9:26 p.m.: Well, that concludes day one of men's podium training here at the Metropolitan Gymnasium. We'll be back tomorrow morning for the final day before competition begins, to watch as Russia and China, among others, test out this podium. Good night!
9:22 p.m.: Hambuechen also trained a full in tuck while the German guys made their corrections. That double full last pass he did in his full routine may disappear in team finals.
9:17 p.m.: Marcel Nguyen, floor: He used to open with a triple double...he's changed it to a double double layout. Very good. Front double full to front tuck full. Layout Thomas. Press. That was a really nice opening pass...Whip to layout Arabian 1 3/4. 2.5 to front layout half, excellent. Ends with a double double! Wow, that was great. OOB on the last pass, but whatever. How often are people ending with double doubles these days?
9:14 p.m.: Wild routine from Germany's third guy, which ended with a very overrotated 2.5 twist. The Germans seem to be having some trouble adjusting to the bounce of the podium. But again, that's what this whole day is for.
Philipp Boy, floor: 1.5 to full twiosting Arabian 1 3/4. Arabian double pike. Great lightness in flairs sequence, which goes twice through handstand. Press. 2.5 to front tuck full, very good. Triple full with a small hop back.
9:09 p.m.: Eugen Spiridonov, floor: Layout Thomas. Layout 1 3/4 Arabian. Twisting side pass. 1.5 to front tuck full. Full in tuck, rolls backwards out of it.
Oh, so Fabian Hambuechen is doing floor! Spiridonov repeats his last pass and sticks it. His teammates applaud. Lots of "Go Fabian!" as he prepares. His routine: Layout Thomas, OOB. 2.5 to front layout half. Tucked Thomas. 1.5? to front tuck full. Flairs to handstand and down sequence, not bad. Press. Double twist dismount. Watered down, but nice to see him on floor again.
9:05 p.m.: Mr. Triple double from Germany sticks his final dismount on high bar. Good for him! Gets a big pat on the back as he comes off the podium. That's the way you want to finish.
9:01 p.m.: Germany's high bar is drawing applause from around the arena, even among the rather quiet smattering of a crowd (mostly coaches and people in different delegations, I think). They had a couple of miscues, but do seriously impressive stuff. Who's the guy doing the triple double layout off high bar?
8:42 p.m.: Sebastian was rather off to the side on his last DTY -- so far off to the side he went off the podium as he tried to regain his footing. He went back and did a timer.
8:41 p.m.: Wonderfully aggressive routine from Philipp Boy on parallel bars. It was the one event he didn't seem too pleased with himself for at Euros, but that was really good stuff, clean and smooth with great form. Stuck double pike dismount.
8:37 p.m.: Over on vault, Carson's walking a little gingerly after landing a Tsuk 1.5. I don't think he's hurt, but his left shin is pretty thickly taped up. A bit sore, perhaps? He sat down for a little bit, and has now gotten back up and is walking around. Rohan Sebastian, who has a very light quality to him, did a good DTY.
8:29 p.m.: So, Germany on vault. I mean, in general it was OK. No shortage of difficulty, but no real spectacular difficulty either. The Dragulescu is not as valuable as the Amanar on the women's side, to make that comparison, but at the same time, it does put a team like the U.S. ahead. The Americans are likely to have two -- from Jonahan Horton and Steven Legendre, as well as Jake Dalton's superb Tsuk triple. They should definitely better the Germans there.
8:24 p.m.: Over on rings, Luke Carson of Ireland gets a pat on the back from Kieran Behan after his routine, which ends with a full in tuck (Luke's routine, not Kieran's). This does not look like an easy event for Carson, being so tall, but he gets through with a great sense of determination. Behan, shorter, has an easier time with the strength parts, though he dismounts with a relatively simple front full.
8:20 p.m.: Tsuk 2.5 twist with a step for Marcel Nguyen, who has changed his haircut slightly since Euros. Makes him harder to pick out in that crowd of red and black German uniforms, frankly.
Hambuechen just did a 2.5 twisting something on vault. I'm assuming it's a Yurchenko and not a Tsuk since he competed Yurchenkos before...he's almost there. In competition I'd expect it to be fine.
When will Philipp Boy begin working Dragulescus?
8:13 p.m.: The Germans have moved to vault, where Hambuechen is doing a Yurchenko timer, likely for a double full. Philipp Boy is doing handspring double fronts.
