The FIG Minor competition was dominated by Salto’s Casey Jo Bell in her stunning black and red leotard. All eyes were on Casey as she performed easily the most difficult bars and beam routines of the day. The 11 year old had a start value of 4.8 on bars and 4.7 on beam as well as 4.4 on floor. Never before have a heard a usually chatty Irish gymnastics audience be so silent that we could have heard a pin drop in the gym. Casey stunned the audience and fellow competitors with her double tuck dismount on beam and how she transitioned so smoothly from high bar to low and back. A stunning performance from the young girl who trains 24 hours a week in Northern Ireland. Emmiline Anghileri who trains in Tolworth Gymnastics Club in the UK (but competes for Renmore from Galway) placed second, there was 4.270 in the difference between the girls. Excel’s Niamh Rogers with 40.100 who was a power house on floor, competing a lovely double tuck. Keep an eye out for Casey Jo Bell and Emmiline Anghileri, in particular, over the next few years. Let’s hope they don’t peak too early. Remember the names.

Four gymnasts competed in the FIG Junior competition. The competition was won by Excel’s Ciara Melia with her club mate Hayleigh Bradley and Nadia’s Denise Moloney in 3rd place.

Eight girls competed in the FIG Senior competition, these are the top girls in Ireland. We saw some beautiful floor work, double twists, full twists with some fantastic choreography. World Championships participant Sophie McCoo lead the field of gymnasts vying for the title of National All Around champion, she claimed the crown with a score of 41.750, pipping Excel’s Emma Lunn to the post by just 1.43. Beth Gillmor of Old Bawn placed third. Beth vaulted a lovely tucked tsuk and performed a nice double twist on floor. Sophie McCoo’s floor was energetic and confident. Most girls struggled on beam, didn’t appear too confident, plenty of falls and wobbles but that can be worked on, even so, some impressive moves. You can see Emma Lunn and Sophie McCoo next competing for Ireland at the Cottbus Cup in Germany this month.

Every year, an award is presented for the highest bar score of the day, in an effort to encourage Irish gymnasts to up their game on uneven bars, an apparatus in which the country as a whole is weak on. FIG Minor Champion Casey Jo Bell (pictured above) took the award home with her score of 10.600, again beating Emmiline Anghileri’s  9.325. The closest of the FIG Seniors to come to Casey Jo’s score was Emma Lunn.

The next time these girls will meet again will be at the FIG Individual Apparatus Championships on May 20th. Videos to follow here. A special mention to our camera woman, you know who you are and we wish that you had been able to compete too

Full results via Gymnastics Ireland. Images via Gymnastics Ireland on Facebook, taken by DE Photo.

She tells the Helions Bumpstead:

 “I didn’t get a wildcard for the Olympics and I’ve done all the biggest competitions there are, so I didn’t feel the need to do more training for two years just to do all the competitions I’ve already done.”

“I gave my life up to do it really”

“It’s been part of my life for so long, but I think there’s also the fact that I’ve been there and done it now and I have experienced everything I could have done and it’s time for something new, and if I can teach someone else that would be good.”

Photo via Ghetty Images

Both coach and gymnast have put many hours of effort into preparing him for today’s event as well as his new sponsors Stoi Athletic wear who have kitted the delegation out for the competition. Many of you will know that Irish gymnasts must fund their own trips abroad, Kieran is no stranger to doing so. Any sponsorship or help with funding means a lot to an Irish gymnast.

“It really felt good to be wearing the near gear supplied by Stoi, and I really appreicate having the medical support also from Osteopath Chris Pinches who is keeping me fit and functioning well.”

