Open Massilia Team Medalists
PC: Elite Gym Massilia Facebook
Elite Gym Massilia is one of the post-Worlds competitions that usually attracts a good crowd of gymnasts from around the world. This year's competition featured Olympians Youna Dufournet and Maria Paseka along with multiple World Championship attendees and European medalists.
The Open Massilia competition was won by the 2nd Belgian team with a score of 159.033 closely followed by Canada's 158.767. In 3rd was the German team closely followed by the Swiss team who finished 4th. The all around competition in the Open meet, was won by Giada Grisetti of Switzerland. Rose-Kaying Woo of Canada was 2nd followed by Germany's Florine Harder. With an honorable mention, Eythora Thorsdottir has successfully returned from a back injury to compete all around in this meet which landed her in 4th place. European medalist Noel van Klaveren also competed in this division in the all around. This is her first major competition after taking some time off of gymnastics for family matters. She returned with 2 vaults and a strong floor with one of her best double layout mounts.
The most surprising matter of the competition was Belgium's team beating Canada. Canada sent their best juniors, all Rio hopefuls so it will be interesting to see where Belgium places for the 2015 World Championships which will determine which teams even have the opportunity to qualify a full team to Rio.
Open Massilia Team
| 1. | Belgium 2 | 159.033 |
| 2. | Canada | 158.767 |
| 3. | Germany | 156.100 |
Open Massilia All Around
| 1. | Giada Grisetti (SUI) | 53.767 |
| 2. | Rose-Kaying Woo (CAN) | 53.200 |
| 3. | Florine Harder (GER) | 53.167 |
The Master Massilia competition took place on Saturday. The top 3 teams were Italy with a 162.067, Russia with a 161.900 and Belgium again with a 160.867. Italy and Russia both had mixed level teams. Italy's team consisted of Olympians Giorgia Campana and Carlotta Ferlito, World team member Lara Mori, and Sofia Bonistalli (who has one of Italy's few DTYs). Russia's team consisted of Maria Paseka, Daria Spiridonova who has won several competitions individually in the post-Worlds season, Polina Federova, Russia's alternate at this year's World Championship, and Liliya Akhaimova. Spiridonova won the all around followed by Giorgia Campana and Belgium's Nina Derwael. She is a junior that turns senior in 2016. She was the highest ranked junior of the competition and even came ahead of solid all arounder Carlotta Ferlito, who was 4th.
Master Massilia Team
| 1. | Italy | 162.067 |
| 2. | Russia | 161.900 |
| 3. | Belgium | 160.867 |
Master Massilia All Around
| 1. | Daria Spiridonova (RUS) | 54.167 |
| 2. | Giorgia Campana (ITA) | 53.833 |
| 3. | Nina Derwael (BEL '16) | 53.700 |
Derwael on UB 5.6/13.933
The final competition of the weekend was the Top Massilia which features the event finalists. The top 6 athletes were invited with the committee able of adding 2 additional athletes. (Junior vault rules were in effect)
Vault
| 1. | Maria Paseka (RUS) | 14.550 |
| 2. | Shallon Olsen (CAN '16) | 14.517 |
| 3. | Noel van Klaveren (NED) | 14.483 |
Uneven Bars
| 1. | Daria Spiridonova (RUS) | 14.633 |
| 2. | Rose Kaying Woo (CAN '16) | 14.000 |
| 3. | Giorgia Campana (ITA) | 13.467 |
Balance Beam
| 1. | Claire Martin (FRA) | 13.933 |
| 2. | Ayu Koike (JPN) | 13.433 |
| 3. | Carlotta Ferlito (ITA) | 13.133 |
Floor Exercise
| 1. | Axelle Kinckaert (BEL '16) | 13.967 |
| 2. | Olivia Cimpian (ROU) | 13.800 |
| 3. | Lara Mori (ITA) | 13.700 |
Lara Mori FX Quals 5.3/-0.1/13.533
More videos can be found on piibunina's, MademeoiselleS13 Ginnastica Artistica Italiana's (ITA) YT accounts.
Additional results can be found on the official facebook page or here
Arthur Nory (BRA) and Simone Biles (USA)
Photo Credit: Simone Biles
Jake Dalton said it perfectly: "Having some fun in the gym. Don't have to do routines right now so trying to have some fun with new skills. Even if I don't use the skills it's always fun to play around. #slowmo #playtime." It's a relative downtime for elite gymnastics so gymnasts have the time to work on new skills. As time goes on, they'll see what actually fits in routines and then try and piece them together. It took me some time to realize that but I'm glad with all this social media, we get to see what these amazing athletes are capable of even if it doesn't see competition in the end.
NEW SKILL ALERT! Last week, I missed this upgrade of Hannah Whelan. Whelan is an athlete who deserves praise for her longevity in the sport - from the baby in Beijing to the veteran in Nanning, she continues to eye the next Olympics. Her work on BB has always been helpful to team GB and she works a new sheep 1/2 on BB.
Roxana Popa is training a double twisting double layout dismount on uneven bars. Roxi has quite a few meets coming up and I doubt we'll see the upgrades soon but Worlds 2015 should be very very interesting. Euros too, most probably.
Claudia Fragapane, known for her powerful tumbling, continues to improve her all around status by working on bars. Here she is catching a Maloney (toe on Shaposh).
Mykayla Skinner is working the Li Xiaopeng vault done in MAG - a Yurchenko half on, 2.5 twists off! Basically, a Cheng with another full turn. She showed video of it a while ago along with her triple twisting double back. I'm actually amazed at how good the vault looks in terms of completed rotations and relatively straight body position. The "uneven weight" in the block doesn't seem changed so guess we'll wait and see what happens.