8:04 p.m.: Hambuechen does another dismount (tucked double double) and nails it this time. There's a big bang! from the podium as he hits it.
7:58 p.m.: First look at Philipp Boy on rings, and he looks good! His rings have a bit of swing in them, but he fights for the stick on his double front pike dismount. Gets it, too. The one thing that has surprised me a little about rings today is how many guys have fallen on their dismounts here. Not him.
Fabian Hambuechen, whom neither Rick nor I saw do pommel horse, is now on rings. Decent strength parts, bad landing on his dismount, which he didn't seem quite ready for the ground on. Would be very surprised to see Hambuechen do floor after that.
Over on high bar, Vlasios Maras of Greece, the European champ on high bar from 2009 catches his Geinger but misses his Pegan (Gaylord with a half out.) It's sad not to see the great Aljaz Pegan himself here. Without competing at this Worlds, I don't see how he can qualify for the 2012 Olympics, and nobody deserved to go to a Games more than he.
7:55 p.m.: More things you notice when watching rings! Eugen Spiridonov, leading off for Germany on rings as well as horse, is one of those guys who points all of his toes really well but doesn't point his big toes at all. This minor flaw aside, Germany is very lucky to have him as their tablesetter. He brings a Soviet style component that none of the other German guys have. It really adds something to the team, the same kind of way that Sasha Artemev helped the U.S. back in 2008.
7:48 p.m.: Ireland's Kieran Behan does a nice floor routine. Not super difficult stuff, but well performed all the same, and with some special flairs. He appears to do a full twisting windmill (that's what I call it, anyway) from a roundoff into a corner. How nice to have some variety on floor! This event badly, badly needs it.
7:44 p.m.: The Germans are looking none too pleased with themselves on pommel horse. Things kind of went downhill after Spiridonov's efficient start, though Sebastian Krimmer did well also, from what I saw. Germany may see themselves in some sort of battle with Britain and the U.S. for a medal, and Britain has two pommel horse specialists/European/Olympic medalists on this event.
7:41 p.m.: Ireland's Rohan Sebastian, who has lived in New Zealand, trained at Bart Conner's in Oklahoma and now competes for the University of Michigan, has a beautiful triple full on floor. Decent Randi too.
7:35 p.m.: Germany's Eugen Spiridonov (fun fact: Spiridonov moonlights as a PE teacher) starts Germany off well with a very nice routine on pommel horse. The Germans applaud. Second up (Sebastian Krimmer maybe?) isn't so lucky and takes a fall.
7:30 p.m.: Germany on deck! Also Venezuela, Ireland, Latvia, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Lithuania and Armenia. The athletes are in the arena, and underway. Germany begins on pommel horse, which I'm sure they're all thrilled by, while mixed groups are on floor and high bar and parallel bars. Hungary is on vault, the Uzbeks on rings.
World floor champion Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece getting ready to warm up parallel bars. He's one of the only guys in this meet sporting a little chin hair. Maybe more than a little, if it's evident from this distance...
6:43 p.m.: Zonderland on the Cassina/Kolman combo on bars. Zonderland has excellent English from traveling in the States (and also because he's a Dutch person under 50). After training he was icing his right shoulder, due to a small injury he sustained doing parallel bars in qualification at the Ghent World Cup (he pulled out of finals on both p-bars and high bar). But after two weeks he was doing fine in training again, he said, although it does require ice after a long training session like this.
Zonderland said that he's been making the Cassina/Kolman combination 70-80 percent of the time in practice during the past week, but that for the sake of the team he will only do it if he makes event finals.
I asked if he was motivated by finishing second in Rotterdam to Zhang Chenglong on high bar. "It was not difficult at all," he responded. "I was just thrilled to get a medal." He had been injured before that meet too, the reigning European champion on high bar said, and as a result found that making his routine in both qualifications and finals was thrilling enough.
Here, he said he needs to be cleaner in order to medal on high bar (he's right), but that he's confident it will come together for the competition. He's also doing pommel horse, which he does in team competitions only, he said.
6:04 p.m.: Speaking of gymnasts doing well on things that aren't their marquee events, Diego Hypolito's none too bad on rings. Finishes with a double double tuck dismount.
