Rotterdam reflections: Seen and heard around the Ahoy Arena after event finals

ROTTERDAM -- Martha Karolyi was jubilant about Alicia Sacramone's victory on vault, which comes after bronzes in 2005 and 2007, a silver in 2006, a one-year layoff from the sport after 2008 and a hell of a comeback this year. It was as jubilant as Karolyi gets, anyway, which is to say the U.S. National Team Coordinator was all smiles.

"She just proved that if you put something in your mind and work hard, everything is possible," Karolyi said. She predicted earlier this week that Sacramone was the best in the world, and despite a big challenge from all-around champion Aliya Mustafina, who unveiled a roundoff, half on, layout front full off earlier this week, Karolyi was proven correct.

"She just wanted to prove to the world that what happened in Beijing, that's not the real Alicia," Karolyi said. "I'm counting on her for the future. She is a great asset."

I thought that would probably be it, but Martha was clearly in a chatty mood. Going back to Sacramone's performance in Beijing -- "Two things happen with something like that," she went on. "They become sour, and they go like that. But some people, they want revenge. She wanted to prove that she could be better than that. She still has the joy." Mental toughness, too.

-- It remains to be seen how Sacramone will follow up from this World Championships, which are shaping up to be her most successful to date. She's hedged somewhat about the 2012 thusfar, saying that making the 2010 Worlds was a big goal, and then kind of we'll-seeing the future. But after this, you have to imagine that London is at the forefront of her thoughts.

Or maybe not -- Sacramone is mature enough to realize that a lot can happen in two years, and certainly mature enough to accept the uncertainties.

At any rate, it seems reasonable to anticipate an Amanar from her next year. Or maybe something completely different, like a front layout double full vault, even a handspring double front? Sacramone seems capable of doing the Rudi and DTY in her sleep. She has more pop off the table than any gymnast, ever.

-- During team and individual qualifications, Mustafina's second vault was valued at 6.1 because judges deemed that it was done in a sufficiently laid-out position. Not today, however -- her D-score for the second vault was only 5.7, meaning the judges believed she was too piked. A last minute protest over the D-value awarded from Russian coach Alexander Alexandrov did not result in a higher score, and Mustafina had to settle for silver.

-- After vault finals, Mustafina was the first athlete to enter the mixed zone, which is cordoned off to form two concentric circles. The media stand in the inner circle and the athletes are paraded through the outer circle, allowing media to stop them at any point and ask questions. Mustafina, with a michevious look in her eye, glanced around furtively as she entered the circle (everyone was waiting for Sacramone) and seeing that nobody wanted to talk to her, gleefully ran quickly around the outer circle and exited through the same door she came in through.

-- Alicia Sacramone on her vault and other things: "It went better than I expected," she told the horde of people who gathered around her in the mixed zone after the vault medal ceremony. On crying on the medal stand: "I cry every time I hear the national anthem now," she said. "To be back on top after taking so much time off and working so hard, it's great." On finally winning a World gold on vault: "I've gotten silvers and bronzes, so it's nice to finally finish my collection of vault medals."

-- When you lose your first competition in about three years on your best event, it's normal to be a little sad. But poor He Kexin sobbed and sobbed and sobbed before reporters as she was interviewed in the mixed zone after falling on her layout Jaeger and finishing seventh in the uneven bars final Saturday afternoon.

After all the competitors had finished, I saw He being helped by her coach, who seemed to be half holding her up, toward a television camera between the competition floor and the area where written press and videographers chat with athletes. He looked like she was taking her fall hard. It was no better in the mixed zone a few minutes later, where she paused to swallow tears between answering questions from the Chinese media. Her bun had fallen out of her hair, and the ponytail alone somehow seemed unkempt.

Best of luck to He as she regroups. If nothing else, this will make her a stronger competitor.

-- The camerawork as bars scores came up slowly was dismal. There were awful 15-second shots of Elisabeth Seitz covering her face with her hands, the sobbing He Kexin, the severely downcast Huang Qiushuang. Followed by a white-faced Beth Tweddle as they all waited for the final to be over.

-- The red-haired Daniel Purvis of Great Britain reminded me so much of a Japanese or Chinese gymnast in his attention to detail during his bronze medal winning floor exercise that I asked him if the British team had been watching videos of those teams as part of its preparation. Better, he said. Earlier this year the British men went to a training camp in Japan, which Purvis said was "just amazing." As for his performance, the reigning European bronze medalist was happy just to qualify for event finals. He seemed more stunned than anything to have earned a medal.

-- Purvis's teammate Louis Smith said he was "really nervous" about performing on pommel horse (he fell last year in event finals at the World Championships). But he dealt with it in order to deliver his silver-medal winning routine. "I got over my fears, telling myself whatever happens, happens," he said. He's pretty pleased with what did happen. "It's just a big weight off my shoulders," h said.

Smith might not have been a gymnast; at one point in his career he was forced to choose between gymnastics and singing. "I'd like to think I would have made it as a pop star," he said. After the 2008 Olympics Smith auditioned for the reality TV show "X Factor," a sort of British version of "American Idol." He didn't make it on, and returned to gymnastics.

He also spoke briefly about the sudden surge of strong British gymnasts. In the past, "there was kind of a line in gymnastics that no one ever crossed," he said. Until he and Daniel Keatings began winning big in international meets. Now, it's the norm on the British team. That's very true -- just wait until Max Whitlock, 2010 World team alternate Sam Oldham and Reiss Beckford get a little older, a little stronger, a little more experienced. The future is very bright for this country, in both men's and women's gymnastics.

-- Something special is truly in order for Tweddle, who won her second World bars title today. "I think the team might be celebrating tonight," she remarked after the medal ceremony for bars. Did she know she was in good position to win the title after falls by He and Huang? "I saw the two Chinese," she said, "and I knew I'd qualified in third..."

-- Rebecca Bross after uneven bars: "I'm very happy with how I did on bars today," she said. "I'm glad I hit a clean routine." On going up late in the rotation: "It's not much different from last year." On shaking off disappointment from her fall on beam in last night's all around final: "Today's a new day." On making changes in her routines: "Valeri [Liukin] always has a plan, and I might not know about it, but when we get home he'll probably talk to me about it."

-- Prashanth Sellathurai of Australia called his pommel horse routine "OK." "It felt OK," he said. Did he feel more or less pressure being the defending World bronze medalist on pommel? "I don't feel any pressure," he said. "I'm always nervous at competitions."

-- "The old people won today," remarked Dutch journalist Peter van Leeuwen in the media center after the meet. He's right -- of the people who have captured individual event titles thusfar, the youngest was bouncy 19-year-old Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece. Tweddle is 25, Sacramone 22. Krisztian Berki is also 25, as is Chen Yibing.

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