16. May 2009  
Glasgow, Great Britain  
Artistic Gymnastics

2009 Glasgow Grand Prix: Happy Brits !

The British Team took their home Grand Prix by storm with a magnificent six medals!
Beth Tweddle
took two Gold’s to follow her double European championship Success on Bars and Floor. Louis Smith and Daniel Keatings continued the Pommel domination finishing in Gold and Bronze places, Becky Downie produced a great routine to claim Bars Silver and Kristian Thomas took Floor Silver to complete the medal haul....
Women’s Finals Competition got underway for the women on the
>  Asymmetric Bars with yesterdays top qualifier Beth Tweddle having the difficult task of leading off the field. Beth corrected the error from yesterday (fall on Shaposnikova ½ transition from low to high bar) and was more precise overall than her qualification performance. Her score of 15.275 set a standard that could not be matched as the final unfolded. However, the crowd at the Kelvin Hall were delighted that her closest challenger was her compatriot Becky Downie who also qualified with a fall, but looked really determined here to score 14.6, with a difficult exercise, highlighted by a beautiful Ricna somersault. She secured the SILVER medal ahead of the Russian Ekaterina Kurbatova (14.425) who competed a very clean routine. This was a fantastic start to the day for the British girls, Gold and Sliver!

> Vault: The 7 ladies who lined up for the Vault had not had to go through the process of qualification yesterday as they were the only gymnasts opting to take part in the second of the four finals. Aside from the 2 Russian gymnasts, the level of work was quite simple and with several errors, including falls from Britain’s Becky Downie (12.925), Yasmin Zimmerman (Switzerland, 12.975) and Romanian Chelaru (12.875). This left the way for Ekaterina Kurbatova (14.0), with a double twisting Yurchenko and Yurchenko half on, straight front half twist, to take the Gold over her compatriot Yulia Berger (13.9), the Silver medallist from this year’s European championships in Milan. With two cleanly executed vaults, Columbian Jessica Gil took the Bronze medal (13.8).
> On the Balance Beam the crowd were excited with the opening performance of Sanne Wevers (Netherlands) who is a master of spins! The Dutch girl showed double spins with her leg held straight and then in the tucked position as well as a triple spin to score 14.075 and the Gold medal, repeating her position from last year.
Britain’s Becky Downie put in a solid Beam performance, highlighted by her excellent double pike dismount, but with a missed leap series connection she was in 6th place (13.3). 16 year old Spaniard, Ana Maria Izurieta showed a controlled exercise, including a wonderful acrobatic series of 2 back flips into a layout to two feet to share the Gold with Wevers (14.075).
Top qualifier, Dragoi (Romania) worked with lovely tempo and confidence, but a few small wobbles left her with the Bronze medal (13.95).
> The ladies Floor exercise got off to a fine start with the enjoyable exercise that Chelaru (Romania) performed. Spritely dance and difficult tumbling (full in back out, triple twist) for 13.2. Gold medallist on floor in this years Europeans, Beth Tweddle got a wonderful reception from the crowd with her routine which showed marvellous tumbles (1 ½ twist walk out into double Arabian tucked, double Arabian piked) as well as excellent leaps for 14.9 and another Gold medal for Beth.
Russian Berger was expressive in her dance as well and powerful in her tumbles (although stepping out the area twice) for 13.45 whilst Izurieta (Spain) once again demonstrated lovely style scoring 13.975 and a pleasing Bronze medal, just pipping the entertaining Zimmermann (Switzerland).
The second Russian Anna Myzdrikova showed some very unusual and pleasing work (triple twist, rebound into tuck back, 2 ½ twist, Barani into stag leap), lovely choreography and pushed Beth all the way for 14.7 (Silver).
* Source: British Gymnastics

* Women's FINAL RESULTS
> Final - Womens Vault   >  Final - Asymmetric Bars
> Final - Beam                   >
Final - Womens Floor
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* Men’s Qualification report
The largest entry for qualifications came on the first piece, floor exercise. Diego Hypolito (Brazil, hungry for success after Olympic disappointment, debuted a new move (straight double Arabian with a full twist in the second somersault) which helped to earn him top spot in qualification. His score of 15.325 just pushed Britain’s Kristan Thomas into second place (15.3).
Diego Hypolito, Brazil: ‘Here in Glasgow this year I am determined to show another new gymnastic move that I have been working on. I hope to gain more experience in this Grand Prix, and to prepare myself for the forth coming World Championship in London this October The new gymnastic move that I will perform here in Glasgow will be named ‘Hypolito’ the difference in the moves is the body shape in tucked position. I hope to have a good performance of this new move.
The Brazilian team has grown in number of gymnasts in international artistic gymnastics competitions and the performance levels have also grown. Brazilians are becoming known on the artistic gymnastic scene and both the public and other international gymnasts looking forward to seeing them perform."

Recently crowned European Champion on pommel horse Krisztian Berki (Hungary) topped the field in Glasgow, with Louis Smith (3rd, 15.225) and Daniel Keatings (5th, 14.7) earning their places in the final. Outstanding performances on rings (15.825) and vault (16.537) from Ri Se Gwang (People’s Republic of Korea) made him a surprise leader after qualifications on these two pieces. His vault score was achieved through two hugely difficult and well-executed vaults.
Brits Luke Folwell (equal 4th, 15.837) and Theo Seager (7th, 15.4) also proceed to the final on that event. 2008 Glasgow winner on Parallel Bars, Mitja Petkovsek (Slovenia, 15.250) once again led the way on his favourite event whilst team-mate Alijaz Pegan came out on top on High Bar (15.250).
* Source: British Gymnastics

* Men's R E S U L T S
> Men's Floor Exercises  > Pommel Horse     > Rings  
> Men's Vault                     > Parallel Bars          > High bar