6:00 p.m.: Michel Bletterman, the Netherlands's first up on pommel horse, does a great hit routine. The Dutch are jubilant. Then unfortunately Arjen Butter comes up and does what we'll call an entertaining routine, complete with two roll-flips off the horse, one forward, one back. Zonderland makes it through his rather simple routine without much in the way of error.
5:51 p.m.: Zonderland's form on pommel horse is really good, even though it's not an event he's known for.
On vault, Italy's Matteo Morandi, the reigning World bronze medalist on still rings, vaults an incredible handspring double front -- great height, even though he cowboys it.
5:24 p.m.: Two great routines. Diego Hypolito floor: Whip to Arabian double pike. 1.5 to Randi. 2.5 to front double. Press to planche handstand. Tucked Thomas. Triple full. Although little was stuck, he took only teeny tiny hops on those landings and is so clean in his twists. Excellent.
Meanwhile, over on high bar, Zonderland connected his Cassina to a Kolman! Wowza. Amazing routine.
5:21 p.m.: Wow -- Brazil has a thunder theighs even more powerful than Sasaki, He opens with an enormous Arabian double pike and closes with an Arabian double front on floor. All that to well deserved applause from the Brazilian staff.
5:17 p.m.: The Brazilians can tumble. Everyone is very impressive as a whole, especially young Sergio Sasaki. He's a bit stockier than Diego Hypolito, and does he use it to his advantage on this event! Huge stuff.
Saw Zonderland catch a Cassina on high bar. He looks ready for this meet. What a story of redemption it would be if he were able to win the gold he probably should have last year!
5:05 p.m.: Very nice job on parallel bars from the Netherlands's Epke Zonderland, who finished second to Marcel Nguyen of Germany on that event at the European Championships. Nguyen won because of his difficulty (6.7, Zonderland starts somewhere around 6.0) but Zonderland's routine was perfect. Watch it here.
5:03 p.m.: The Americans certainly cheered the loudest of each team that has trained so far. The Brazilians, now on high bar, are clapping the most.
4:59 p.m.: Just took in a great pommel horse routine from Slovenia's Saso Bertoncelj, who will surely make finals if he performs it like that in the competition. Look the routine up here. It's impressive.
4:43 p.m.: Dutch national champion Anthony van Assche does not appear to be terribly good on vault -- he showed a fairly weak Tsuk 1.5 and then a bunch of timers. Van Gelder can't quite get his handspring double front in order -- either he does one too powerful and has to roll out, or he sits it down.
4:37 p.m.: The Dutch on vault. Team Netherlands, 17th in Rotterdam last year, was really dealt a blow when rising star Bart Deurloo had to withdraw from this meet due to injury. This leaves the Dutch team shorthanded, but they are improved since last year. For example, the return of Yuri van Gelder helps a good deal on vault and rings. The incredibly muscled van Gelder just did a very good handspring double front on vault, and the Dutch will also really be able to use his score on rings.
In the meantime, they're making the most of what they do have. I saw a really beautiful stuck Tsuk double full from their first vaulter, and World Cup regular Jeffrey Wammes has three good vaults in his arsenal: a 2.5 twisting Yurchenko, a Tsuk 2.5 and a roundoff, half on, front layout double full off.
Van Gelder is so powerful that when he vaults, one of his teammates stands at the edge of the mat just in case he rockets forward and needs to be caught. What a nice teammate.
4:09 p.m.: Dragulescu ended up doing two roundoff, half on, Rudi off vaults, but took a knee on both of them. Nonetheless, they were heartily applauded by the Romanians, who are really happy to have him back. They applauded for him all day, even when he fell. (I can't imagine that happening on the women's side, can you?)
That's the end of this session. The next subdivision, featuring the Netherlands, Brazil and Italy will begin in about 20 minutes. Stay tuned!
3:57 p.m.: Dragulescu does a Dragulescu. And does it really well. He can still get way up in the air. Best one we've seen yet. Koczi is still doing timers for his Tsuk triple.
Dragu also does a second vault -- right now it's a roundoff, half on, front layout half off. Wouldn't be surprised if he eventually tries to add another twist to that.
Koczi sits a Tsuk 2.5. Hmm.
3:51 p.m.: Romania on vault. This should be interesting...
