Japan Takes the Lead in the Men's Qualification at the World Championships 2015

On the first day of the men’s qualifications, Japan took the lead, finishing almost two points ahead of its rival China (358.884-357.027). None of them was perfect, however. Even Kohei Uchimura, regarded as the greatest gymnast of all time, made a mistake in his performance on the floor event while executing a tucked double-double in the fourth rotation. 

Nevertheless, he still proved his superiority by executing an astonishing performance on the rest of his routine. He finished first place in the all-around qualifications after posting a score of 90.564.

“My head hit the floor and I felt uncomfortable… I felt dizzy,” Uchimura said. “It could have affected my last two events but I managed to compete with them by concentrating.”

A disappointed look was seen on Uchimura’s face after his fall on the floor exercise, of which he blamed for having to wait a long time before he can perform his routine, as the judges were busy deliberating over his team mate’s score. 

"I waited a long time and my body cooled down,"Uchimura said.

"So I couldn't move as I wanted to. At the beginning of the exercise it was fine, but at the end, I couldn't perform as I had wished."

"It might have been better to come down from the podium and rest, which I didn't do," he said. "This is not an excuse. I have experienced long waiting times before."

Japan began on the vault, where “King Kohei” performed a clean roundoff half-on to Randi to earn his highest score of 15.633. The Japanese team took the lead on the floor, vault and the high bar exercise after the fourth subdivision. 

Two Japanese newcomers Naoto Hayasaka and Kazuma Kaya had mixed results in their country’s first place ranking. Kaya earned a score of 88.431, making him the second best Japanese all-arounder. Additionally, his score of 15.300 on the pommel horse was the team’s highest score on the event. Hayasaka had difficulties on the floor and pommel horse event but his score of 15.200 on the vault makes up for it.

"Kazuma gave a really good performance," Uchimura said. "I feel the younger teammates really helped the team a lot. I can feel their youthful energy."

On the other note, Deng Shudi, the leader of the Chinese team sits in the third place in the all-around event, despite falling in the first rotation on pommel horse. The Chinese team recovered after earning the highest scores on rings (60.266), with the help of Liu Yang’s score of 15.866, and on parallel bars, where the Chinese team posted a score of 62.099.

"I am satisfied but I was not perfect," Liu said. "Rings is my strongest apparatus, but today I did not feel strong enough."

China, whose team has won every major international competition over the last decade, appeared rough in areas, so, with the help of Uchimura, this could be the Japanese team’s biggest opportunity to finally claim the gold in the team event.

Over the past four World Championships and the last two Olympic Games, Japan has always been second to its rival, China. Nothing was more heartbreaking than being a tenth-of-a-point behind China in the 2014 Summer Olympics.

Great Britain, currently sitting in the third place, competed in the first subdivision. After struggling on the high bar, where both Brinn Bevan and Max Whitlock fell while trying to execute their routine, the British team got on a roll. Similar to Uchimura’s experience, Bevan was also forced to rechalk a few times while waiting for his turn to perform. The World Championship newcomer shook it off and finished with a score of 14.666 on both the floor and pommel horse event.

The British team obtained the second-highest score on the floor and the best score on pommel horse, after Louis Smith and Max Whitlock obtained a score of 15.533 and 15.266, respectively.

Daniel Purvis is currently ranked second in the all-around qualifications. He performed well on parallel bars, as was Nile Wilson, who amassed a score of 15.500. After Bevan committed a mistake while performing his Tsuk-double pike on vault, Kristian Thomas saved the event by executing a wonderful Yurchenko-double pike.

"We want to do as well as we can in the Team Final," Whitlock stated. "We won bronze in the Olympics and were fourth last year, but the potential is there, and it depends what we do on the day to get one of those medal places."

Russia currently sits in 4th place (352.692) paced by the all-arounders Belyavskiy David (88.665), Kuksenkov Nikolai (87.398) and Nargonyy Nikita (87.331).

Subscribe to our social media websites to receive the most recent updates regarding #Glasgow2015. Enroll now at Bianka Panova Sport and Art Academy and experience the most fun way of learning gymnastics for kids :D

Australian Artistic Gymnast Beams on Brave Balancing Act

“Survivor” is the description that Peggy Liddick, the head coach of Australian women’s gymnastics used to describe Mary-Anne Monckton

Monckton, a 20-year-old Australian gymnast, is a member of Australian women’s team for the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow. She came back from a severe ankle injury after undergoing a left ankle reconstruction surgery last November, following the devastating selection disappointment in the 2012 Summer Olympics, where she was selected as one of the two travelling athletes. 

