Routines to Watch: Doha and Cottbus

Of course, the moment I have finals is when the elite season really picked up. Here are a few routines to watch from the World Cup meets.

Giulia Steingruber is back with a vengeance claiming many vault titles. Along the way, Steingruber revealed a new routine, I think, on uneven bars where she debuted a Markelov. She definitely competes uneven bars in attack mode and the Markelov can be improved but I think Steingruber shows good potential as an all-arounder.
Not sure if this routine is qualifications (5.9/13.7) or event finals (5.9/13.825).




At the Doha World Cup, everyone was ranting and raving about Larisa Iordache's beam since she manages to include 2 fulls in the routine - a back handspring to tuck full and a roundoff to layout full. Iordache also debuted in the vault event finals with a double twisting Yurchenko (5.8 D) and a Tsuk 1/1 (5.2 D). BB, VT

At Doha, I was impressed with Kirsten Beckett of South Africa. It's been some time since we've seen a South African at major competition - Jennifer Khwela was making a name for herself but got injured the year before the Olympics losing the chance to qualify. Admittedly, I watched Beckett's routine while I was in class so I didn't hear it with the music. She shows great potential on floor as is seen by her tumbling and I love the choreography at 1:10. I think it's because she's not just posing, there's some actual fluid movements that fits the music. Beckett also qualified to the vault event finals with 1.5TY (5.3) and Tsuk full (5.2) - watch here.
5th place FX - 5.3/13.750


Ilaria Kaeslin was amongst the athletes present at Doha. She was previously mentioned in On The Rise: Switzerland and was recenlty named to Switzerland's European team. I think she stands a fair chance of making beam event finals of her execution is clean.
5th place BB - 5.2/13.575


At Cottbus, we got to see Anastasia Grishina and Evgenia Shelgunova. Shelgunova has a "sheep pak" as some affectionately call it and it's almost as if she rubbed off on Grishina as Grishina had a lovely routine until her pak salto. What I loved most about watching Grishina is that with the new hair, seemed to be a new level of confidence. She has a new coach which is likely helping as well but there's a confidence in Grishina that lacks at competitions, especially where the "troika" (Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, and Grishina) are expected to be in command. We'll see how she does at European Championships.



Routines from British Championships and The International Exchange (U.S. gymnasts) to come!