3:47 p.m.: Luxembourg's Sascha Palgen, the only representative of his tiny country here in Tokyo, can basically do a double Arabian from a standing roundoff. He opens his routine with a huge piked double Arabian, but in the training he also got lost on what appeared to be a double full attempt later in the routine and bailed at a 1.5. I think he dismounts with a double Arabian tuck as well.
3:25 p.m.: Ukraine isn't shy on vault. They do big stuff -- all handspring double fronts and Dragulescus (and a new Yurchenko 2.5 for Kuksenkov, well done). The littlest team member ripped off a great big handspring double front and run forward so far out of it that he quickly came to the end of the podium, where he was finally able to stop in front of a volunteer who seemed prepared to catch him. The little Ukrainian saluted as though the guy were a judge.
3:20 p.m.: You really have to hand it to Ashish Kumar of India. The guy has made great strides since winning bronze on floor at last year's Commonwealth Games turned him into India's biggest gymnastics celebrity. His routine here was stunning, beginning with the head-turning opening pass of 2.5 twist to immediate double front, which by the way was stuck cold.
He also stuck a punch front full to front layout double full and showed a whip to immediate Thomas. Most heartening to see is that his form seems to have improved a good deal, aided by the use of tumbling shoes on this event. They make the women look bad, but if you're a guy and don't have good toepoint, they're a good idea. Kumar's foot form is pretty bad, but the shoes disguise it really well.
3:09 p.m.: The Romanians train hard on floor, but Koczi does just a little bit more than everyone else. I guess that's why he's the reigning European champion on this event. He does one last roundoff, triple full, trying to stick (small hop). Still makes it look easy.
3:04 p.m.: Dragulescu on floor: 1.5 to front 1 3/4 roll out. 2.5 to Rudi, great twisting! Ended with a double double tuck, but put his hand down. Not quite enough left in the tank there, even on this floor.
Koczi the twister: He might have just done a 2.5 twist to Arabian front 1 3/4. Or maybe my eyes deceive me. Makes the 3.5 to front tuck full, and the Romanian coaches practically let out a whoop. He does an easy triple full to end.
3:01 p.m.: Just saw a wonderful stuck Yurchenko 2.5 from one of the Swiss guys on vault. The Swiss staff and athletes all burst into applause. That was great. Usually at big meets the Swiss fans ring what sound like cowbells.
Capelli is working his handspring double front vault, but sits down his first attempt. The Swiss men were 15th at the 2010 Worlds, so they too are trying to hang on and qualify to the London test event.
2:58 p.m.: Ukrainian efficiency. The Ukrainians have devised a great way of chalking the rings -- instead of unwieldy stepladders of the shoulders of their teammates, they have brought one of the judges's desks up on the podium and are standing on that while they prep for rings. The team looked OK on pommel horse.
Romania on floor: It appears that Flavius Koczi is trying to connect his 3.5 twist to a front tuck full, which would boost his start value on this event even higher.
Romania has two very tall guys on their team -- the taller of the two was just standing by Marian Dragulescu, and he towers a whole foot above Marian.
2:45 p.m.: I've never really thought of high bar as Romania's event (star Flavius Koczi is pretty weak there) but the guy who just got up had a routine that included a Def and a Kolman, which was pretty nice to see.
Ukraine on pommel horse: Beautiful. Switzerland's Claudio Capelli missed his rings dismount but laughed it off with his teammate by the chalk bowl.
2:39 p.m.: The Japanese have been particularly direct about their desire to move podium training along quickly and efficiently, to the extent that when the lights go down and the music comes up signaling that it's time to change events, anyone left training on the equipment will be told over the PA system to get down directly.
"The gymnast on parallel bars, please stop training," the announcer said at the end of the last rotation to a straggling Romanian, who had just finished the process of prepping the bars for his routine.
The Romanian, Marian Dragulescu, didn't pay any heed to this instruction, probably because he really doesn't speak English, but went through the routine anyway and then got down. The Romanians, ninth at last year's Worlds, have to be glad to see him here out of retirement. (Counterintuitively, in Romania retired athletes receive a pension higher than current national team athletes, so by being here Dragulescu may actually earn less than he would had he stayed retired.)
2:26 p.m.: Blast from the past. One of the names on the Ukrainian team's nominative list is 32-year-old Roman Zozulya, who competed for Ukraine at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games. Zozulya does not appear to be doing floor, but it will be interesting to see him, for example, on rings or high bar, which if memory serves were his better events.
