thiago_simoes

Nice work for Devai, though her vaults were considerably sloppier than in qualifications. Still good enough for gold, so that's okay, I gyess. Melnikova did everything she could. Silver is still pretty good for her. Not sure about how I feel about Golgota winning bronze. Her first vault received 0.1-0.2 more than she actually deserved, while Voss should have received 0.1-0.2 more for her first vault, so... Anyway, good for Romania not to go home empty handed.

For those interested in how women's artistic teams are performing this year, these are the top performances so far in 2018. The top 24 teams at the 2018 World Championships will qualify for the 2019 World Championships, China - 166.100 (Qualifications / Asian Games) Russia - 165.195 (Team Final / European Championships) France - 164.063 (Qualifications / European Championships) Canada - 163.075 (Commonwealth Games) Great Britain (actually, England) - 162.650 (Commonwealth Games) USA - 161.000 (Pacific Rim / projected score since girls performed 11 out 12 routines) Netherlands - 159.563 (Team Final / European Championships) Brazil - 159.370 (City of Jesolo Trophy) Belgium - 159.331 (Qualifications / European Championships) North Korea - 158.500 (Qualifications / Asian Games) Australia - 157.450 (Commonwealth Games) Italy - 156.300 (City of Jesolo Trophy) South Korea - 155.300 (Qualifications / Asian Games) Hungary - 154.130 (Qualifications / European Championships) Argentina - 154.067 (Qualifications / South American Games) Japan - 153.950 (Qualifications / Asian Games) Spain - 153.430 (Qualifications / European Championships) Ukraine - 153.163 (Qualifications / European Championships) Switzerland - 153.129 (Team Final / DTB Pokal) Romania - 152.600 (City of Jesolo Trophy) Germany - 152.250 (Qualifications / DTB Pokal) Cuba - 150.100 (Qualifications / CAC Games) Colombia - 149.950 (Qualifications / CAC Games) Mexico - 149.900 (Qualifications / CAC Games) Egypt - 149.800 (Qualifications / Mediterranean Games) Puerto Rico - 148.550 (Qualifications / CAC Games)

Rugby, probably.

Except that in Cinderella the girl did nothing but stand there (well, she went to the ball, if that counts), while here the players worked their asses off and no man was needed for them to be amazing.

It's amazing how you can NEVER underestimate Russia. This is their weakest team in years, and still they absolutely delivered in the final. Unbelievable. France did well, but they can't rely on Charpy performing three events, though I'm not sure they have anyone better to take her spot, to be honest. I must also mention that Melanie dos Santos was AWESOME, and her individual all-around score today (56.266) is currently the third best in the world in international competition. She's a threat for an all-around medal at the World Championships for sure! Netherlands was mostly solid, especially van Gerner (yay, I'm so happy for her!). Everything went their way so they could earn the bronze medal. And it's time for the British program to reinvent itself if they want to challenge for a world medal. Bad beam rotation aside, none of the girls are up to par to Great Britain's best gymnasts to date. They're average at best, and when you count the USA, China, Russia, Japan and even Canada and Brazil, they're in big trouble for the next World Championships if things don't change. Nice to see Ukraine in fifth (I said they could surprise) and Italy in sixth (from not going to the final to placing ahead of two teams, this was such a nice improvement). Spain had a couple of mishaps here and there, but still a good competition considering their level, and Hungary did basically what they could (still, nice for them to even make team finals).

Ireland!!!

What an amazing goal from Spain under pressure!

HUGE news: Russian-born gymnast Ekaterina Vedeneeva will now represent Slovenia. She should easily qualify for the 2020 Olympics (but then again, we all know how bad things were for Elizaveta Nazarenkova at the 2016 Olympics Test Event, so one can never be too sure), but the most important thing is that she's good enough to earn a lot of major medals, such as at the European Games, World Games, Universiade and the World/Challenge Cup circuit, and even maybe at the European Championships and World Championships.

Russia brought their weakest team in many years, so I'm surprised they even qualified in second. I thought they would qualify behind Netherlands and Great Britain, but I was wrong. It's Russia, so you can never count them out, but I think France should take gold if the girls hit (and this is a big if). Ukraine could be a big surprise and win bronze if they hit, but again this is a big if. And let's see what Italy can do now that Belgium has given up their place in the final. I'm really curious about the outcome of this event. It looks like Canada, Brazil, Japan and, of course, China and the USA, are in better shape than most teams from Europe. Even Australia could challenge for the top 8 at the World Championships.

It's winter here in Brazil, and the city I live in, Joinville, is rainy and cold most of the year, so it's even colder (by our standards) now: 12 ºC.

I did. And today's score was also a lot more than what I expected. Either the rest of Europe is doing terrible (if you look at how bad Italy and Germany were, this is somewhat true) or the Spanish girls have improved a lot (and they had a fantastic and flawless competition today, it seems). Let's see how they perform at the World Championships. I'm paying attention now, for sure. And I hope they prove me wrong yet again (for the third time lol) if they finish among the 12 best teams at Worlds.

Fair scores given the skills they train. The gymnasts can't perform miracles with bad coaches on this apparatus.

What's going on with Wevers? I've never been a fan of hers, but it's sad to watch her fumble all of her routines at major events after the Olympic Games.

Marta Pihan is back! I love her!

Nope. Screw this atrocity of a "sport".

Simone Biles in women's artistic gymnastics. She will win everything but Uneven Bars (and she has shown such a big improvement on this apparatus that I will not be entirely surprised if she walks away with a gold medal on the UB as well). Kohei Uchimura has not fully recovered yet, but I think he will be ready for the 2020 Olympics because, well, it's in Japan. It's impossible to say if he will even be among the favorites for the gold medal -- he had a terrible day of competition at the World Cup this year and he was so close to being beaten in the last few years that I think it will be too late for him to try to win gold in 2020. But we will see.

1st place on the first day, 47th on the final day. I'm a digger.

It's beyond over now. Congratulations, Croatia, for reaching this far and congratulations, France, for the title.

France finally scored the equalizer. Oh, wait...

Unbelievable. Croatia is really unlucky today.

Yes! Goal! Go, Croatia!

Non existant foul with the player diving out of nowhere? Check. Own goal? Check. Best team on the field losing? Check. World Cup winner getting unbelievably lucky without really deserving it? Check. I'm getting tired of the coincidences already.

Coconut grating. Oh, boy. Now I've seen it all.

Tonga applied for FIG membership two months ago. It would be funny to see him attempting swimming, though.

Very beautiful medals. I hope one of the Brazilian gymnasts come home with one of these. Maybe Diogo Brajão will earn one.