The vault podium. Photograph: YouTube The 2017 Chinese National Championships were held in Wuhan, China , from 5 to 9 May . It ...
The vault podium. Photograph: YouTube
The 2017 Chinese National Championships were held in Wuhan, China, from
5 to 9 May.
It was a beautiful
competition, with rising stars
outshining Olympians, and with depth
and margin of improvement on all apparatuses, including vault.
All around final
Luo Huan, 17, won the
all around with a total score of 54.200.
Her best score came on the uneven bars (14.150), where she performed an
intricate and very ‘international-style’ type of routine. She also posted two
good scores on vault (13.600) and beam (13.700), while she struggled a bit on
floor (12.750).
One point behind her was Chen Yile, who won silver (53.200). Her best score also came on
the uneven bars (13.850), while her lowest was on beam (12.500). She also
scored a good 13.550 on vault and a 13.300 on floor.
Third was Liu Jingxing (52.700).
All her scores ranged in the mid-low 13s, with the best coming on vault (13.400).
She then scored a 13.200 on the uneven bars, a 13.100 on balance beam and a
13.000 on floor.
Uneven bars final
Luo Huan also won the
uneven bars title with a 14.533/6.2.
She performed the international judges’ favourite combination, a Maloney to Pak
salto to Maloney half, some beautiful and super-clean pirouettes and a high
double straight dismount. This is a very
well-thought routine, designed to produce good scores.
Second was Du Siyu (14.300/6.2).
She performed an incredible routine,
with some never-ending combinations and sky-high releases. My worry is that she
will never get the scores she deserves, because her routine is very long. I counted ten elements in the routine plus the dismount, which is what
we used to see in 2006–08 with the first open-ended CoP, while today only the top eight elements of
a routine are counted. A shout-out to her for such difficult work though!
Third was UB world champion Fan Yilin (13.833/6.2). She competed her Olympic routine with only a few form
breaks, but had an unfortunate fall
on her downgraded double pike dismount.
Vault final
The winner of the vault final was Liu
Jinru with a 14.483 (14.433/5.6
and 14.533/5.8). She impressed with two very difficult and well executed Tsukahara
vaults. She is probably the best Chinese vaulter since Cheng Fei!
Second was Qi Qi with a 13.933 (14.433/5.4 and 13.433/4.8). Her
first vault, a double twisting Yurchenko, was spectacular for form and landing.
Her second vault, a piked Rudi, however, needed more amplitude and had some
problems on landing.
Third was Yu Linmin with a 13.783
(14.067/5.4 and 13.500/4.8). Her DTY was also very good, but she seemed to be
suffering from a bit of a knee injury.
Balance beam final
Balance beam was won by Zhu
Xiaofang with a 14.167/5.9. She is a very
polished gymnast with beautifully pointed toes, incredible extension on her
leaps and very soft landings on all her skills. She competed a beautiful
round-off to back layout, a switch ring to sheep jump and a very difficult
triple twisting dismount. Overall, a very
impressive performance.
Tied for second were Li Qi (13.967/6.3)
and Li Hairuo (13.967/5.5). They
both competed a round-off to layout (as most Chinese gymnasts these days, it
seems), and some intricate combinations
of acro and dance elements to gain all the bonuses of the CoP. Impressive routines
from both of them.
Floor exercise final
Finally, the floor title was awarded to Olympian Shang Chunsong (13.300/5.6),
who was back to competition after a scary fall on bars in the all around competition.
Shang has a new floor music and competed
a one-and-a-half-twist into triple twist to punch front as her opening tumbling pass, followed by a double pike, a
two-and-a-half to front pike and a double twist. Even though watered down, Shang’s
routine looked great. My only slight worry is that she looks even thinnier than
before!
Silver was won by Liu Tingting
(13.100/4.9). Her floor routine was beautiful
from start to finish. Great music choice, engaging choreography and very
good tumbling passes (triple twist to punch front, two-and-a-half twist, double
tuck). Her routine really shows how much music
matters!
Bronze was won by Liu Jingxing with a 12.800/4.9. She
also produced a beautifully-choreographed routine and some big tumbling passes,
which only need to be polished a little. She opened with a big double straight,
followed by a full-in tuck, and punch front to double back tuck and a double
pike. Again, engaging choreography, almost
sassy (!), which suits her very well.
Click here for full results, courtesy of The Gymternet.
Click here for all videos, courtesy of Piibunina on YouTube.
By Talitha Ilacqua
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