Not that it means much, but I find that the Ukrainian men look in podium training about the same way the Ukrainian women tend to look in competition -- wonderful form and technique, but often they make utterly silly mistakes. I just watched a Ukrainian land a full in tuck on floor very well, then basically catch his ankle and have to put his hand down. It's that sort of thing that makes you shake your head.
2:16 p.m.: Now in the gym: Ukraine, Romania, Switzerland, Egypt, Luxembourg, India, Georgia, Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago and Hong Kong. Ukraine, which finished 13th in 2010, boasts reigning European co-all-around bronze medalist Mykola Kuksenkov -- and several others with gorgeous form. You can't help but cheer for Ukraine, which has little funding but somehow keeps churning out good gymnasts year after year.
Kuksenkov starts with an Arabian double front side pass on floor.
1:44 p.m.: The U.S. men after podium training. The general message: don't worry, be happy. Yes, there were some falls, but they don't feel podium training is indicative of how the competition is going to go. To paraphrase John Orozco, everyone would rather fall in the podium training than in the meet. The U.S. men very much believe that they are in this for gold.
Jonathan Horton, who got to stand right next to Kohei Uchimura while they both talked to the media in the mixed zone after training, copped to watching "Superman" a little bit between turns. "I'm a fan of gymnastics," Horton said. "And that guy does incredible gymnastics."
Not Danell Leyva though. Leyva's a training introvert, always focused on his own performance, always within himself. Always confident, too.
One last thing: I asked Horton about the white floor giving him problems on roll out skills. Nope, no problems, he said, because the white floor has a blue border, and so long as the gymnasts can see the contrast they're all right. Horton said that his opinion is that roll out skills are very safe to do, so long as they're learned correctly. He himself has been doing them since age 12, he noted.
1:08 p.m.: Leyva, high bar: Solid routine. Muscled a little bit after his Liukin, and took a step on the dismount, but a good start for him here in Tokyo overall.
The Japanese on pommel horse: Well, they're the best yet on this event. But there are several more teams to come, including China.
1:06 p.m.: Horton, high bar: Catches everything! Three Kovacs-style releases in that routine. Very well done. The only thing I could nitpick about is that he was a little off center catching his hop full. Full twisting double layout dismount.
1:03 p.m.: Orozco, high bar: Misses his Liukin (layout Tkatchev with full twist.) So far this high bar rotation has not been kind to the Americans. Really nice Tak to hecht combination -- he doesn't pike down as much as 90 percent of the other guys do on that release. Full twisting double layout.
1:01 p.m.: Dalton on high bar: Tkatchev half, well done. Tkatchev. Full twisting double with a hop. A routine with no drama but few big fireworks either.
12:58 p.m.: Legendre misses his Kolman as well right off the bat during his routine, and does not catch his pike Kovacs either. He's missing by a good amount. Good triple back dismount though.
12:56 p.m.: Hmm...high bar begins with a missed Kolman from Horton (I think) and a missed layout Kovacs from Leyva. Surprising. Those guys don't often miss those skills. We'll see what they can do with their full routines.
12:52 p.m.: Saw a few little mistakes from the Japanese in their final few minutes on floor, but also some very cool stuff, like one guy who dismounts with an Arabian double pike. Everyone rotates, and the U.S. moves to high bar, while Japan goes to pommel.
12:44 p.m.: That was cool. The next guy up after mini-Kohei opens up with a Lou Yun to immediate punch 1 3/4! Such an impressive pass. This must be Makoto Okiguchi, who made floor finals at the 2009 Worlds. And you can see why.
12:40 p.m.: Uchimura on floor was fabulous, but he only did half a routine. Then he stopped and stood there, shaking out his ankles a bit. Finally he came off the floor. I wonder if he got a little stung or something? What he did was just awesome -- 1.5 to full twisting front 1 3/4, front tuck full to immediate front double full. Then Arabian double front half out. The last two passes were stuck. It was marvelous.
The guy up after him, who looks like a mini-Kohei, is almost as good, too. The Japanese men on floor really have it all.
12:25 p.m.: Hair note! I think Uchimura has cut his hair (slightly) for this event. Wonderful routine on high bar. As a team on this event, the Japanese are very calm, very smooth.
