Olympic Prep Part 6: Mixed Group 5

Phan Thi Ha Thanh
source

Mixed Group 5 contains a gymnast from Vietnam who qualified based on her 3rd place vault finish at the 2011 World Championships. It also contains gymnasts from Slovenia, the Netherlands, another gymnast from Egypt, and Chile

Watch for! Phan Thi Ha Thanh sneaking into VT finals again
Celine van Gerner making AA final and sneaking into event finals for UB or BB

Phan Thi Ha Thanh, Vietnam (VIE)
Phan was 99th at Worlds but placed nearly 5 points ahead of compatriot, Do, who will also be at the Olympics. Phan did not need to go to the Test Event since she received her qualification at Worlds. At the 2011 World Championships, Phan executed 2 clean vaults to receive the bronze medal. Any gymnast who placed Top 3 at Worlds and was not already qualified to the Olympics via the Team competition, was invited to go to the Olympics. This was exciting for Vietnam's first women's artistic gymnastics World Champion bronze medallist.  Thanh vaults a front handspring piked 1.5 (5.9) and a double twisting yurchenko (5.8). On beam, she has a switch split full, an L turn. On floor, she has lovely lines on all her leaps and even throughout her tumbling passes. She mounts with a triple twist and dismounts with a double pike.[Fun fact: Thanh qualified in 8th place, almost missing the final. She upgraded her 2nd vault from a 5.3 in prelims to a 5.8 and was able to earn the bronze medal.]

D-Scores: VT - 5.9/5.8, UB - 4.0, BB - 4.8, FX - 5.0
Routine: Watch her bronze medal routine here or below:





Sasa Golob, Slovenia (SLO)
Sasa (pronounced Sasha) Golob finished 51st at the Test Event to beat out 2008 Olympian Adela Sajn (58th) for the spot at the Olympics. She is coached by Ukranian Lyudmila Korolenko. On uneven bars, she has an exciting opening low bar combination, a straddled Jaeger, and double pike dismount. For beam, Golob has a back handspring-back pike combination and a switch split-back tuck combination. She mounts with a double pike and dismounts with a 2.5 twist to immediate stag jump on floor to "Remember the Name". [Fun Fact: Sasa competed at University of Towson for 1 year but decided to go back to Slovenia to continue training for the Olympics and to complete medical school there! source]

D-Scores: VT - 4.6, UB - 5.0, BB - 5.2, FX - 5.2
Routine: Watch her FX from 2012 European Championship qualification here or below:




Celine van Gerner (NED)
Celine van Gerner finished 17th in the All-Around final at 2011 Worlds. She was injured and could not attend the test event where fellow Dutchwoman Wyomi Masela attended and received bronze on vault at the Test Event. Because of this, the Dutch Olympic Committee named Masela to the team. Van Gerner insisted that the DOC made their decision too early and, after going to court, the DOC agreed to wait on officially naming their Olympian.

Van Gerner eventually won the spot as she is most likely to make all-around finals and has some, albeit small, chance of making event finals most likely on the uneven bars. She uses lots of in-bar stalder connections to get her difficulty on bars. Van Gerner has a high straddled Jaeger as well as a full twisting double tuck dismount. Her bar routine is done very quickly but is also very clean. Balance beam finals are also a possibility for van Gerner. On beam, she has a split leap-switch split-back tuck combo, a back handspring-back layout, a switch split full, and dismounts with a double tuck.

D-Scores: VT - 5.0, UB - 6.2, BB - 5.8, FX - 5.4
Routine: Watch her UB routine from 2012 European Championships here or below (6.2/8.433=14.633):


Simona Castro Lazo, Chile (CHI)
Simona Castro earned the right to go to London by qualifying in 55th at the Test Event. She just finished her junior year at the University of Denver. Castro will be the first WAG to represent Chile at the Olympics. Castro has a long elite career competing for Chile. She's been on the Chilean National Team since 2001. In 2005, she placed 53rd in the All-Around at the 2005 World Championships. She won the floor exercise at the 2007 South American Championships and was eighth on both bars and floor at the 2008 Pan American Championships. Castro was the Chilean National Champion from 2006-2008 (source). The uneven bars is her favorite event to watch. She has a very flighty Jaeger as well as a high double tuck dismount. On beam, she has excellent lines and does a back handspring-back layout. On floor, she dances to a dramatic piece of music, mounts with a double pike, dismounts with a 2.5 twist and has lovely dance elements throughout.

D-Scores: VT - 5.0, UB - 4.7, BB - 4.8, FX - 5.0
Routine: Watch her floor routine here or below


Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed, Egypt (EGY)
So, I'm a tad confused but Egypt has 2 gymnasts competing. One was given one of two Wildcard nominations, and I believe this is the spot that Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed has. [I believe the other was given the tripartite spot, so she will appear in a later post.] She is a mystery gymnast (hard to find info on). She recenlty competed at the 2012 Ghent Challenger Cup - this is where the D scores are from. There are some nice videos of her throughout the quad showing that she has excellent form just low difficulty. I particulary enjoyed her floor (below) and UB. The BB routine linked scored a 14.1.

D-scores: VT - 5.0, UB - 3.9, BB - 4.6, FX - 4.5
Routine: Watch her floor routine below from 2009 African Championships.






Check out the others in the series here:
Mixed Group 8 - Laura Svilpaite (LTU), Heem Wei Lim (SIN), Maria Paula Vargas (ESP), Ralitsa Mileva (BUL), Sherine Ahmed El Zeiny (EGY)

Mixed Group 7 - Barbara Gasser (AUT), Jessica Gil Ortiz (COL), Nastassia Marachkouskaya (BLR), Jessica Lopez (VEN), Luiza Galiulina (UZB)

Mixed Group 6 - Jonna Adlerteg (SWE), Vasiliki Millousi (GRE), Valeria Pereyra (ARG), Annika Urvikko (FIN), Heo Seon Mi (KOR)

Mixed Group 5 - Phan Thi Ha Thanh (VIE), Sasa Golob (SLO), Celine Van Gerner (NED), Simona Castro Lazo (CHI), Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed (EGY)

Mixed Group 4 - Do Thi Ngan Thuong (VIE), Nataliya Kononenko (UKR), Zoi Mafalda Marques de Lima (POR), Valeriia Maksyuta (ISR)

Mixed Group 3 - Marta Pihan-Kulesza (POL), Tina Erceg (CRO), Giulia Steingruber (SUI), Lorena Quinones Moreno (PUR), Maria Homolova (SVK)

Mixed Group 2 - Elsa Garcia (MEX), Julie Croket Gaelle Mys (BEL), Moldir Azimbay (KAZ), Goksu Uctas (TUR), Ana Sofia Gomez Porras (GUA)

Mixed Group 1 - Kristyna Palesova (CZE), Yamilet Pena Abreu (DOM), Hiu Ying Angel Wong (HKG), Dorina Boczogo (HUN)

[Confusing] Country Codes