Live Women's Qualification - Subdivision 3

We are soon to get underway in the third subdivision of Women's Qualification, which features the US, Great Britain, France, and Canada. The final three subdivisions are the main event today, and I'm  excited to see what the US can put up. Does it make me a bad gymnastics fan if I'm going to follow the US team from apparatus to apparatus instead of watching the main feed? I can watch the other important routines (so, Tweddle's bars) on replay. The non-US question of this group will be whether a PPL-free Canada can beat Australia's fall-laden score.

For the United States, the most important routines will be Maroney's vault (is she really ready to do it at the 16.000 level she needs?), Wieber's bars (that routine composition is hanging by a thread), and Douglas's beam (obviously). If they get what they need out of those performances, it will be a successful day. Also, keep your eye on the ball, and the ball is Aly Raisman. She's not so far behind Wieber and Douglas in AA scoring potential. A fall from one of them could become a total thing.


What's going to happen here?

Current Standings after two subdivisions
Team:
1. Italy - 168.397
2. Australia - 166.721
3. Brazil - 161. 295

All-Around:
1. Ferrari - 57.932
2. Gomez Porras - 56.132
3. Ferlito - 55.500
4. Steingruber - 54.715
5. Little - 54.498

Competition begins at 9:45 ET/6:45 PT with commentary here.



AA competitors in this subdivision will be Jordyn Wieber, Gabby Douglas, Aly Raisman, Hannah Whelan, Rebecca Tunney, Jenny Pinches, Victoria Moors, Kristina Vaculik, Anne Kuhm, and Aurelie Malaussena.

We're having the march of the darkness, which has now become customary. Entrances now, warmups immediately. Like the opening ceremonies, they have been mocing at such a fast pace for all these events. These subdivisions are getting done in like 30 seconds each.

Rotation 1 - Vault:
In warmups, Raisman overrotates and takes a fall. Kyla is sitting all by herself. Wieber and Douglas look solid in warmup vaults. Maroney warms up a brilliant Mustafina. Here we go.

Raisman - much better than the warmup. Looked pretty full around. Minor hop. Great start. Still the leg form as always, but an improvement. Mihai has a lot to say from behind the barrier. 15.800. Big score.

Douglas - Very nice as well. Only a minor shuffle on landing, but not quite getting the distance. Very nice form in the air. 15.900. Two great performances so far.

Wieber - Nice. A little off to the side and she might have landed with a foot in the red, but otherwise very good. Maybe she just hopped into the red afterward. Not a locked landing, so that's good to see. 15.833 including .1 in penalties. Oooh, Douglas wins vault in our "rivalry."

Maroney - Here we go. Crazy high as always but very uncontrolled landing. big lunge and then a couple hops in place. May actually be the lowest score because of landing deductions. 15.900, so they probably took .5 for landing and .1 for something else.

Maroney 2 - Brilliant Mustafina. That has improved so much. Stuck (basically - hop to salute but minor). Amazing. 15.700. Tim Dagget will tell us that was low tonight.

USA goes 47.633 (anything over 47 was going to be a victory), Canada goes 42.699 on bars, which is the highest so far. Great Britain has a very poor beam rotation, failing the break 40, the lowest score so far. If they don't make finals, I may die for them.

Rotation 2 - Bars:
Warmups now on bars. McKayla's job is to be very cheerleader-y right now.


Rasiman - usual legs and pirouettes, hits jaeger and tkatchev - sticks double front. A good Aly routine. This will be a telling indicator of how generous the scoring will be at this event. Closeups of her leg form aren't helping. 14.166 (8.266 on execution).

Wieber - almost goes over on clear hip full but hangs on. No one is surprised. Very low on tkatchev, really piked in DLO full dismount but sticks it (one layout one pike). Some major places to deduct there. 14.833.

Ross -big leg fly apart on shaposh swing back, clean after that, sticks DLO. I think she was a little nervous/rushed at the beginning, which is expected, but she had her usual cleanliness after that. Best of the three so far certainly. 14.866. Nearly the same execution as Wieber, which is bizarre. Yes, it was not her best, but to say it was the same execution as Wieber? Maybe they deducted for the one foot at a time technique. They're not supposed to, but I would love them for it if they did. Gymnasts are talking about how the green light is coming up quicker than they expected.

Douglas - perfect through the beginning, tkatchev to pak goes well. Best DLO I've seen her do. Couldn't have done much better. Let's hope for bars finals. "Your tkatchev pak was amazing," says Aly. I agree. 15.333.

The US goes 45.032 on bars, which is the best so far. France puts up strong 14s on vault. Vaculik just had a fall on beam for Canada. Tweddle gets a huge round of applause for floor, obviously. These choreography choices. . . Hit routine.

Canada dies on the beam for an even lower score than GBR. Tweddle gets a 14.433 for floor, which is third as of now.

Rotation 3 - Beam:
Douglas currently holds a .5 lead on Wieber, but that doesn't really mean anything until after beam.