Leyva, vault: Makes his Tsuk 2.5, just a smidge underrotated, takes a big hop back.
Horton does a handspring double front, landed a bit forward. Brooks does one handspring double front, best landing the U.S. men have had on this event. Horton and Brooks finish off on vault by doing Dragulescu timers. Everyone else finished awhile back.
12:21 p.m.: Horton and Legendre each did a handspring double front, and now the real stuff begins. Horton lands his first Dragulescu attempt on his hands and knees. They pull the mat in for Legendre, whose first attempt is low but landed.
Jake Dalton: Mr. Tsuk Triple lands a beaut. He's looked excellent so far on his events.
12:17 p.m.: The Japanese guys are positively adorable. They really do look like they're having some serious playtime. One of the guys gets lifted to high bar and hangs there for a second, just kicking his feet a little bit. Another basically did a seat drop after getting down from doing a half routine.
Orozco is indeed doing a handspring front layout double full, as is Alex Naddour (had a little difficulty with the one I saw, but nothing serious.)
12:15 p.m.: On vault, John Orozco warms up a handspring front layout full. Might he do a double? Since tearing his Achilles on a DTY at the 2010 Nationals, he's sworn off Yurchenkos. At this year's National championships he competed a Tsuk 1.5. And still finished third!
Horton does a Dragulescu timer, and Legendre does a front handspring front layout (second vault, perhaps?)
12:10 p.m.: Uchimura appears. Doing a fabulous double pike off pbars, if I'm not mistaken.
Brooks on rings also sits down his 1.5 twisting double tuck dismount. He gets back up to do some strength parts, and is lifted to the rings by Horton.
12:03 p.m.: Vault is a good event for Puerto Rico, who will be fighting for a top 12 finish here to gain confidence going into the test event in London in January. In some ways they seem quite similar to the U.S. -- strong, athletic builds, more power than anything else. So vault would be a good event for them.
Good rings routine from Jake Dalton. But like Legendre, John Orozco underestimated the dismount (double front pike) and sat down. Hm.
11:55 a.m.: Lovely stuck full twisting double layout caps off Danell Leyva's rings routine. Very well done. Rings is not Leyva's best event, but he looks about as good as he would here. The beauty of sitting right up close and personal to the rings is you notice little details, like that Legendre's toes shake as he fights to hold his strength positions. He sits his 1.5 twisting double tuck dismount.
Vietnam has some good difficulty on floor.
11:50 a.m.: The Japanese had what I'd call a "thinking rotation" on vault. They did some of their full difficulty, but their gymnasts also did several timers (probably visualizing) for harder vaults. For example, one guy did a Tsuk layout full. I can't make out which one is Kohei Uchimura at this distance. The one with the great form, you say? Problem is, they all pretty much have great form.
11:45 a.m.: Legendre on horse makes his routine, but gives away at least a point in form doing it. However, he does have a nice shoulder angle, better than some of the guys on this team, and a longer bodyline that makes it look better.
Hot routine on horse from Orozco, fourth up, best so far for the U.S. men. Naddour, the specialist, anchors the team. Hit routine from him, making it look quite easy. The only thing I really see is that he could point his toes a bit better.
Jake Dalton, obviously the U.S. reserve on this event, goes up last. He too hits the routine, to high fives from Kevin Mazeika and Ron Brandt, but boy is it not his event.
11:40 a.m.: Danell Leyva is first up on pommel horse. Hit set, small struggle on the dismount. Not his best, but not horrible either, Horton comes off on a scissor more than halfway through his routine.
Japan on rings: Quite good from what I saw. Very correct positions. The team looks well prepared, no doubt motivated by having this meet in Tokyo. On vault, they look like boys playing. They look to be exclusively doing twisting vaults -- no double fronts or Tsuk double backs.
11:33 a.m.: Alternate Chris Brooks does not do a full routine, but does show a handspring front double pike, a 2.5 to front tuck half and a few other skills. Like Horton, he shies away from a twisting roll out skill. Not a full routine. Horton gets back up on the floor and works his double double tucked and his full in tuck dismount, but does not go for his 1.5 to full twisting 1 3/4 again.
I wonder about that...2004 Olympic floor champ Kyle Shewfelt once told me that when guys do Thomases, many look for the blue floor mat so they know when to tuck their heads under. But here in Japan, the floor mat is white. So now gymnasts have to look for white when they're used to seeing blue. You can understand how that would be disorienting (and maybe dangerous) on passes like the Thomas.