Kieran participated in Podium Training on Sunday evening at his biggest event ever. The gymnast missed out on the 2009 World Championships here in the O2 due to injury. He got to grips with the equipment and his new surroundings. Being so close to home, only an hours flight away from the capital city Dublin may help Behan who has not had to acclimatise or be affected by jet lag, aside from that he resides in the UK for training. He may also have comfort in the fact that club mates Louis Smith and Daniel Keatings will be competing in the same subdivision as him. Luckily it’s only a short trip across the water for his friend and family to come and support him in his home away from home:

“The o2 arena is really impressive and feels great to be on the podium. Really looking forward to performing my routines tomorrow. It feels great to be in London so close to Ireland where I have so many family and friends coming to support me”

Behan, known as a floor specialist will be hoping to prove that he is not just that when he performs in the All Around competition later this evening, hoping to grab one of 24 individual spots available. He has received wonderful comments from the Gymnastics Examiner, who mainly concentrates on WAG. A comparison between Behan and 2004 Olympic Gold Floor medallist Kyle Shewfelt was drawn by Gymnastics Coaching editor Rick Mc Charles, something which Kieran was delighted with.

How will he do? Only time will tell, we’re 15 minutes away from competition.

Leave your comments of support for Kieran below as he follows Full Twist and would be thrilled to read your kind words!

Once we hear how Anthony O’Donnell and Luke Carson get on we will be sure to update the Irish fans. Best of luck to the three gymnasts. In the meantime check out Kieran’s qualification floor below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGn87Jjd9gI&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Anthony O’Donnell’s floor has also become available:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1t0iUJN2rs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Also make sure to check Stoi out. We all know that “Stoi” is the Russian word to “stick it” – so they have perfect t-shirts and hoodies for any gymnastics coach!

Thanks Simon & Jimmy!

***Update***

Kieran has qualified in first place on floor. Anthony O’Donnell qualified in 10th position, just outside a place for the final but is second reserve. Luke Carson unfortunately fell at the end of his Pommel routine. Kieran has made the decision to withdraw from rings so as to be fresh for the floor final tomorrow. O’Donnell has qualified 8th and will compete in the vault final tomorrow. Luke Carson had a great day on P Bars scoring 14.0 out of 14.8. A fantastic day for the Irish!

Irish Male gymnasts go from strength to strength

 

Anthony O’Donnell makes history as he claims Ireland’s First Northern European medal

 

Uppsala, Sweden, 13^th November:  The Irish team travelled back to Ireland today after the 2011 Northern European Championships in Uppsala, Sweden with Anthony O’Donnell very proudly carrying Ireland’s first ever Northern European medal.

 The 20-year-old from Carrigaline Gymnastics Club, Cork, won bronze on Floor with a score of 13.45 yesterday and also finished 4^th on Vault and 5^th on Rings in the Apparatus Final, not to mention finishing 11th All-Around.

 This fantastic result continues the trend the Irish Men have been making over the past two months.

Only last weekend 22-year-old Kieran Behan won his second FIG World Cup medal in Croatia – silver on Floor. The month previous he won Ireland’s first ever World Cup medal.

 Sally Filmer from Gymnastics Ireland, said: “It’s a great result from our Northern European Men’s Artistic Gymnastics team in Sweden. With our two top gymnasts Kieran and Luke also working back in their clubs, on their routine development  for the Ostrava World Challenge Cup it is exciting times for our MAG gymnasts.

 “I believe the last time we had a senior MAG team was 1995…and this is Ireland’s first Northern European Medal. Our team in the Northern Europeans was one of the youngest competing, it was a great opportunity to bring 5 boys, Anthony O’Donnel, Geoff Rellis, Chris O’Connor, Adam Dalton and Daniel Fox together as part of their preparation for the Junior and Senior Europeans.

 “We have identified our MAG squad and are targeting key areas for the gymnasts to develop as a unit for our long term plan. 

 “With such dedicated hard working gymnasts and coaches and thanks to the support of clubs the future for Men’s gymnastics in Ireland is moving in the right direction.”

Previously Kieran Behan won his second, and Ireland’s second ever FIG medal at the Osijek Challenger Cup in Slovenia two weeks ago, just after the launch. Watch Kieran’s medal winning routine below or on YouTube:

Let’s hope the Irish girls can soon pick up the pace and also become established on the international circuit.

Thanks Kathryn.

