Yesterday it was the women, today, the men crowned their all-around champion, or really, it was Kohei showed up and took his gold medal, thank-you-very-much.
That's one, two, three, four, five and six, bitches!
(Note, I'm not as fluent in men's gymanstics as I am with women's so please, bear with me)
If this was high school and world's were the prom, then Simone Biles is the Prom Queen and Kohei would be the prom king. The others compete for a place in their royal prom court.
At this point, Kohei just needed to show up and they would have just given him the gold without him even having to do anything. But he had to do something, I guess. And so it was decreed that it would once again be Kohei and everyone else. Whatevs. Max Whitlock of Great Britain started the competition in the lead with the best score on pommel horse with 16.100. Kohei hit a clean floor routine with 15.733. Very easily, he was able to take over the lead by the next rotation. He had a slight hiccup on high bar, but he didn't fall off like he did in team finals. So yes, it was King Kohei once again. The rest of the competitors were competing to be in his royal court.
Poor Danell Leyva was supposed to be the golden boy for the US and get a medal or something... But he had the kind of day that the Romanian women had in qualifications. Just not good. On floor, he fell and put his hands down on his first pass and he never quite recovered. Pommel horse, pssh, the men had issues with this event in team finals (but then again, so did everyone.) He missed his dismount, but then missed another handstand, and went again on it. Pretty sure he was hiding under his towell the rest of the meet. I lost him during Pbars and vault. High bar is his best event and he had issues again. He hit his big release elements, but lost it during a close bar element. Fuck. No Prom court this year for Danell. Let's find the lucky towell and hide for a while.
His teammate, Donnell Whittenburg, Mr. Supernova man, fared better than Dannell did. He originally wasn't even supposed to be in the final, but Mr. Man Cleavage and Epke Zonderland bestie, Fabian Hambuchen withdrew from the final. So in goes Donnell. He started on rings. I'll be honest, rings bore the shit out of me (so does pommel horse). My ADHD brain looses interest 4 seconds in and decides to check Twitter or something. Donell manages to hold my attention because he's so damn strong. He moves in and out of elements super smooth and he's all. Whatever, this is so easy. He had an issue on vault. He did his standard Tsuk full twisting double back or whatever. Donnell is superpowerful, I mean HUGE power. But he had a fight with today. He had too much power, so his residual kinetic enegry from his vault, causing him to fall back and bounce out of it. Eesh. All in all, he did very well for a guy who according to Nancy Armour of the Associated Press, found out he was competing at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon in Scotland (the all-around final started at 6:10 p.m.). He ended on pommel horse and we remember what a disaster pommel horse was for like, every single team USA guy in qualifications. But, maybe having only a couple of hours notice was good for him because, he hit, scored a 14 something and wound up 8th overall, got to be in the Prom court
Winning the silver medal, Manrique Larduet of Cuba. He's a baby senior only 19. Cuba has not been seen at a worlds in about a billion years. His gymnastics is beautiful. Plus, he is a cutie. Where he got me was floor. His first pass is a front double pike, ala Brenna Dowell. Right then, I decided that he was my new gymnastics crush. Someone had to replace Sam Mikulak in my heart, and Manrique filled that dancing Sam shaped hole with a front double pike. He hit that double front pike. Hit hit it cold, beautiful, so quick and fast. This was his last event and he just needed a 14.067 and he had a medal. He scored a 14.666. This was the first all-around medal for Cuba. Previously, they'd only had three medals, like... ever. Now, they have one more.
Deng Shudi of China won bronze. He get's an award for the best cheek bones. He's very clean. He's great on pommel horse. On floor, he's very light on his feet. I don't know. I just am mezmorized by those cheekbones. Plus, I told you. I lost focus at various points of this meet. So many events, hard for my ADHD brain to follow. Still a great gymnast, great gymnastics. Very Chinese. By that, I mean his gymanstics is very efficient. He knows what works and he's sticking to it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
All in all, great final. The men are sometimes a little more exciting than the women. There's better country representation, and aside from Kohei, the same five people aren't winning everything. So the verdict is I will be watching more men's team and all-around events.
