Women's Vault EFs - Catty Comments

What a great weekend but a little-sleep one for us left-coast sports fans - with live event coverage spanning the globe (Rotterdam, Tokyo, Philadelphia). All we have to say here in San Frangaysco is Giants Win the Pennant! Giants Win the Pennant!

Women's vault & bars finals were waaaaaaaaaay too early here. I watched the replay while sipping hipster microroasted beans bursting with the fruity notes of mountain cherry & hype marketing.


Vault finals

The sentimental favorite, 22 1/2 year-old Alicia Sacramone, drew 1st for vault finals and hit both her usual vaults (handspring rudi, dty) with her usual monster height and usual step on both landings. 





And rocked periwinkle - periwinkle! - with an interesting kimono-like neck cut. I would link a photo to the leo, but all of the photos so far have a medal blocking the neck cut. Whoops, spoiler alert. Whatevs.


Brand new world AA champion/HBIC Mustafina was the next major condenter to vault, stealing a hiddy (my new favorite word, thanks Tom & Lorenzo!) shiny green leo with neck/boob glitter seaweed decoration from a drag queen named Sinéad O'Con-her. Aliya also refuses to sing the USA national anthem.

She hit both her Amanar & Khorkintosh but was downgraded .2 for a piked instead of layout Khorkintosh. Russia protested, but do you see a stretched layout position anywhere between the vault table & the mat? Yeah... no. There's tons of slo-mo goodness 2:12 & beyond.





Next, Nabieva. After her first vault, a miracle occurred - the judges correctly credited her 2.25 Yurchenko as a dty instead of an Amanar. The missing 1/4 twist lowered her start value from 6.5 to 5.8 - perhaps the costliest 1/4 turn in the current code. Then to keep bff status with Mustafina (aside from wearing her Mustafina's AA leo), she also piked the Khorkintosh. But to name Nabieva's gymnastics alongside Mustafina, one would have to be blinder than Andrea Bocelli to overlook her "form."

Is she pre-flight, post-flight, or trying to squash a bug? You tell me. Baby Jesus would tell me, but he's too busy crying. Whatever, that Nabieva whackadoodle's form is hiddy.


Jade Barbosa is back from carpal necrosis (similar injury to Courtney McCool) and looks on track for a 2012 vault medal. Her dty & layout Pod vaults were both very easy & neat, and one can see her upgrading back to the monster vaults she was rocking in early 2008, an Amanar & Cheng.





Her leo honors the workout leos of Team Iceland:

Final results: 1) Sacramone 2) Mustafina 3) Barbosa