Fortunately Rellis left the hospital the next day on his feet, walking out. He had to have weekly follow up checks, one xray revealed that the dislocation had slipped further down, meaning that he required an operation. During the 4 hour operation, his throat was pushed aside and the two vertebrae were fused together from a bone graft from his hip. Despite the tough operation, Rellis was able to leave the hospital the next day with the Surgeons advice , which was not to return to gymnastics.

Geoff has always been training with the aim of competing in the Olympics since a young age so this was not easy advice to take in, like most gymnasts he was head strong and was used to using his muscles and working out everyday, sitting at home doing nothing was not an easy task for eight weeks. Once he returned to normal life after eight weeks and ditched his neck brace, he began weights and light cardio training, he refused to accept that he should never train again.

5 months following the accident, he was allowed to go back to training in February this year. After months of hard work and rehabilitation, Geoff is set to compete at the Northern Europeans in Sweden, which was his aim all along.

The Daily Mail carried this story on Rellis last week however, parts of it aren’t true. At the end the author talks about Ireland’s “Olympics Squad”, unfortunately there is no Olympic Squad. Kieran Behan is second reserve to compete in the Test Event in January. It will be 2016 before we might possibly have another gymnast in the Olympic Games since Barry McDonald in 1996.

Rellis is not the only Irish male gymnast to have suffered a terrible injury, double FIG medal winner Kieran Behan also suffered a tumour in his leg and a bad head injury. Both gymnasts are back and in fighting form. Geoffs courage is admirable, wishing him the best of luck at Northern Europeans as part of the Gymnastics Ireland delegation. He will compete alongside the following Irish gymnasts:

Female gymnasts

• Emma Lunn
• Ciara Melia
• Sorcha White Barrett
• Sarah Buckley
• Beth Gilmor

Male gymnasts

• Anthony O’Donnell
• Geoff Rellis
• Chris O’Connor
• Adam Dalton
• Daniel Fox

Teams from  Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the Fare Islands will compete in Uppsala, November 11th – 13th.

You should be able to listen live online here.

 The new look website is fantastic, full of great content, up to date and features which are especially important in this day and age – social media links. Louis Smith was on hand in Dublin to assist with the launch. The new brand has been a long time coming for Gymnastics Ireland but Full Twist is delighted that it has all finally come together, just upset that we couldn’t make the launch today.

Ciaran Gallagher, Gymnastics Ireland CEO said:

“We are delighted that Louis could be here today to help us launch the new Gymnastics Ireland brand. He is the ideal individual as he is not only one of the best gymnasts in the world, but he is also a great personality and really conveys what Gymnastics Ireland is now all about.”

“Gymnastics Ireland is the governing body for a sport that has enjoyed rapid growth over the past number of years. Participation levels have increased from 6000 in 2007 to almost 12,000 now.  This rate of increase looks set to continue and our activity today will hopefully increase this even further,” .

“Gymnastics is one of the biggest sports in the world, one of the oldest Olympic sports and achieves some of the highest viewing figures for sports events on the planet. In Germany, for example, male gymnastics is the second most popular sport after football. Gymnastics is a sport for everyone and is the foundation for other sports like rugby, soccer and GAA, as strength, balance, agility and spatial awareness are all key gymnastic elements essential to the development of the all-round sports person”.

Check Gymnastics Ireland out on Twitter – Facebook – Flickr – YouTube.  Read the full press release here. Images from the launch can be seen here.

Kieran finished in 53rd place with a score of 80.290 while Luke finished in 54th place with 80.165. Rohan finished in 61st place with 78.915. See all of today’s results here.

Individual Results breakdown:

A huge amount of live coverage was given to the guys so let’s see what was said:

International Gymnast Magazine on Facebook:

High Bar:

Sebastian IRL high bar missed Kovacs missed. Decent pirouetting work. Full-twisting double layout stuck

Carson IRL HB 4.9/12.533

Parallel Bars:

Carson IRL PB 4.7/13.7 9.0 execution!

Sebastian IRL PB 5.5/13.316

Behan IRL 4.9/13.033

Vault:

Sebastian IRL Yurchenko double full that landed on all fours

Rings:

Sebastian IRL The long lines on pommel horse work to his disadvantage on rings, but he’s deceptively strong. Decent swing work and a double back with 3/2 twists. Good effort, but he’ll need the luck of the Irish to score over a 14.00.

