Kohei and entirely unrelated USOTC gripe

[profmom]

Stunned and dismayed by his injury on vault. He's out of the meet. There seem to have been a lot of injuries on vault at this meet.

But this was upsetting in a different way. Here is Donnell Whittenburg being interviewed after men's prelims. Link Removed
He blames his imperfect block for his fall on vault, but reveals that the USOTC does not have a Gymnova table. Come on, really? How can our US national team not have the vault table that is used at many if not most international meets for our best athletes to use in training? I did a little very quick googling and found one on sale for around $2500. I might seriously lose it if anyone complains to me about Donnell falling on vault in light of this revelation. I hope he kills floor in finals.

 

[Jard.the.gymnast]

Stunned and dismayed by his injury on vault. He's out of the meet. There seem to have been a lot of injuries on vault at this meet.

But this was upsetting in a different way. Here is Donnell Whittenburg being interviewed after men's prelims. Link Removed
He blames his imperfect block for his fall on vault, but reveals that the USOTC does not have a Gymnova table. Come on, really? How can our US national team not have the vault table that is used at many if not most international meets for our best athletes to use in training? I did a little very quick googling and found one on sale for around $2500. I might seriously lose it if anyone complains to me about Donnell falling on vault in light of this revelation. I hope he kills floor in finals.

There is a new table made for this championships. They have springs in the table, like the ones in the floor. Many, if not most gyms do not have this new table yet. We don't have one, and I train in the same place as sanne and lieke wevers and epke zonderland...

 

[Iwannabemargo]

There is a new table made for this championships. They have springs in the table, like the ones in the floor. Many, if not most gyms do not have this new table yet. We don't have one, and I train in the same place as sanne and lieke wevers and epke zonderland...

OOOOh, completely off topic but I am in love with Epke !

 

[skschlag]

So, if that is the case, and this table is new, and no one has it yet, that seems really unfair, and makes me madder. Why on earth would you put new equipment out for this meet? No wonder so many are falling. I hope they don't continue this habit.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

well I suppose it makes it a level playing field !

 

[skschlag]

Good point. But risks injury to top gymnasts. Although I guess they have had a week or so to practice on it. One of the many joys of the sport I believe

 

[profmom]

Wow. That just seems like a terrible idea to debut a new piece of equipment at Worlds. And there have been a lot of injuries on vault.

I love Epke too but I sure hope he does his pirouettes cleanly today. The judges yesterday were throwing banana peels and coffee grounds at the guys doing sloppy high bar pirouettes. I wonder if Yul has ever seen a 7 execution score on an event where he didn't fall?

 

[wandrewsjr]

Bummed for Donnell on vault but what a fx from him. Am also wondering about the decision to not have him do AA. Even with a fairly weak performance on his weak events, he would have easily qualified to finals around 10th-12th. With his best performance would have been in the 3rd-7th mix with Yul(even with his fall on vault). The decision leave him out of the AA so Sam could do HB and Marvin could do PH seems like a pretty debateable one.

 

[profmom]

Hindsight is 20-20, I guess. Sam fell on a tkachev -- he probably had that in his L9 JO routine. These high bar judges probably would have given Donnell a negative execution score, but I thought his pommel routine at nationals was the best I have ever seen from him. I'd have loved to see him in the AA, and I think even with a poor score on high bar, if he'd stayed on the horse, he'd have been in the mix. Winter Cup this year will be quite interesting, I think.

Epke is through to high bar finals!

 

[skschlag]

Hindsight is 20-20, I guess. Sam fell on a tkachev -- he probably had that in his L9 JO routine. These high bar judges probably would have given Donnell a negative execution score, but I thought his pommel routine at nationals was the best I have ever seen from him. I'd have loved to see him in the AA, and I think even with a poor score on high bar, if he'd stayed on the horse, he'd have been in the mix. Winter Cup this year will be quite interesting, I think.

Epke is through to high bar finals!

So he knocked Marvin out?

 

[skschlag]

Is it streaming today???

 

[wandrewsjr]

Is it streaming today???

Last session was this morning. Marvin knocked out in 10th.

 

[skschlag]

I think it is still going on...... there are not all the AA scores in yet.

 

[wandrewsjr]

I think it is still going on...... there are not all the AA scores in yet.

You are right! Looks like on last event. Wish USA Gym feed would show every session.

 

[wandrewsjr]

Hindsight is 20-20, I guess. Sam fell on a tkachev -- he probably had that in his L9 JO routine. These high bar judges probably would have given Donnell a negative execution score, but I thought his pommel routine at nationals was the best I have ever seen from him. I'd have loved to see him in the AA, and I think even with a poor score on high bar, if he'd stayed on the horse, he'd have been in the mix. Winter Cup this year will be quite interesting, I think.

Epke is through to high bar finals!

Agreed about hindsight. The HB excution scores were extrodinarily low, but it seemed they were giving maximum pirouette deductions to EVERYONE. So weak routine low 7, strong routine high 7. Can't go lower than the max deduction so think Donnell would have eeeked out a high 6 or low 7 even with his HB.

Congrats to Epke! Should be an interesting HB final, everyone is very close together!