thiago_simoes

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.

Scores on floor are still abysmally low. I told you this floor equipment is the worst in the world... Anyway, Geurts is almost guaranteed to make vault final and this should be more than enough for, at least, a bronze medal. Only Devillard, Melnikova and Andrade could challenge her, but I don't think Devillard will score more than 14.2. D'Amato with 13.8, a little bit lower than I anticipated for her but this should still be enough for the final. I guess this will be enough for 6th or 7th, or maybe 8th. Downie with a disappointing score on the uneven bars. Probably not enough for a final.

Oof. A very shaky start. Qi Qi counted a fall on both vaults. No final for her, and here I thought she was almost assured of a medal. Wide open door for Geurts and Devillard now, and Asia D'Amato. Also, decent chances for and to reach the final. Wei Xiaoyuan had a terrible all-around competition, only performing well on the uneven bars and vault, though her execution and difficulty are not good on vault. But on bars she had a huge score and can even become the world champion if she repeats this. Li Shijia was the clear favorite for balance beam gold, but she will not make the final. Luo had a huge score and could be the champion here, quite easily, if she repeats this in the final. I blame the terrible quality of the equipment for scores so low on floor and vault. This is not normal. No other noteworthy performances, though. Ofir had a decent 13.516 average on vault but this will not be enough for a final. Maybe a place in the top 12, with some luck.

Reports from and indicate that the World Championships are poorly organized. I asked for the start lists because we literally have no clue who is going to perform where, but no answer from FIG as of yet. Only one gymnastics blog reported on podium training because basically all international media was forbidden to report from the arena. There will be no live streaming of the qualifications anywhere, according to the FIG. The routines from qualification will be uploaded to the YouTube channel after the competition. It's literally impossible to get information about anything relevant as of now. Even predicting who is going to medal is not feasible without the start lists. I'm really, really, really frustrated.

So, Murakami will not perform on vault and bars, and Andrade will not perform on floor. The all-around title is pretty open right now, with Melnikova the clear favorite. I'm still awaiting confirmation but it looks like only three girls performed two vaults during podium training. Geurts and QiQi are clear favorites for the podium now, along with Andrade. Not sure if Melnikova will perform 2 vaults, but this looks more and more unlikely now.

The horizontal bar in the training hall broke when Adria Vera was performing just simple giants. What a mess of an event. Tjassa Kysselef publicly complained about the tiny hotel room and the meager amount of food the gymnasts are given after paying 200 euros for each night. Nancy Taman got injured. EMjae Frazier had a nasty fall on floor, probably because the quality of the apparatus leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sorry to bring so much negative remarks and comments here, but I'm seriously scared at how poor everything is. The host city was only chosen because it was the birthplace of the FIG president. Talk about political decisions for the biggest competition in this sport after the Olympics... It backfired in a horrible manner.

It has been said that the accommodations in the hotels is less than optimal, the food is bad and the competition hall looks ugly. Well, this is shaping up to be the worst edition of the World Championships this century. And we still don't know who is going to perform two vaults. The competition starts in 3 days. Unbelievable.

So, the Russians didn't know the equipment manufacturer for this event is Taishan. They thought it was Senoh, the manufacturer who provided the apparatus for the Olympics. It seems like a minor difference, but Taishan's floors are one of the worst -- maybe the worst -- for gymnasts. It is said to be too stiff and prone to cause injuries. Many gymnasts skip performing on floor altogether when Taishan is their only choice of apparatus. What a shame. A badly attended event with a terrible choice of apparatus supplier. This doesn't seem to bode well.

Brazil will send 2 male gymnasts and 1 female gymnast. And we might see the first-ever medal for Africa this time: Zahran on rings. The best-ever position achieved by an African gymnast was 4th place on rings, also by an Egyptian gymnast, Ali Zaki, in 1950.