This and That

Adelina Sotnikova's long program from JGP Austria.

Ana Porgras and Flavius Koczi repeated as AA Champions of Romania this weekend. Ana upgraded her series to be two backhandspring+2 foot layout. She scored a monstrous 15.800 and won easily despite a fall on a full in on floor. Ana hasn't had a lot of training time on floor or vault since coming back from her broken ankle. Belu says almost every girl has had an injury and only been preparing for 1-3 months. Given the lack of depth, Octavian seems to be peaking and molding the available talent appropriately.

Sandra Izbasa was the top scorer on floor at 15.050 (after only being 13.7ish last week.)

Diana Chelaru finished second, ahead of third place Amelia Racea by .05. Pitic needs to get her butt in gear after finishing 6th AA. She'll have another opportunity at the upcoming tri-meet.

Tons of videos (WAG and MAG) are available here.

Larisa Iordache (14 yrs old) beat Diana Bulimar by four points.

Marian Dragalescu had a minor injury on Thursday and decided to sit out this weekend's championships. He still plans on being ready for Worlds and Stoica pretty much named him to the team when he said that they couldn't qualify to Team Finals without him.

Gabrielle Douglas left Excalibur. This is heavenly news, as she needed higher caliber coaches to get her to the Olympic Games. A few gym moms noticed Kelli Hill watching Gabi like a hawk at Nationals. They indicated that they wouldn't be surprised if Martha orchestrated a gym change before long given her talent and Martha's own enmity for Excalibur.

Aly Raisman won the AA at Camp. All twelve girls were invited back for the second (and final) selection camp. Not every gymnast did the All-Around, which could explain Raisman winning the AA. Some of the girls may have only done three events in order to peak for worlds. Sacramone and Davis were said to have performed especially well. The Ranch now uses Dartfish Technology, which is what skaters use to perfect their jump technique. Dartfish allows immediately playback of routines on large monitors (most top gyms and NCAA programs have it) and it also enables athletes to wear censors and then pinpoint the areas of their technique that need to be tweaked.

Greg Marsden posted a video of picture day at Blahtah.

The GymCats (Cassie Rice's gym) posted a recent level 10 workout, which includes her older daughter.

Golden Skate posted a feature on Simpson and Miller.

Agnes Zawadzki kicked Rachael Flatt's ass at the latest Colorado Springs club competition. Point Poland!