Carson IRL 5.0/12.933

Pommel Horse:

Behan IRL PH 3.1/11.633

Rohan Sebastian IRL shows sleek lines on horse that go well with the Irish spring/mint green colored form pants. Well done. 4.7/8.066 12.766

Floor:

Luke Carson IRL FX 5.2/8.1/13.20

Kieran Behan IRL FX 6.0/8.50/14.50

Rohan Sebastian IRL front double full-Rudi, back 2.5 front 1/1. Sound landings. Scrambled on his second to last pass and finished with a triple twist, but had to pike down to make it to his feet. 6.1/6.933 13.033

Gymnastics Examiner also covered the Irish in Quick Hits.  Not all apparatus were covered as there was a lot going on in the arena today with injuries and the Germans competing but still, plenty of great information.

Rotation 1 – Floor

Luke Carson, floor: Front double full, OOB. Nice style ending a side pass with a Shushunova, lots of airtime, enough that he can practically wink at the judges. Flying around like that is what gymnastics is all about. Running front 1 3/4. Y scale, something else we don’t see a lot these days. 2.5 twist dismount with a step. Good routine.

 

Kieran Behan, floor: Nice form on everything here. Twisting opening pass. Layout Thomas second pass. Tucked Thomas side pass. Roundoff, full twisting windmill flip. 1.5 to tuck full. 2.5 dismount. Great routine!

 

Rohan Sebastian, floor: It was good from what I saw.

Rotation 2 – Pommel Horse

Luke Carson, pommel: Powering through this routine! Moving quite well so far, and cleanly through the dismount. Nice.

 

Rohan Sebastian, pommel: Moving quite well so far…Hit routine! Good job

Rotation 4 – Vault

Luke Carson, vault: Believe it was a Tsuk 1.5. Good distance from the table and power. Hop forward.

 

Rohan Sebastian, vault: Hands down on DTY. Too bad!

 

Kieran Behan, vault: Yurchenko 1.5, small hop.

Rotation 6 – High Bar

Luke Carson, high bar: Weiler with full spin, nice. Full twisting double layout with a small hop forward. Nice routine.

Gymnastics Coaching on Twitter:

Rohan off H Bar on Kovacs. Merde.

Luke IRELAND swings big and hits H Bar. Nice Weilers.

Luke HITS P Bars. IRELAND.

Luke IRE hits Vault Y 1 1/2

Rohan IRE touches hands on DTY Vault.

Luke Carson hits Rings, as well. All good for Ireland. The ladies like his Cross pullout and Spagat.

Rohan Sebastian IRELAND has some excellent Ring strength for such a slim guy. Pulls out of Cross.

Kieran Behan IRELAND nice Floor. Very aggressive.

The All Around also includes some comments on the guys in their quick hits.

Despite not qualifying to compete in the AA or Event finals, there is a possibility that one of the Irish Men may get a place at the London 2012 Test Event for the Games in January 2012. They will find out tomorrow evening.  Well done to Kieran, Luke and Rohan. Enjoy the rest of your time in Tokyo.

Whilst most social media attention online was drawn to the Australians and 2010 World Floor Champion Lauren Mitchell, some coverage was given to the Irish ladies. Blythe Lawrence of the Gymnastics Examiner (GE) described Charlotte’s Yurchenko Layout “well controlled” with a small step back. On her bars GE commented that Charlotte has a nice jaeger, a little too high on her bail to toe hecht and had a good swing.On beam Charlotte had a few wobbles and form issues, Gymnastike called the routine a “great job”.

Charlottes scores:

• Beam: 11.866
• Vault: 12.733
• Bars: 10.566
• Floor: 9.600

Head of the Irish Delegation and Irish Gymnastics Coaching Development Officer Sally Filmer praised Charlotte after competition:

“She did well all around, excelent vault, super Jager on bar, which she hit both heels on in her final training session! With such solid performances we can look forward to training hard for next years Euro selection, and with the juniors moving up, the chance of a full senior team”

Sophie’s beam performance was in rotation 3 where she scored 12.033. GE called the opening choreography “interesting” and “refreshing”

Switch leap on. Interesting choreo the first 10 seconds of this routine — she does something besides stand and wave her arms around — how refreshing! Bhs, layout. Side aerial. Switch. Back tuck, tiny wobble. Moving quite well so far. Front layout full, step forward.

