World Domination - Antwerp 2013

Oct 4, 2013 by Lucy Cameron

Simone Biles and Kyla Ross celebrate their 1-2 finish in the World All Around Final. Photo by Melissa Perenson.

The 2013 Antwerp Women's World Championship All-Around From the Perspective of a 15-year-old British Gymnast:

Wow. What a competition. Coverage of the Women's Artistic All-around World Championship final finished on my T.V just five minutes ago, and I wanted to write about it while it was still fresh in my mind, and I could still clearly remember the feelings I experienced, the most dominant of which, excitement. Admittedly, I don't think I was expecting it to be quite as breath-taking as it was, due to the absence of so many of the stars from last year's Olympics, but I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least.

The first routine that caught my eye, as it always does, was Kyla Ross' immaculate bar routine. I don't think her ability to hit every handstand so effortlessly will ever fail to impress me, simply because it's something that we seldom see. Her only tiny slip up was catching her straddled jaeger with slightly bent arms, but it didn't prove too costly, as Ross scored 15.100 (6.4 + 8.7). Team USA maintained their standard with another solid bar routine by newly-crowned all-around world champ Simone Biles. The contrasting but equally score-effective styles of Ross and Biles are intriguing to watch. For me, the highlight of her energetic routine was her dismount, the amplitude she achieves on her somersaults are an excellent final impression to leave with the judges! The uneven bars continued to be an impressive piece, with Larisa Iordache of Romania performing a confident and beautifully clean routine, on an apparatus her nation is known to have a weakness on. Yao Jinnan of China can certainly not go unmentioned. She left the audience, judges, me, and I'm sure the other coaches and competitors, awe - struck when she debuted her 'Gaylord' skill on the international stage. The Chinese gymnast somersaulted forwards over the top of the bar, to catch it on the other side. The insane skill left her in dead hang and having to work hard to continue her momentum, but was highly rewarded by the judges, as was her wonderful stuck double layout dismount. Jinnan scored 15.333, the highest score on bars. (6.9 + 8.433). However, there was one thing I noticed frequently, that didn't impress me, call it a pet hate. Gymnasts perform many kips during the course of a routine, and they can look perfectly graceful if done from a proper swing, but I was frustrated that, a lot of the time, this wasn't the case. Many gymnasts were kipping from a dead hang at least once during the routine, which, in my opinion looks messy, and takes away from the effortless, elegant swing that should be displayed on bars. I'd love to know whether you agree or not!

On beam, the Americans continued to dominate with two incredible routines. Kyla Ross in particular, had an almost faultless routine, the highlight of which being her perfect back handspring-layout step out, something that she has been having a few tiny hesitations on in recent competitions. Her artistic elements were equally stunning, displaying a 180 degree split, sometimes more. The British commentators were also enthralled. Mitch Fenner, coach of Olympic Men's high bar champion Epke Zonderland, described her as "a lovely mixture of balletic elegance and power" and Matt Baker, a BBC television presenter and former gymnast, dubbed her beam routine "the performance of the whole competition so far".

A vault that stood out to me, although I am perhaps slightly biased, was Rebecca Tunney from Great Britain. Her double twisting yurchenko, although not as difficult as some, was extremely neat, and so left little for the judges to deduct. Rebecca's vault earned her a solid 14.866, the 7th highest vault score of the night. (5.8 + 9.066).

The floor exercise was probably, as it often is, where the most exhilarating routines took place. Where do I start? My favourite performance, Iordache of Romania, seems a good place. After an unexpectedly shaky beam which included a fall, (she qualified in 1st to the beam final), she shook it off to deliver a bouncy, dynamic performance, filled with smiles. Her dance was beautifully expressive and her leaps had immense height and split, not to mention she stuck three of her difficult tumbles cold. Her score of 14.700, and her fourth place finish, proved to everyone that it was her beam that did the damage. Other athletes who recovered remarkably after beam were Ruby Harrold of Great Britain and Yao Jinnan of China. Jinnan's routine included refreshing choreography and brilliant tumbling to a catchy piece of music, but best of all was her switch ring leap, during which she nearly hit the roof. The height was unbelievable, as was the height on Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland's first leap. Some routines also caught my eye for their mature, majestic style. 29 year old Vasiliki Milousi of Greece danced balletically, attracting the audience's attention, despite not having the most difficult of tumbling passes. 2010 all-around world champion Aliya Mustafina, who could be described as a veteran, landed all her tumbles and performed her dance well, particularly her stuck double arabian to a stag jump. British coach Christine Still commented "truly artistic".

The competition came to a close with Simone Biles' zingy floor, which secured her the title. Being the last gymnast of the competition means you have all eyes on you, but rather than letting this phase her, Simone took full advantage, showing off her crazy tumbling and never-ending supply of energy, topped off with a big smile, which never left her face.

I'd like to finish by mentioning one more thing that was a pleasure to watch. The camaraderie between the competitors was heart - warming. After Ross' excellent floor routine, Biles, like a true champion, took time to hug and congratulate her team mate before stepping up for her own performance. Furthermore, at the end of the competition, all the gymnasts hugged, shook hands and got photos together, all wearing genuine smiles.

Thanks for reading, please comment if you have any thoughts!

Lucy