Yesterday in São Paulo, the World Challenge Cup Brazil qualifying round was seen by many as Team Brazil’s first rehearsal for the Olympics, to be held next year in Rio de Janeiro.
For the Brazilians, it was a great opportunity to test its gymnast’s ability to concentrate with a loud crowd cheering them on and pressuring them for medals. For the others, it was a chance to interact with the Brazilian hyper-cheering public that filled the Ibirapuera Stadium.
The stronger countries competing on the women’s side were, undoubtedly, China, Brazil and Germany. Mexico and Argentina counted with strong individual performances. Hong Kong, Latvia, Chile and the Dominican Republic also attended. Chungsong Shang, the Brazilian newcomers Flavia Saraiva and Rebecca Andrade, as well as Elisabeth Seitz, were the focus of the crowd’s attention.
Shang Chungsong was probably the strongest gymnast on the field today when it comes to D scores and competition experiences. She competed on bars, beam and floor. Despite having qualified for the beam and bar finals, she fell twice on the floor and once in the bars. Since the 2014th Worlds, she has been questioned on her consistency, and her performance today will not help much.
Shang Chungsong qualified in the first place for the beam finals, with a D score of 6.50 and an E score of 8.600, adding up to a 15.100 final score. On the 2014th Chinese National Championship, she reached a 6.6 D score and a 15.167 final score. Despite not doing her best work on the apparatus, Chungsong performed by far the best beam routine of the day.
Chungsong had the highest difficulty score of the competition on floor –a 5.8. But three major falls left her in 13th place. She fell on her first pass -a one and a half walkout to triple twist into a front somersault- as she has done in warm ups. Original choreography and outstanding leaps were not enough to save her after she fell again on her last pass. In the past, we have seen her land very low –at 2014th worlds AA, for example- but never to fall like she did today in São Paulo.
She qualified in third to the uneven bars final, despite a fall on her straddle Jaeger. When performing at her best –like during 2013th Chinese Nationals, Chungsong can reach a D score of 6.9, higher than Elisabeth Seitz 6.7 potential.
The Chinese Chen Siyi qualified for the finals of all the events she competed in: beam, bars and floor. It does not stop there: in all three events, she qualified in the 7th position. She suffered a fall on beam –one of her best events- and showed a bit of lack of power on floor. We can certainly expect a better performance from her on Saturday and Sunday.
Rebecca Andrade was the top qualifier to the vault final. She chose to play safe and did not perform her Amanar. Instead, she hit a close-to-perfect double twisting yurshenko. Rebecca turned senior this year, and has achieved o far promising results at Ljubljana World Cup. She is known for outstanding work on vault and the uneven bars. However, as she did in Ljubljana, she suffered a fall on her transition from the high to the low bar She came back to perform a beautiful Jeager and a very good Tsukahara dismount.
Rebecca Andrade was the first of the newcomers Brazilian gymnasts to catch the attention of gymnastics fans. Her power resembles that of former floor world champion Diane dos Santos. Rumor has is that she will attempt to hit a quadruple twist on floor to increase the chances her country at the Rio Olympics.
Chinese Deng Yalan pleased the crowd with her difficult vaults: she performed double twisting tsukahara and a front handspring front layout with one and a half twist. She fell behind Rebecca Andrade because of lower execution scores, but on Sunday, the race for the gold will almost certainly be between the two of them.
Flávia Saraiva has added difficulty to all her routines and is increasingly controlling her landings. Alexandr Alexandrov, former coach of 2010 World Champion Aliya Mustafina, seems very fond of her. He watches her routines closely and gives her constant instructions, mainly regarding landings and body shape on twisting elements. Flavia is emerging as the top Brazilian all- around gymnast.
Flavia Saraiva qualified in 2nd for the beam final despite falling on her second acrobatic series: the handspring to layout somersault. The series is one of the many new skills Flavia is performing to increase her D score -6.3 today. Back at the 2014 WOGA Classics, Flavia had a 5.9 D score on this apparatus. Her leaps were very well performed and a difficult series of two aerial walkovers connected to a side somersault was added to her routine.
Flávia Saraiva displayed some new skills on uneven bars, packed in to increase her low D score (5.4 here). However, her usual consistency and clean lines granted her a decent E score, that propelled her to the 4th spot.
Brazilian Lorrane Oliveira will not repeat her success on beam in Ljubljana. She fell on her front somersault mount, which is essential to build her D score. On the other hand, she managed to qualify second to the floor finals, with a 13.750 score, a great improvement from her 11.900 score in Ljubljana.
Elisabeth Seitz has done her job when it comes to leading the German team and dominating the uneven bars. Coming back from a foot injury, it is understandable that she did not do her best on beam and floor. But she is scheduled to compete in Baku and certainly hopes to make it to Glasgow. If so, she will have to bring back some of her old skills to help team Germany qualify for the Olympic Games.
Elisabeth Seitz led the uneven bars qualification round. She achieved a 6.6 difficulty score, which is not so different from the one she had back in London, and had no major mistakes in her execution. Her teammate Sophie Scheder qualified in second, sealing the German dominance on the apparatus.
Elisabeth Seitz performed a watered down floor routine this Friday, with a D score of only 4.9. She has not yet recovered her twisting double somersault and has a bit to improve on her leaps to achieve the London D score of 5.5. Even so, she has qualified in 6th and will be on Sunday at the floor finals.
On beam, Seitz fell on her acrobatic series and on a side somersault, making it hard to deny that she is still a bit out of shape.
Ayelen Tarabini is, indisputably, the leader of the Argentinian team. She is having a great 2015, managing to compete on event finals at Cottbus, Doha, Ljubljana and, now, São Paulo. She qualified in fourth for the beam finals and in third for the floor final.
Uneven Bars Rebecca Andrade:
First Vault Rebecca Andrade:
Second Vault Rebecca Andrade:
Uneven Bars Flávia Saraiva:
Floor Flávia Saraiva:
Results:
Article by: Ana Livia
Photo cover: from here
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