Japan Cup AA Finals

Two of the world’s newest all-around stars took top honors in the all-around finals of the Japan Cup this past weekend. Huang Quishuang improved upon her preliminary performance by over two full points to hold off new young Russian sensations Aliya Mustafina and Tatiana Nabiyeva. On the men’s side, an exciting two-way battle took place between Japan’s Kohei Uchimura and Germany’s Fabian Hambuchen, with Uchimura coming out on top by a .65 margin:

I’m not sure why China competed Zhang Jing rather than Xiao Sha, who led the all-around in the preliminaries. It also would have been great to see how Jonathan Horton would have stood up against Uchimura and Hambuchen, although I don’t believe Horton is quite in his best competition form just yet. Hopefully this competition, and particularly the opportunity to watch two of his biggest competitors, did a lot to motivate Horton into trying to get onto the podium in London this fall. The U.S. competed youngsters Danell Leyva and Steven Legendre instead, providing some extremely valuable experience for two of our future stars. Leyva performed much more solidly than he did in preliminaries, putting up a strong 88.5 to finish 7 ^th – about four points behind the leaders. I’d say his performance definitely showed his potential to be a real all-around threat in the very near future. If he can continue to improve his pommel horse and rings and get them closer to the 15-mark, he’ll have six very strong events and a realistic shot at challenging the very best in the world. Legendre is undoubtedly one of the very best tumblers in the world. Although his all-around was somewhat lackluster here, check out this video if you haven’t see what this guy has been doing!

Steven Legendre FX 2009

HOLY COW. I’d say this definitely qualifies as the hardest floor routine ever done. In case you couldn’t tell, that first pass was a 2 ½ twisting double layout – never done before to my knowledge. The second pass was a Hypolito – a piked Arabian double front with a full out. I think we should send this guy to worlds this year for this routine ALONE. Of course he’s an awesome vaulter as well. This is simply too amazing to not show to the rest of the world.

Mustafina and Nabieva are definitely two to watch out for. Let’s look at a couple of videos from these two during the all-around finals:

Nabieva Vault 2009 Japan Cup AA Finals

Was she trying a Yurchenko triple full??!!! I don’t think so actually – in fact she stated after the meet that she was doing her 2 ½, and also indicated a 2 ½ with her vault number. If you slow-mo the vault, you’ll see that she does actually land past the half position – almost at a ¾ position. Why did she do that? I have no idea, but that was pretty amazing. I’m POSITIVE a Yurchenko triple full has never been done in competition by any female, and only a couple of males have attempted it that I know of. Aside from being awfully sloppy, that type of vault is going to help her tremendously as she attempts to become an all-around threat over the next few years.

Mustafina FX 2009 Japan Cup AA Finals

Very nice! She has great dance ability AND strong tumbling – a very nice Memmel turn (leg by her face), a high Arabian double front, a well-controlled 2 ½ front full, and a completed triple full dismount. She can clean up the form on her twisting, but she has lots of potential here.

Mustafina BB 2009 Japan Cup AA Finals

Fantastic! Obviously she left out something out of that random back handspring at the beginning, but what an awesome standing Arabian! She also had a great variety of skills – the attempted Onodi-side somi combo will be really cool, and of course a double turn is always risky. She also got that triple full all the way around – again I’d like to see her work on those crossed feet. Unfortunately neither Nabieva nor Mustafina will be eligible for world’s this year because they both turn 15 this year. We’ll have to wait until next year to see how these two stack up. What a shame!