9:02 p.m.: Thus endeth men's podium training here in London. It's been a very interesting day, to say the least. Please stay tuned for a preview of the men's competition/summary of things seen here today, and quick hits from women's podium training tomorrow. Thanks for following!
8:56 p.m.: Great Britain is redeeming itself on parallel bars. Please don't get me wrong: gymnastics is hard, this is only podium training, and mistakes will happen. Still, it seems like sometimes this team is so on (like on p-bars -- great work, applause from the teammates after each hit dismount) and sometimes just kind of comes apart (like on vault in the last rotation.)
Rather off routine from Dan Purvis after several good ones, however.
8:53 p.m.: Tomas Gonzalez on floor: A+ stuff, as usual. He seemed a little tight on high bar, lacking a little bit of amplitude.
8:48 p.m.: A new star? All session Rick and I have been watching Uzbekistan's Eduard Shaulov, who is training wearing a skintight black T-shirt (he was so impressive on parallel bars). He looks like he's about 100 pounds. And he's really good.
8:43 p.m.: Whither art thou, Great Britain? I really, really, really, really want to love Team GB. They tons of talent, polish, and many well-designed routines. I want them to do well. But they are training the way they competed in Tokyo -- a lot of little mistakes that will really add up. Vault was messy. There were a lot of falls. But I hope that that is just training, just acclimation to the equipment, to the 02 environment. I hope that when the time comes, they won't make these mistakes. We'll see...
8:36 p.m.: As a team, the Spaniards look a bit weaker than they did in Tokyo. But there are still some moments of subliminity -- Gonzalez's stuck double double tuck opener and fanastic work from supertumbler Isaac Botella, who is always great on that event. However, as a whole this third subdivision, which began so strongly, has fallen off a bit.
GymPower, which has been watching Spain more closely than I have, says that Manuel Carballo, has not done anything so far in this training session and that Rafael Martinez's replacement Ignacio Losantos has been quite good.
8:22 p.m.: The Americans are having a frustrating time on floor. A lot of falls from both Buscaglia and Legendre on their tumbling passes. They're not very far off, they're just not quite "on" right now. Oklahoma coach Mark Williams gave Buscaglia a little handshake after a rough full set.
8:18 p.m.: Awesomeness on parallel bars: A guy who's working out in red pants and a skintight black long sleeved shirt did an uprise to double front between the rails, a huge flying front straddle to his upper arms and a double front dismount.
Spain on high bar: Big skills -- Kolmans and a Yamawaki with a half turn straight into a Rybalko. A name to watch for is young Fabian Gonzalez, who is a pretty new senior and getting better with every competition.
8:10 p.m.: In true test event fashion, the announcers are going over what they're going to say during the big show. Things like: "The still rings are an event that shows off a gymnast's strength. The objective is to keep them as still as possible during the routine."
8:06 p.m.: One of the Spanish guys, who are now on parallel bars missed his hand on a back toss and hit his head on one of the rails. Yowtch.
8:03 p.m.: Kieran Behan on floor is just gorgeous. So much style. Keeps his head up, pours the polish on every element he does. It's not that easy to make floor look that finessed given that he has a more muscular build, but he does a great job. He stands out for his precision, but also for his expression, his sharpness.
Rick says he's the most stylish guy on floor since Kyle Shewfelt. I'm quickly coming to the same opinion. Some routines are just a pleasure to watch. His is one.
7:59 p.m.: Tomas Gonzalez of Chile on vault: Beautiful 2.5 twisting Yurchenko, tiny hop. Tsuk double pike timers.
Legendre on high bar stuck his triple back dismount.
Britain's rocking out on pommel horse. Louis Smith did a great routine, Daniel Keatings did a great routine, Max Whitlock did a great routine. Best horse team of the day, easily. (Though Puerto Rico last rotation was also quite good.)
7:56 p.m.: COOL! Buscaglia on high bar: Liukin (full twisting Tkatchev) to immediate Geinger. And Rick thinks he did a triple double layout dismount.
7:52 p.m.: Japan has sent two unknowns -- Masahiro Yoshida and Shoichi Yamamoto -- to this meet. So far they are showing very standard, clean Japanese gymnastics -- straight legs and minimal landing deductions.
7:48 p.m.: Spain on vault doesn't look as strong as they did a few months ago. The vaults are good. They're just not exceptional, which is what I remember from Tokyo. The Spaniards will compete here without star all-arounder Rafael Martinez, which is a loss for them. It seems like almost all the major teams here have lost one of their key players: the Spanish will compete without Martinez, the French without Thomas Bouhail (knee injury), the Brazilians without Diego Hypolito.