Ross - a little slow in the switch ring (one of the few I've been fine with today) + back tuck connection but may get it. Loso was nice, followed by clean side aerial. She looks ever so slightly tentative in her movements (always) but it's not reflected in her performance. Small wobbles after punch front and sheep. Hop out of double back (fine but it needs to be stuck). Big start for the US. Split positions to die for. 15.075. What does a girl have to do to break 9 on execution around here?

Douglas - wobble on loso series but no fall. standing full is good. Misses connection on switch + back tuck, good switch 1/2 + back tuck and front pike. She's getting more comfortable as she goes. Basically sticks double pike. There was one mid-range wobble but we couldn't have expected any more from her in that routine. 15.266. Now we have a TF decision on our hands, don't we? Do we? This will be a debate.

Wieber - good aerial loso series, standing full sandwich is on but certainly not connected. side aerial is clean, side somi is a side somi. Major wobble on switch side. Weird. Didn't do the turn combo. Hop forward on dismount. Fine but not great. Gabby is having the much better day. 14.700. Douglas will have a point lead going to floor. 

Raisman - good punch front, also bhs + layout. Alicia's her front pike + loso combo. back foot on switch half may have been lower than usual, but she's not wobbling at all. Hope forward on double arabian (that could have been better, but fine). No significant problems for the US so far. 15.100 she edges Kyla for potential EF place. I can't wait to hear what people say about that. Hehehe.

45.441 for the US on beam, which is about what we would expect from them. Note the hit rotations from Romania and China will go much higher. The US would need just a 30.300, which they could do in two routines potentially.

Strong vaults from GBR put them ahead of Canada and France. Canada needs a 42.700 on vault to pass Australia.

Rotation 4 - Floor:

Ross - Goes OOB on her double arabian with little control. Low on her double back dismount. This was always a drop routine, now even more. I miss McKayla. Now that girl knows how to go out of bounds with style. 13.733.

Douglas - stumbles out of her double arabian like crazy as well. What is happening to these girls. Martha, time to go to work before Team Finals. Tuck full is fine, though. Finishes with good double back + split, but her score will take a major hit, though not enought o fall behind Wieber. Taking their sweet time with her score. 13.766. Rough. So Wieber actually could pass her, but she would need something up at/near a 15.

(Tweddle hits bars in spectacular fashion. Phew. I had a fear she would get herself out of finals somehow. GBR will pass Italy easily even after the poor beam rotation. 16.133.)

Wieber - double double is a little low but good, 1.5 to triple full, tries to do a pitiful leap out of it and steps out of bounds (ugh, that decision), 2.5 to leap was fine, double pike is slightly low as well but fine. It's a good routine, obvious best for the US so far, but it can get better and it won't get 15. 14.666. Douglas ahead by about two tenths.But both score in the lows 60s and will be very catchable by the Russians.

Raisman - does the layout of the mount, hop back on it though, might have been better to do the tuck. pike DbA is good, minor hop out of the triple full, double pike rebound into split. basically her usual routine. It was get a little cleaner, but that was solid. 15.325. Highest floor score so far by a large margin. WHAT? Raisman leads in the AA. I wasn't even paying attention to her. WHAT? Wieber does not make AA finals. WHAT? Mihai is ecstatic. "You did it!" (It's all about the team. . .) Didn't I say keep your eye on the ball?

Interview. Geddert. Now. That's all I have to say.

Subdivision 4 with Russia and China begins in about 30 minutes. There will be a new post for it because otherwise these get way too long.

Current standings:
Team:
1. USA - 181.863
2. Great Britain - 170.656
3. Italy - 168.397
4. Canada - 167.696
5. Australia - 166.721
6. France - 164.796
7. Brazil - 161.295

Looks like Australia is out what with Russia, China, Romania, and Japan still to compete.


All-Around:
1. Aly Raisman - 60.391
2. Gabby Douglas - 60.265
Jordyn Wieber - 60.032
3. Vanessa Ferrari - 57.932
4. Rebecca Tunney - 56.391
5. Ana Sofia Gomez Porras - 56.132
6. Hannah Whelan - 55.699

Vault:
1. Maroney - 15.800
2. Pena Abreu - 14.699
3. Rogers - 14.483
4. Black - 14.366
5. Steingruber - 13.924

Bars:
1. Tweddle - 16.133
2. Douglas - 15.333
3. Ross - 14.866
Wieber - 14.833
4. Tunney - 14.825
5. Rogers - 14.500
5. Dufournet - 14.500

Beam:
1. Douglas - 15.266
2. Raisman - 15.100
Ross - 15.075
Wieber - 14.700
3. Ferrari - 14.433
4. Ferlito - 14.425
5. Millousi - 14.366

Floor:
1. Raisman - 15.325
2. Ferrari - 14.900
3. Mitchell - 14.833
4. Wieber - 14.666
5. Tweddle - 14.433