She clearly was delighted to be at the World Championships and incredibly proud of her performance!
Kayla's gold medal performance at 2009 Worlds
I very much respect Kayla's decision to retire from the elite scene, these days I feel that elite gymnasts push themselves too hard and too long. Perhaps for Kayla, she felt as though she had achieved her goals in gymnastics, and was quite happy to retire to a program where she could really enjoy her sport without fear of injury. She became an excellent addition to Alabama's college gymnastics program, where she has been a consistent performer on both with particular strengths on vault and beam. Their team finished 3rd at the 2013 NCAA Championships.
Kayla competes for Bama on beam (credit: gymnastike.org)
Kayla's passion for gymnastics is obvious, and it is great to see her continue to do well in the sport. She will be one of the leaders for the team this year, and what a year it should be! Good luck to Kayla and the rest of her team.
Check out Kayla's 9.9 beam routine from earlier this year
Article by Imogen Browne (Follow on Twitter @Iflip4gymblog)
With the 2013 Artistic World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium approaching at the end of this month, I have compiled a wishlist. The World Championships the year after the Olympics never includes a team competition, giving time for teams to rebuild in the wake of the Olympic Games. Typically we see the emergence of the next generation of gymnasts, and the return of old favourites who resumed training after the Olympics. The 2013 Worlds will have an all-around competition and apparatus finals, where up to four gymnasts (on the women's side) can compete for a spot in the finals during the qualifications. #6 For Becky Downie and Ruby Harrold (both GBR) to rock the bars final
#5 For Viktoria Komova (RUS) and Larisa Iordache (ROM) to be healthy- beam final will not be the same without them #4 For Nabs (Tatiana Nabieva) to have a great competition and to prove that she is back for good! It's interesting that both Russia and Romania do not have any new talent this year, so veterans have filled the spots. It is lovely to see Nabieva continuing, even after not making the 2012 London Olympics team.
Nabs in competition earlier this year- Check out that pout, have missed her on the competition scene!
#3 To see a Chinese gymnast finish in the top three- most likely Chunsong or Jinnan. These tiny girls both have such beautiful skills and artistry and deserve to be rewarded!
The tiny Shang Chunsong (credit: gymnastike.org)
#2 Brenna Dowell or Ebee Price being awarded the final spot on Team USA. Both girls are extremely powerful gymnasts and could easily make the bars final. Both are second year seniors and have already had some international experience, but would benefit greatly from a World Championships experience. The depth of the US is extremely impressive, in any other countries, these girls would be on the team!
The lovely Brenna (GAGE) sticks her bars dismounts at US Nationals this year. Brenna in many ways is similar to Jana Bieger with her unique skills and power, but has great execution to boot (credit: www.coolspotters.com)
Ebee 'Elizabeth' Price (Parkettes) has already proved herself in the World Cup series, by taking two title at the end of last year (credit: www.hdlsa.org). She is a huge asset to team USA on all events
#1 For McKayla Maroney to prove not only that she is the best vaulter in the World, but to prove that she is not a one-trick pony, by taking a medal on floor as well as gold on vault.
McKayla shimmying her way to a national title on floor earlier this year (credit: www.gotceleb.com)
Not long to go now! Get excited :)
Article by Imogen Browne (Follow on Twitter @IFlip4GymBlog)
Kyla Ross is a member of the 'Fierce Five', who won Team USA's second gold medal in the team competition at the Olympics. As the youngest member of the team, she was the first to get back into training after the Olympics. Ever since the junior levels she has been a very calm and collected competitor, with particular strengths on beam and bars. Her routines are polished, fluid and have that 'international look'. Her routines are always received well by the judges.
Kyla during the preliminary round at the 2012 Olympic Games
Kyla's solid routines on both bars and beam during the team final at the Olympics helped her team to win the title by a large margin over their Russian rivals. Their performances as a team were near flawless, and they proved that they were the best gymnastics team in the world.
Kyla celebrating her Olympic gold (credit: www.midweek.com)
A year on, Kyla has returned to the elite scene, now a couple of inches taller! She seems to have gained much confidence in her gymnastics (as an experience such as the Olympics is bound to do!). Her lines are more elegant than ever and she has made a few upgrades. Kyla is definitely a perfectionist, her and her coaches will wait until a move is absolutely perfected before she puts it into her competition routines. This strategy means that Kyla always fares well in all-around competition. It is probable that Kyla and team mate Simone Biles (first year senior), a powerhouse gymnast will compete for the US at the upcoming World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium (end of Sept).
Kyla's gorgeous bar routine from the 2013 US Nationals. Kyla placed first on bars.
Also, check out her brand new floor routine. Absolutely gorgeous!
Kyla graces the floor during finals night at the 2013 US National Champs
Kyla has gone from being the youngest member of the Fierce Five to a seasoned competitor, whom the younger gymnasts who she now competes with idolise! She is a great role model for the younger girls, and together with Maroney, they should be able to guide the younger members of their team towards success. All the best of luck for Antwerp to Kyla, and the rest of Team USA.
Kyla with the younger members of Team USA at the beginning of this year (credit: Brenna Dowell Tumblr)
Kyla poses with Maggie Nichols, Lexie Preissman, Amelia Hundley, Simone Biles, Brenna Dowell, Peyton Ernst and Ballie Key (credit: Lexie Preissman Tumblr)
Article by Imogen Browne (Follow on Twitter @Iflip4gymblog)
.jpg)