Well, it evens the field some, I suppose.
7:47 p.m.: Legendre on pbars: A few little form breaks, leg separations/knee bends here and there during his first full routine. Second routine was much improved -- and he stuck the dismount.
7:44 p.m.: The British men have the skills on floor. But I'm also seeing a few too many out of boundses on their passes, particularly on the Thomas somersaults. Purvis can do a lot better than he just did in his full routine, but he usually hits floor quite well so I'm not too worried. Thomas is so tall it's hard for him to stay within the lines. If he takes any steps on his tumbling, he's basically OOB.
7:40 p.m.: Hats off to Puerto Rico on pommel horse. Seriously impressive.
Panteleymonov, floor: Arabian double front to front layout! Arabian double front half out. 2.5 twist to end.
Alex Buscaglia does what looks like a Gaylord II on parallel bars -- a double back with half turn, or a Geinger between the rails with an extra flip. That was very cool.
7:37 p.m.: Keatings, floor: Double double tuck. Messy Arabian 1 3/4. OOB on third pass.
Whitlock, floor: Tucked Thomas side pass. Roundoff, 3.5 second pass, cool. Randi. Flairs sequence -- with Airflare! Russians. 2.5 to Rudi, well done. Stuck triple full to end. Great elements -- but he doesn't flip twice to his feet.
7:34 p.m.: Puerto Rico's first up on pommel horse was just fabulous. Gets applause from his teammates as he finishes. All Puerto Rico needs is more of that, and they'll be here again as a team this summer. Second guy up -- Luis Rivera -- was equally impressive. Wow!
7:29 p.m.: Ireland's Kieran Behan did a very nice parallel bars routine, though he overrotated his double pike dismount and rolled backward. He has wonderful form and toepoint.
Ruslan Panteleymonov's (Britain) high bar was fairly weak -- well done, but not a lot of difficulty. He's much better on floor and rings.
The Spaniards obviously recognized that rings was one of their weaknesses after Tokyo and have put effort into that event. They look better there than they did at Worlds.
7:27 p.m.: Puerto Rico looks quite good on floor. Clean tumbling. A nice variety of skills. Minimal hops on landings, which should help them.
7:22 p.m.: Well, the Brits have come to play. Three high bar routines in, that's obvious enough. Max Whitlock, who with Sam Oldham blitzed Junior Euros back in 2010, is coming along very well, showing more line and extension than in previous years. Daniel Purvis's high bar was just goregous -- smooth and so polished. Kristian Thomas with his long body looked strong and confident.
7:18 p.m.: Absolutely beautiful timer from Buscaglia on vault: roundoff, half on, front layout off. I wish someone did that in competiton. Of course, Buscaglia will add two twists to what he just did -- as he does just now, though he landed it on his bottom. Steven Legendre comes along with a great handspring double front, making it look easy.
7:16 p.m.: Britain goes to high bar first. The U.S. duo -- Steven Legendre and Alex Buscaglia -- are on vault. Puerto Rico is on floor. Spain is on rings.
7:08 p.m.: I wonder what the British men feel, walking into this arena at this time. They didn't want it to be this way, obviously. They were expected to contend for a medal in Tokyo. Didn't happen. Instead, they got to train through Christmas. Now they have a double duty: a) qualify a team to the Olympics and b) re-prove that they can contend for a medal. They have the skills. They have the polish. They need to show the mental toughness.
7:00 p.m.: The third and final session of men's podium training will be underway in just a few minutes...
5:27 p.m.: So that's the end of session two. Again, no calamities. Session three is up next...
5:22 p.m.: Russians on vault: Cherkasov works a Yurchenko 2.5 and also a Tsuk 2.5, if I'm not mistaken. Good form, excellent height and distance from the table. Ignatyev, who must be injured, does one handspring front pike half timer and nothing else.
5:17 p.m.: Gymnet's Eric comes over with his latest batch of photos. There are some good ones of vault, but especially interesting the shots he got of the Colombian coach's hairstyle: business in the front, party in the back!
5:12 p.m.: Honorable mentions for form. It's hard to say who has the very best form among these guys, but Switzerland's Pascal Bucher is certainly a candidate. Very nice, clean stuff on p-bars and high bar.
5:04 p.m.: The Czech Republic's Martin Konecny (one Youtube search pulls up a video called "Hot Young Czech Gymnast Martin Konecny") trains with a knee brace that belies a repaired ACL and a whole lot of brightly colored kineo tape on the other leg. He does decent gymnastics in spite of his banged up appearance, but every now and then he does something that's just wild. During the last rotation he did a Tsuk 1.5 roll out on vault in the same way you'd do a Thomas on floor.