Youna Dufournet, known for her excellent uneven bar work, is working a new connection - a Ricna-Gienger. The connections continue with a toe-on giant 1/2 to straddled Jaeger. I'm not going to lie - I'm a bit concerned that the Gienger will be in bar and incur lack of height deductions. I also worry that this means the Def is gone. On the other hand, if she can connect a Def that would be insane.
Martina Rizzelli is working a switch ring on BB. It's on the low beam right now and needs a higher back leg but it looks like she has decent head release. We'll see what it looks like with more time and practice. (IG: martina_rizzelli)
Brazil's Youth Olympic Games competitor, Flavia Saraiva, is working hard. Here she is showing a quad twist. It's curretnly on the tumble track but you can tell how insanely quick she's twisting. Maybe this is a real life possibility. Maybe.
MAG
Danell Leyva is trying to up his all around game and challenge some of the best on floor with this triple twisting double tuck.
Arthur Nory is shown here upgrading his vaults. I can't quite see the first entry that well but looks like a front handspring double full (per Nastia Fan) and the 2nd is the coveted Li Xiaopeng - worth a 6.2. (Just a reminder that the MAG technical committee dropped the difficulty of all vaults by 1 point.)
Jake Dalton is working a DTDLO dismount on rings and a Kaz 2.5 vault (Yang II). Jake also has another video on IG of him training "that" pass - front double twist to front double tuck. #cray
Oleg Stepko, Azerbijan transplant from Ukraine, is seen here working a pirouetting skill on parallel bars to an immediate double front parallel bar dismount. The double front is becoming more common but it's always more impressive to have a connection into the dismount. There's also a video of him doing some pretty epic dance moves before he works some p-bar drills.
Sam Oldham shows some pretty impressive upgrades on rings - a double back connected to a tucked double double dismount
Frank Baines is working double doubles and triple doubles now on a mat over the pit. (IG: frankbaines)
This Week in Bloopers
The continuous upgrades of our World Champion Simone Biles cannot be ignored. Here she is bringing back the piked Tkatchev... or trying to anyway.
Confession time: I just checked Simone's ask.fm. I try to stay away from these as to a) not bother the gymnasts b) see how awkward people are when they ask the gymnasts about insanely personal things BUT I was curious if the new skill Simone tweeted about was actually a new skill and it's not, it's a new skill for her not the code. The interesting thing I learned was that Biles has a hard time with a standing full on the high beam. I'm shocked because I honestly thought that was the new skill. Who knew?!
Also, the Moors is real as I predicted! Finally! Now I just need the double double beam dismount. A girl can dream.
Which upgrades are most exciting to you?
Erika Fasana and Aliya Mustafina on Fasana's instagram
This week has probably been the most exciting in terms of upgrades. We have eleven athletes featured today and, while 3 are juniors, the remaining 8 are all seniors that were chosen as part of their countries World Championships delegation. Despite the fact that Worlds was less than a month ago, these athletes are back in the gym working hard towards the next World Championships in Glasgow.
The upgrade I'm probably most excited about is Erika Fasana's full twisting double layout (FTDLO). She does it as a beautiful full in and I think she keeps the stretched body position really well without piking in the second half (which I hate) and without overarching for those that hate that. Bravissima, Eri!
Ragan Smith (senior in 2016, USA) was recently added to the National Team. Here she is training a nice Patterson dismount. If you check the comments, Carly Patterson praised Smith's dismount.
Nia Dennis (senior in 2015, USA) showed her Amanar at the recent camp. She is also working hard on upgrades showing a FTDLO.
Lisa Top (NED) included this with the caption "Playtime" so I have no idea if we'll ever actually see it. Nevertheless, here she is showing around off to 1.5 twist punch double front. It's insane. IG: lisa_top.
Roxana Popa (ESP) has a few meets lined up for the winter season but that hasn't stopped her from working new skills in the gym. She's working a new low bar sequence on uneven bars. Most exciting, for me anyway, is her new double double. Roxi already has a very exciting FX with whips through to full in. This will only make her FX tumbling that much more exciting.
Jordyn Pedersen was the Canadian alternate at World Championships. She has verbally committed to the University of Georgia but plans to defer to after Rio 2016. Here she is showing a Maloney (toe-on shaposhnikova) to pak to Maloney. We talk a lot now about the need for a Shaposhnikova variation in routines and Pedersen has them.
Ana Lago competed in the 2014 World Championships for Mexico, her first meet after an ACL tear, where she competed vault, uneven bars, and balance beam. Here she is training a full in dismount on BB. If I'm not mistaken, Biles is the only gymnast competing it at the moment and it's the hardest dismount being competed.
Laurie Hernandez (senior in 2016, USA) had missed out on the last competition due to a wrist injury then knee injury. Her coach tells us not to worry as Laurie has recently been cleared! Here are some of the skills she's been working on. At the end, she shows a Downie (stalder piked Tkatchev) and Ricna (stalder straddled Tkatchev).
In most surprising upgrades, that goes to Tatiana Nabieva who shows a super high round off layout full on the low beam.
Not to be outdone, teammate Aliya Mustafina again shows a double layout. She first showed one probably 6 or so months ago. Just keep in mind Aliya has managed a 6.2 difficulty on floor with just 3 passes. Oh, the possibilities! IG: musaliya135.
This week in bloopers, we have Celine van Gerner who works whips to a tucked full in. She has some trouble on the first one but gets it right for the second one! Van Gerner continues to surprise me as she was selected as the sole 2012 Olympian for the Netherlands and continues to show upgrades even after injury and time off.