The persistence of the young athlete caught the attention of the women’s national head coach.

“Mary-Anne was never really a superstar in her junior career, but she just has staying power,” Liddick said. “She’d get some injury that took her out for six months, and then she’d pop back up and would win something, and then she’d get another injury, she’d disappear, and then pop back up. So it was just her refusing to give up that really caught my eye, and then I thought ‘you know, she’s actually got some good gymnastics’.”

Her gymnastics skills are competitive enough to finish with a silver medal in the balance beam and team event at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and to take part at the 2014 World Championships in China regardless of her ankle injury that undermined her training and performance for the year 2014. Also, good enough to be the most experienced Victorian artistic gymnast who will compete for the upcoming World Championships in Glasgow next week, October 23.

"People always see the end result, and that's only about five minutes of performance. A lot of hard work goes into it, so I'm just really excited that hanging in there after last year is really starting to pay off now," said Monckton, a 20-year-old gymnast who started gymnastics at the age of five, whose family moved to Canberra at the age of seven and to Melbourne, at the age of 15, and currently attends her tertiary studies and part-time work while training for more than 30 hours a week simultaneously.

"I knew that I could come back, but it was just to which kind of level was uncertain. But I just kept pushing and I was really determined to get back to the level that I was at last year's world or even better, and this year I've had a much better preparation and I'm feeling in great shape physically and mentally, so I'm really excited for the next couple of weeks."

As of now, her ultimate goal is to claim an Olympic berth by being a part of the top eight teams in the upcoming world championships, which would guarantee an Olympic team slot for next year’s Rio Olympics. On the other hand, her personal goal is to make it to the apparatus finals, and if by any chance, win a medal. Beam remains to be her best apparatus event, in which she has a top-10-quality routine and an elite 6.4 start value. On such an unstable and terrifying apparatus, she can do anything as long as she remains calm during the execution of the routine. 

"A lot of other girls find it quite scary," Monckton admits. "I mean, it's one-and-a-half metres in the air and it's 10 centimetres wide, so it's as wide as your iPhone.”

"When I was younger, I just would do skills on the floor and then my coach would say 'go to the beam' and I didn't really have much fear, and it's always been like that with me. There's some things that I get a little bit scared or anxious about, but when I go for it I just have this exhilaration that I can't find anywhere else. I just love being able to do flips up there; it's really fun."

However, her coaches, Peggy Liddick and Tracey Penaluna, a senior coach at the VIS, must sometimes protect perfectionist Monckton against her own self. Not physically, as her dedication and diligence guarantees that she’s never idle in the gym. The adjustment lies more on the psychological side; to prevent the young athlete on dwelling with minor slip-ups and mistakes, and rather focus on the process and not on the outcome. 

"She's a joy to have around but, if anything, she's too hard on herself," says Liddick. "I have to sort of protect Mary-Anne from Mary-Anne sometimes because she's her own worst critic." There are, however, no issues with her professionalism. "She's probably one of the hardest workers in the gym, and I don't mean just when I say do 10, she'll do 11, it's not that. It's when nobody's watching … she really wants to do this."

If ever the Australian team fails to make it on the top eight teams, there is still a chance to secure a berth at the Olympic test event on April, on which four more teams will get the chance to claim an Olympic qualification. Furthermore, if ever Monckton would be a part of the selection team, she would be required to add a floor routine to her repertoire as the members will be reduced from seven to five in the Rio Summer Olympics.

Even so, expect that the young athlete will do whatever is needed, as this young athlete whose love for the sport originated from being capable of doing what other kids couldn’t, is still managing a degree of difficulty that most would see as too great. "She has every reason to say it's all too hard, but she still comes to the gym every morning, never misses a day," says Liddick. "It's just something that she wants, really deep down, and that's why she's here. And I'm glad she is."

The 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships will take place at the SSE Hydro Arena in Glasgow, Scotland. The Australian team is comprised of Georgia-Rose Brown, Georgia Godwin, Madelaine Leydin, Emily Little, Larrissa Miller, Mary-Anne Monckton, Kiara Munteanu.

Like and follow our social media websites to stay connected with the recent news and informative posts that we are posting on our page on a daily basis. Enroll at Bianka Panova Sport and Art Academy and learn gymnastics for kids with our top-class coaches to experience a quality training and education!:)