5:02 p.m.: Beautiful double pike half out dismount off rings from Calvo.
4:59 p.m.: If Brazil does qualify for the Olympics, it will be largely because of floor, where they are fabulous. The Brazilian exception leads off, very nice form on everything, sneaks around a triple twist to end the routine. Highlights include Sasaki sticking his 1.5 to immediate double front first pass and Zanetti doing a double front side pass and Arabian double dismount.
4:53 p.m.: The two guys from Kazakhstan -- Ildar Valeyev and Stepan Gorbachev -- had excellent form on floor. Ditto pommels.
4:49 p.m.: Italy on vault...is like Italy on floor. Good gymnastics. But not enough difficulty. Lots of Rudis, a couple DTYs, handspring double fronts from the power guys.
4:48 p.m.: One thing that's evident very quickly is that the floor here is not nearly as bouncy as it was in Tokyo. Gymnasts are getting decent height off the Gymnova surface, but nothing like they did at Worlds.
4:46 p.m.: Calvo on pommel horse: very nice pirouetting dismount there. He reminds me a little of the young Jonathan Horton, but quicker and lighter.
4:45 p.m.: I'm loving the Brazilian exception's work on high bar. In addition to being very lean, he's extremely precise with his handstands, and killing all of them in this routine. Great stuff.
4:35 p.m.: Is there such a thing as a rings/vault specialist? I think so -- Matteo Morandi of Italy is one. Arthur Zanetti of Brazil, for another. Morandi, who was just on rings with the Italians, seems to have gone from strength to strength. Morandi nearly stuck that last handspring double front.
The Brazilians on high bar are an interesting mix. Like the Spanish, they're more a power team than a finesse team, with one notable exception, though I can't figure out who that exception is -- he's a guy with a longer, leaner body than someone like Sasaki. Who is he?
4:27 p.m.: Belgium's Jimmy Verbaeys came onto the horse way too early on his Tsuk full and it looked like he hit his head on the table during the afterflight. Comes off the podium rubbing the top of his head. Ouch. He's good on pommel horse and p-bars, but has the power of a talented 12-year-old (in fact he's 18). Sits down Tsuk 1.5 next turn, but that was a far better vault. Still rubbing his head.
4:25 p.m.: Good high bar routines from both Aussie men -- a stuck full twisting double layout from Thomas Pichler and a good double double layout from Sam Offord.
4:18 p.m.: Wai Hung Shek of Hong Kong looks to be prepping a handspring double pike front on vault. He's doing huge handspring front pike timers.
4:16 p.m.: Daniel Corral of Mexico on high bar: Like his pommel horse and p-bars work, lots of elegance here. He did a timer for a triple back dismount, with his legs totally together.
4:12 p.m.: The Brazilians are doing quite well on vault -- just saw a nearly stuck Yurchenko 2.5, and a handspring double front from Arthur Zanetti (I think), who does that vault as though he's been shot from a cannon. The only exception seems to be young Sergio Sasaki, who sat several handspring double fronts.
Brazil is without star Diego Hypolito and stalwart Victor Rosa for this event, which makes things tougher for them. They were 13th in Tokyo, remember, and may be odd team out here. If that were the case, Hypolito would qualify to the Olympics based on his floor medal from the 2011 Worlds.
4:04 p.m.: Jossimar Calvo, the 17-year-old Pan Am Games all-around champ from Colombia, is pretty short -- there's a lot of space between his feet and the ground when he's completely stretched out on high bar. It's funny because he's also the antithesis of his teammate, 32-year-old Jorge Hugo Giraldo, who is long and lean and elegant.
Cherkasov can really tumble on floor -- nice high double double tuck there. Ignatyev, with his warmup jacket on, does flexibility and his strength holds on floor, as well as some flairs. No tumbling whatsoever.
3:59 p.m.: Cherkasov finally gets that Tak half, just in time for the end of the rotation.
3:56 p.m.: Really enjoying the high bar work of Samuel Piasecky from Slovakia. Great lines, good power. Would love to see him get to the Olympics too.
Russia's Cherkasov is having trouble with a Tak skill on high bar. This is the second time he's missed it -- at first it seemed he had some trouble with a grip, but now it seems to be a technique thing. Full twisting double layout with bent legs. The other Russian, Ignatyev, is short and looks powerful, like a very young Anton Golotsutskov, perhaps.
3:54 p.m.: Aussies Sam Offord and Thomas Pichler are on vault. Offord has a nice Rudi, but Pichler had difficulty standing up his DTY. Lovely form on that skill, though, just needs a bit more power.