That's one, two, three, four, five and six, bitches!
(Note, I'm not as fluent in men's gymanstics as I am with women's so please, bear with me)
If this was high school and world's were the prom, then Simone Biles is the Prom Queen and Kohei would be the prom king. The others compete for a place in their royal prom court.
At this point, Kohei just needed to show up and they would have just given him the gold without him even having to do anything. But he had to do something, I guess. And so it was decreed that it would once again be Kohei and everyone else. Whatevs. Max Whitlock of Great Britain started the competition in the lead with the best score on pommel horse with 16.100. Kohei hit a clean floor routine with 15.733. Very easily, he was able to take over the lead by the next rotation. He had a slight hiccup on high bar, but he didn't fall off like he did in team finals. So yes, it was King Kohei once again. The rest of the competitors were competing to be in his royal court.
Poor Danell Leyva was supposed to be the golden boy for the US and get a medal or something... But he had the kind of day that the Romanian women had in qualifications. Just not good. On floor, he fell and put his hands down on his first pass and he never quite recovered. Pommel horse, pssh, the men had issues with this event in team finals (but then again, so did everyone.) He missed his dismount, but then missed another handstand, and went again on it. Pretty sure he was hiding under his towell the rest of the meet. I lost him during Pbars and vault. High bar is his best event and he had issues again. He hit his big release elements, but lost it during a close bar element. Fuck. No Prom court this year for Danell. Let's find the lucky towell and hide for a while.
His teammate, Donnell Whittenburg, Mr. Supernova man, fared better than Dannell did. He originally wasn't even supposed to be in the final, but Mr. Man Cleavage and Epke Zonderland bestie, Fabian Hambuchen withdrew from the final. So in goes Donnell. He started on rings. I'll be honest, rings bore the shit out of me (so does pommel horse). My ADHD brain looses interest 4 seconds in and decides to check Twitter or something. Donell manages to hold my attention because he's so damn strong. He moves in and out of elements super smooth and he's all. Whatever, this is so easy. He had an issue on vault. He did his standard Tsuk full twisting double back or whatever. Donnell is superpowerful, I mean HUGE power. But he had a fight with today. He had too much power, so his residual kinetic enegry from his vault, causing him to fall back and bounce out of it. Eesh. All in all, he did very well for a guy who according to Nancy Armour of the Associated Press, found out he was competing at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon in Scotland (the all-around final started at 6:10 p.m.). He ended on pommel horse and we remember what a disaster pommel horse was for like, every single team USA guy in qualifications. But, maybe having only a couple of hours notice was good for him because, he hit, scored a 14 something and wound up 8th overall, got to be in the Prom court
Winning the silver medal, Manrique Larduet of Cuba. He's a baby senior only 19. Cuba has not been seen at a worlds in about a billion years. His gymnastics is beautiful. Plus, he is a cutie. Where he got me was floor. His first pass is a front double pike, ala Brenna Dowell. Right then, I decided that he was my new gymnastics crush. Someone had to replace Sam Mikulak in my heart, and Manrique filled that dancing Sam shaped hole with a front double pike. He hit that double front pike. Hit hit it cold, beautiful, so quick and fast. This was his last event and he just needed a 14.067 and he had a medal. He scored a 14.666. This was the first all-around medal for Cuba. Previously, they'd only had three medals, like... ever. Now, they have one more.
Deng Shudi of China won bronze. He get's an award for the best cheek bones. He's very clean. He's great on pommel horse. On floor, he's very light on his feet. I don't know. I just am mezmorized by those cheekbones. Plus, I told you. I lost focus at various points of this meet. So many events, hard for my ADHD brain to follow. Still a great gymnast, great gymnastics. Very Chinese. By that, I mean his gymanstics is very efficient. He knows what works and he's sticking to it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
All in all, great final. The men are sometimes a little more exciting than the women. There's better country representation, and aside from Kohei, the same five people aren't winning everything. So the verdict is I will be watching more men's team and all-around events.
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