thiago_simoes

I hate the format of this event, with finals happening minutes after qualifications. Ugh. The AA final with 18 gymnasts does nothing for this sport. Nothing. We still have groups A and B, so gymnasts from smaller programs -- or unlucky gymnasts in qualifications like Raffaelli -- will only hope to be the "best of the rest" while the other gymnasts in the top group are the ones who will fight for medals. I'm pleased with Brazil qualifying for the first time ever for the final, but I'm not exactly thrilled. The changes have been for the worse.

LOL, gold for China. I have no idea how, but... at least Hashimoto didn't get an undeserved gold medal here.

Aaaand, of course, Karimi is out of the podium. Why am I even surprised? Why? Poor Karimi.

My best guess is that, as we say it in Brazil, there was a "gentlemen's agreement" going on. China has a long history of being even more corrupt. The fact that they have not been banned after many, many scandals -- especially the underage gymnasts at the Olympics and World Championships -- just proves that they have a very talented negotiator behind the scenes. But now I've gone to the conspiracy theory territory. I know it.

Seriously, I just hope they don't mess with Karimi now. He finally hit a routine in his life. He deserves a medal.

Well, what I did I tell you about the competition being in Japan and the FIG president being Japanese? Hashimoto will get gold even though he didn't even deserve to get a medal. That's FIG for you.

Too early to tell, especially after Hashimoto had a bad landing and was veeery late on some pirouettes. Maybe Uchimura can still win a medal here.

Oh, so the score was indeed fair. I'm surprised!

He had lots of major mistakes on handstands. He doesn't deserve a medal here, but since this competition is in Japan and the FIG president is Japanese...

Horrible beam final. There hasn't been a single beam final that was remotely interesting and where the truly best gymnasts made it to the podium at once in the last 7 years. Ugh. The scoring in the floor final was a mess too. Melnikova once again was overscored, and Murakami had her inquiry accepted when in reality it shouldn't have been. At least Murakami, who is hands down the best floor worker in this competition, got the gold medal here. But was it fair? I don't really think so.

Okay, now we have some drama. People are questioning why Luo Rui only received a score of 8.433 in execution for her routine, and then the logical explanation was that she hit the low bar with her feet once, which should cause a 0.5 deduction on the execution score. However, according to the code of points, this deduction only applies if the rhythm of the routine is affected -- i.e., if there is a pause or if the movement she performs does not follow smoothly. People are now discussing on Twitter that the rhythm of the routine was never broken, so she should have never been deducted. My opinion: she should have won. Rebeca should have been the bronze medalist, and I would not even be mad if Kovacs had been scored higher and earned the bronze medal. The uneven bars final was great but the way gymnasts were scored leaves the doors open for discussion.

Lodadio was not supposed to compete in this final and he wins silver. Crazy. Really a great year for Italy. Who would have thought? 4 medals so far? Unbelievable.

I'm surprised with the scores on uneven bars. Rebeca Andrade had a mistake and I thought he wouldn't even get a medal. Silver is absolutely fantastic, especially considering that our previous best result on this apparatus was 10th. Now I hope Rebeca Andrade can make it 3 for 3 tomorrow on beam. This would leave the team event as the only women's event in which Brazil has never won a medal at Worlds.

The biggest deductions on vault come from landing and height of the vault. How high one person reaches in the air counts a lot. Taman's second vault was a little bit low, so she was deducted because of it. I even thought she received a higher score than I had imagined, to be honest. The main problem, however, is that she had a hefty deduction on landing in her first vault. It was a quite difficult vault, though, so she deserves a big round of applause for even attempting it. Believe me: I would have been a lot happier if Taman got a medal instead of Melnikova, but I'm afraid that the results are fair.

Taman 4th... And Melnikova with another lucky medal, though not exactly undeserved despite a horrible second vault. But she was deducted accordingly, at least.

Noooooo... I can't believe it, Geurts and Taman...

That was... magical! 18 years later and we'll finally have another female world champion for Brazil! I can't believe it! Now I'm crossing my fingers for Geurts and Taman on my dream podium.

SORAVUO!!

Yulo could have chosen to step out of bounds and lose 0.1 in execution and 0.1 in penalty, but he tried to save it, lost control, had a 0.5 deduction and moved out of bounds with two feet for an extra 0.3 in penalty. What a stupid, stupid decision.

It was about time. Besides, Melnikova is a huge example in perseverance. She started as a mediocre gymnast, almost helpless on some apparatus, bus now she is both a World and Olympic champion. This gives hope for basically anyone who takes up this sport. Even if you're not exactly gifted or exceptionally talented, you can work hard and become the best all the same.

I thought he was going to win a medal... But it was a very tough event. Even Lodadio didn't qualify. Many, many, many surprises today. Half of the qualifiers are people I'd never expect to qualify.

Event finals for and AA final for . Way more interesting results than I had anticipated. Who would dare say that Netzer would end up ahead of Qi Qi or Devillard? This is absolutely CRAZY! Really sad for Kysselef. This was the biggest opportunity in her career and her first vault was amazing! Too bad about the second one.

Taman has secured qualification for the vault final! History not only for but for the whole sport of artistic gymnastics! First African woman to advance to an apparatus final at the World Championships!

No final for Kysselef. But this puts Taman in a veeeery comfortable position now.

This is one of the best news of this competition so far, along with Ceplinschi hopefuly qualifying for the floor final. There is a bunch of talented vaulters still to come, but Taman has a decent chance of qualifying. Andrade and Melnikova should score better than that, and Kysselef too. One of the Mexicans could also do it but it will be hard. No idea about the girls from Vietnam and South Korea, though, so we'll have to wait and see.