3:51 p.m.: Italy on floor isn't bad. They don't have the difficulty of the top teams, but they certainly deserve to be here. The youngster who was first up on floor has nice potential. The veterans (Matteo Morandi and Matteo Angioletti) are very competent on this event.
3:49 p.m.: Switzerland's Claudio Capelli is doing good work on pommel horse. Decent technique, much better than many guys, a bit of leg separation sometimes but overall good clean swing. Bet he'd love an Olympic berth.
3:42 p.m.: The second session of men's podium training begins with a formal march out, just as the morning session did. Brazil will begin on rings, Italy on floor and mixed groups everywhere else. I see the Australians on vault, Mexico's Daniel Corral (on parallel bars) and Russians Nikita Ignatyev and Andrey Cherkasov (on high bar).
12:15 p.m.: The first subdivision of men's podium training ends without calamity. Impressive: Canada and Belarus both showed some big gymnastics, but don't count the French out either. Session two of men's podium training commences at 3:45 p.m. London time -- that is, 3.5 hours from now. Catch you later!
12:09 p.m.: Oh, I see...what Augis fell on was supposed to be a layout Thomas. He just did a nice one with a sting mat and all his teammates applauded. I hate that skill so much.
12:03 p.m.: The French look pretty good on floor. They generally aren't powertumblers in the mold of the Belarussians and Ukrainians, but....oh la la! Axel Augis was in the middle of what looked like a layout double double, got lost and came down quite awkwardly on his back and might have stung his neck a bit. He's OK -- he got right up and went and sat down at the edge of the mat, but seeing falls like that is rattling.
12:02 p.m.: Zonderland on vault: Tsuk double full. Same basic comment as I made about his floorwork.
11:56 a.m.: The French men begin this sixth and last rotation by fanning out from the middle of the floor and bunny-hopping into their respective corners.
11:50 a.m.: Fab handspring double front from Fahrig on vault. Terrific. His second vault appears to be a Tsuk 1.5. He does one and gets down. He's much more a flipper than twister, it appears.
Only in elite gymnastics do you see a man do a beautiful, perfect 2.5 to front handspring walkout and roll his eyes to the ceiling in exasperation. Like the young Ukrainian (Oleg Verniev, I think) on the floor right now.
11:40 a.m.: On high bar is a bunch of men from three different countries all wearing similiar blue uniforms, but the work of Vlasios Maras stands out. He's having some trouble keeping his legs together on his Tak full, though, and some other form breaks. That's another question: The Greeks have sent Maras here, but where is 2010 World floor champion Eleftherios Kosmidis?
11:33 a.m.: Belarus's Dzmitry Kaspiarovich does half a dozen timers for his handspring double fornt and then does two real ones, both not bad. Kaspiarovich, 34, is a former European champion on vault and a fixture in event finals at big meets. That done, he begins on timers for Tsuk double pikes.
11:30 a.m.: Great double double tuck on floor from Brandan O'Neill, who will anchor the Canucks on floor, it appears. Kevin Lytwyn will be up fourth, and he looked strong too -- great roundoff, whip half to immediate double front.
11:24 a.m.: Canada's Sandy on floor: First two passes are twisting passes. Then a flairs sequence. Front double full to end. Should be a solid first-up routine for Canada. He's followed by National champion Jackson Payne, in red tumbling shoes, who does mostly timers. Nathan Gafuik next: stuck Arabian double pike first pass, nice. Very good routine.
11:23 a.m.: Notable on floor is 27-year-old Sascha Palgen of Luxembourg, who sustained a bad neck injury on a roll out skill on floor several years ago and remarkably recovered and kept competing. He has very good form and a good level of difficulty. No roll out skills in his routine, though.
11:20 a.m.: Cyril Tommasone, the leader of the French team, limps around a bit after a Tsuk double full. But his body language says that it's nothing and he's trying to walk it off.
11:16 a.m.: What a pleasure it is to watch Jovtchev on floor! He has a presence and a finesse that reminds me of the best gymnastics of the 1990s. It just isn't the same today.
11:13 a.m.: The French guys are being pretty light on vault -- lots of timers, lots of front layouts, front layout halves. Did see one guy do a front handspring front pike directly to his back. Can't figure out whether that was on purpose or not. Kind of think not...
11:09 a.m.: One of the treats of the Test Event is to see gymnasts who don't usually do certain events on those events (Olympic berths go to the top 24 all-arounders. Unlike at Worlds, there is no qualification through medaling on an event). Like Zonderland on floor. He's not terrible here, but it's obviously an event that he doesn't train much. 2.5 to punch front, flairs, double full dismount.