11:30 a.m.: Boy, Jake Dalton is finessed. He's always clean, but there's an aspect of beauty to his work on floor now that somehow I didn't notice before. There's some elegance there, that's not often apparent in the U.S. floor routines. Chest is too low on his ending triple full, but the rest of the routine was great. Stuck his opening layout double Arabian.
11:27 a.m.: Jonathan Horton balks his opening tumbling pass, which is supposed to be 1.5 to immediate front 1 3/4. Instead of doing the roll out skill he did a front full and mercifully realized that he didn't have the height and just let his feet hit the ground and did a forward roll. Boy, that would have been dangerous had he gone for it.
Steven Legendre looks like he could EASILY do a triple double on this floor. Nice routine from him, with all the tricks, and terrific open landing on his 1.5 twisting double layout second pass. Basically stuck his Arabian double pike to end.
11:23 a.m.: Orozco floor: Front double full. Tucked Thomas. Flairs. Running front 1 3/4. Another twisting pass. His routine is well designed so that he doesn't have to land on his feet too much and irritate that Achilles he tore last year, but he's capable of more on floor. A lot more.
Danell Leyva, floor: Layout double double, very nice! This floor definitely likes him -- that was a good deal higher than nationals. So were the layout and tucked Thomasas he just did. Front full to front tuck half into the corner. Whip to 2.5 with two bounces, boing, boing, toward the corner. Double layout, very good! I wonder if Yin celebrates during podium training?
11:20 a.m.: 2.5 to front layout full, stuck, is Naddour's first pass. Arabian 1 3/4 second pass. Running front 1 3/4 third pass. Twisting line that ended in a Rudi. Front double full to front layout half. Very good full in tuck to end. Wow -- that seemed like all tumbling, nothing else. John Orozco will be next.
11:18 a.m.: I'm very intrigued to see how this floor, so good for the women, treats the men. So far they look good -- big 2.5 twisting double layout/tuck from Steven Legendre was very high. Cross tumbling gives way to full routines very quickly. First up is Alex Naddour.
11:13 a.m.: Training gets underway promptly, with the powerful music and spotlights crawling around the arena that make it feel official. The U.S. men are in blue and white (blue shorts). They will start on floor. Puerto Rico is on pommel horse, Japan on rings, Portugal on vault, Vietnam and Peru on p-bars and Kuwait and South Africa on high bar. The U.S. men, neatly lined up shortest to tallest, present themselves to the judges.
11:04 a.m.: All of a sudden it got busy in here! A march out ceremony is being conducted over on the pommel podium, featuring women holding signs with country names and wearing what I imagine are some kind of traditional robes. A meeting of some officials or judges or something is happening over by the floor podium, and judges and official types are hanging out chatting all over the floor. Unlike the women's podium training, with its air of solemnity and serious work, this seems more like the informal meet and greet at a trade show.
TOKYO, 10:25 a.m.: Beer. There's one important question among the international men's judges in Tokyo. It's not about whether roll out skill should be banned on floor or whether the 6-5-4 system is better than the 5-4-3. Nothing like that. The question is: How much did you pay for your beer?
Apparently there's something of a competition on to find the cheapest beer joints near the delegation hotels. Two standout deals have been found so far: rumor has it there's a place where you can get a pint for 100 yen (about $1.30). Somewhere else, you pay 2,000 yen ($26.09) and get all you can drink for 90 minutes. Hmm.
On that note, welcome to Examiner.com's quick hits of day three of podium training at the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships. This morning's session is bound to be one of the most exciting of the day -- the home favorites Japanese men will take to the podium, as will the U.S. men.
Both are considered heavy favorites to medal. The Japanese, comfortable at home, are probably most favored for gold, even ahead of reigning world champion China. The Americans, who finished fourth in 2010, are the hunters. And they want it bad.
The Gymnastics Examiner will be in Tokyo for the duration of the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships, which are the first round of qualification for the 2012 Olympic Games. Please check back often for quick hits from training sessions and competition, interviews, videos and photogrpahs. Like The Gymnastics Examiner on Facebook, follow on Twitter, or click the "Subscribe" button above to receive the latest gymnastics news and results via e-mail.
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