What would you rate it is? The FIG think it should be rated as a “B”, the same as a straight back somersault. What do you think of Kieran Behan’s move? Leave a comment below.

Thanks for sharing Simon.

Compared with the women’s podium training the previous two days, the guys hit a higher percentage of full routines. Have fewer falls. And are generally less scarifying.

When a male gymnast crashes a vault landing, my heart rate does not accelerate. But when a tiny little girl crashes DTY, it hurts me.

Most interesting notes from today’s MAG training:

• Fabian Hambuchen is unlikely to compete AA, missing out on his weakest event Pommel Horse during training.
• Ireland are submitting a new move to the FIG for evaluation
• Marian Dragulescu is said to be in great shape and could contend for the vault title

Meanwhile The Couch Gymnast covered the WAG training on Facebook and the blog. Brigid did as much as she could to cover as many nations as possible but it’s very hard to cover every single nation competing.Read her reports and view her photographs below:

Why have you been ignoring Korea?

In the Romanian Corner

Check out the best coverage links below:

The FIG

• Unfinished Business 
• Golden Boys Aim for Glory
• William Alberts Dream
• Kumar Flying Flag for India
• Japan Seeking Glory on Home Turf

Inside Gymnastics: Daily 5 October 5

Photo via FIG Facebook

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.

of Rohan’s floor she says:

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.

Rick says that Ireland are submitting a new move to the FIG for evaluation – “Butterfly Backward with a full twist” is how he described it. Interesting, can’t wait to see that!

Pommel Horse - both Kieran and Rohan suffered falls, unfortunately Kieran twice.  Luke hit his routine well.

Rings – Rohan hits a clean routine. Luke hits. Kieran ends with a simple clean front full dismount. A good session on rings for Ireland. From Gymnastics Examiner:

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. 

Parallel Bars – Luke hit his routine once again – “super clean” but a few small steps were taken on landing.Unfortunately Rick missed the other 2 routines, the Germans were on high bar, can you blame him!

Vault – all good vaults according to Rick although Rohan was inconsistent in his DTY meanwhile Kieran stuck a -Yurchenko 1.5 ” like a knife in a plank. Best V landing all day”. Good going!!

High Bar –  Kieran’s routine was clean but ran out of the dismount. Rohan unfortunately missed far on his Kovacs and once again Luke hit his routine.

Ireland’s Luke Carson

Thank you to both Rick and Blythe for providing such great information on the Irish guys, we know that any information that can be given from Tokyo is important to many people in Ireland. We’re looking forward to hearing from Coach Simon Gale as to how he felt the guys got on.

Image via Abbey Gymnastics Centre on Facebook

The MAG team of three have also commenced training. Luke Carson hopes to improve on last years Worlds performance where he placed 95th in the AA qualifications competition in Rotterdam, he also ranked 49th at the 2009 WCh’s in London. Carson moved from City of Lisburn Salto Gymnastics Centre to Huntingdon Gymnastics Club in the UK to train with Daniel Keatings and Louis Smith under Coach Paul Hall. Known as the most successful Irish gymnast in history, Luke is set to compete in his fifth WCh’s. Meanwhile Tolworth’s Kieran Behan who most recently won Ireland’s first ever FIG medal, will compete in his 2nd WCh’s. Rohan Sebastian will compete in his first WCh’s since London in 2009. Each of these gymnasts are hoping to score high enough and become the second Irish gymnast ever to compete in the Olympics since Barry MacDonald in Atlanta 1996.

Abbey Gymnastics Centre has some photographs and videos of the gymnasts training today.

 Kieran Behan – training Rings

Luke Carson dismounting on Rings

Rohan Sebastian training Parallel Bars