Wammes looks exceptionally good on floor, as he usually does: He throws an Arabian double pike that is so springy it looks like he could easily add a full twist to it. Eh well, maybe next quad. A bit short on his triple full to end, however.
11:01 a.m.: Epke Zonderland looks good on high bar. Nice Cassina, nice layout double double dismount, fairly clean work throughout. The unlucky Jeffrey Wammes is also here, and did a nice high bar routine with double layout dismount.
I say that Wammes is unlucky because he is unlikely to go to the Olympics even if he places in the top 24 in the all-around here. The Dutch Federation seems to think that Zonderland has the better chance of an Olympic medal (and they're right), so even if Wammes places above him here at the Test Event, the Dutch are likely to send Zonderland to the Olympics in Wammes's stead.
10:59 a.m.: Super crunched Tsuk triple from one of the Ukrainians, landed on his side. Not injured. Yikes all the same. His teammate has a pretty nice handspring double front though -- great height.
10:58 a.m.: Fahrig on floor again: Front handspring, front double full to immediate double front? Or do my eyes deceive me, and it was just a front full to immediate double front?
10:53 a.m.: Just in case anyone wants to know, this meet is 6-5-4: six people per team, five compete on a given apparatus, four scores count.
10:52 a.m.: Fahrig on floor: stuck Arabian double pike. Easy Arabian double front. Remember that he won the 2010 European title on this event.
10:46 a.m.: On floor, Belarus started looking weak but got progressively better as the rotation went on. Jordan Jovtchev went through most of a parallel bar routine. He's slowed down a little from his heyday (Tokyo was his 17th World Championships), but his form is still excellent. Nice front somie to upper arms.
As worthy as Jovtchev is, I'm surprised the Bulgarians have opted to send him to this and not send youngster Eddie Penev, who is one of the best in the world on floor. Penev also competes for Stanford, and no doubt preparing for the NCAA season with his team.
10:44 a.m.: On high bar, Germany's Bretschneider just attempted what I believe was a full pirouette (or hop full) to immediate Kolman. He missed it, but fairly impressive all the same.
Fahrig looks very weak on this event -- his release move is a Tkatchev, done with some form problems. He does still crank a layout double double dismount, however.
10:39 a.m.: So far the Canadian men are quite impressive on vault. Saw a very nice DTY from Casey Sandy and two very good Yurchenko 2.5s from Nathan Gafuik. The alternate for the Canadian men is Jayd Lukenchuk, who has been having a small wrist problem, meaning that Sandy, Gafuik, Ken Ikeda, Jackson Payne, Brendan O'Neill and Kevin Lytwyn will be the guys responsible for getting Canada to the Olympics.
10:33 a.m.: The Canadian men, in blue and white uniforms, are on vault. The team, along with the British and Australians, were training at Lowestoft on the very eastern tip of England. Kyle Shewfelt was there with them and satisfied with their progress.
The Canadians are playing it safe for this meet, he said, not planning to throw any skills they don't have about an 80 percent chance of hitting in the competition.
"It's not how you win Olympic medals," Kyle noted, "but it is how you qualify to the Olympic Games."
10:30 a.m.: The French men are starting on pommel horse, the two Germans (Matthias Fahrig and a guy I believe is Andreas Bretschneider) are on high bar. Belarus is on floor and a mixed group, including Ukraine, is on rings. The Dutch are on parallel bars with a mixed group.
10:27 a.m.: The men are just about to march in for the first session of podium training. They are announced via loudspeaker, and funky pump-it-up style music is blaring through the arena.
The podium carpets in here are pink and emblazoned with the Visa logo, as Visa is sponsoring this event (and indeed is one of the major sponsors of the Games). The equipment is Gymnova.
LONDON, 9:46 a.m.: Here we go... By the end of this competition, there will be the joy that comes with qualifying for the Olympic Games (and being able to go there with your bestie training mates) for four of the world's best gymnastics teams.
For four others, the Olympic road ends here, and they will look toward Rio and 2016 with renewed hopes. But which four will make it? The men's teams at this event, in qualification order, are: France, Great Britain, Spain, Canada, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Italy and Belarus.
The women's teams will be Italy, France, Canada, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Korea and Belgium. In addition, a host of individuals will be trying to qualify to come back here this summer. But more on all that later. At the moment, please enjoy these running updates from men's podium training, which I hope you find helpful and interesting...
The Gymnastics Examiner will be at the 02 Arena in London for the Olympic Test Event all week. Follow the action on Facebook or Twitter, or click "Subscribe" above to recieve the latest gymnastics news and updates via e-mail.
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