Womens Artistic Gymnastics News
Great Britain defeat China by 0.075- historic victory!
The Norman Wilkinson Trophy for the best team in the friendly
International GB v China stays at home!
 Beth
Tweddle image Sing Lo
GB team with Beth Tweddle (Liverpool, Captain), Samantha
Bayley (Unattached), Imogen Cairns (The Academy), Rhian Pugh
(Bristol Hawks), Melanie Roberts (Liverpool), Rosalie Hutton
(Pipers Vale) and Helen Galashan, Reserve (Livepool), enjoyed
a 0.075 victory against China (Fan Ye, Li Ya, Xiao Sha, Yang
Yahon, Guo Li and Lin Xia) in a tight match in front of a
full house at Park Road Centre of Excellence, Liverpool.
"At this level of gymnastics nobody is guaranteed to
succeed with faults!", said Adrian Stan, Technical Director
for Women’s Artistic Gymnastics. "The Chinese lost
the competition in Vault, their weakest apparatus on which,
according to the draw, they had to start the competition".
The highest score on Vault and the only one above 9.00pts
for the Chinese, was Yang Yahong’s, 9.150 (SV 9.9) for
Tsukahara with double twist.
At the same time the British started strongly on their crown
apparatus, the A. Bars, with Beth Tweddle reaching 9.625,
Rhian Ough- 9.450 and Imogne Cairnes- 9.100.
From there on everything was a matter of stability on the
apparatus.
In the second rotation the Chinese hit strong routines on
the A.Bars (Li Ya, 9.625, Fan Ye, 9.425, Guo Li, 9.300) and
after a few hiccups by the Brits on the Beam they led 72.800:71,7500.
In the third rotation the gap started to melt: China- on
Beam, 35.900 GB on Floor, 34.650.
With a tiny advantage of 0.175 the very last performances
of China on Floor and GB on Vault appeared to be crucial.
The Chinese had excellent dance and tumbles on Floor, but
two of their performers stepped outside of the area costing
them valuable tenths.
Meanwhile the British performed excellently on Vault, sticking
their landings and performing Vaults with a much higher start
value, than those of the Chinese.
All in all, this was an exiting, nail-biting competition,
which thoroughly absorbed the knowledgeable Liverpool audience.
"This is a fantastic start of the new Olympic cycle
and we hope we shall continue to beat the Chinese especially
in 2008", said an ecstatic President of British Gymnastics
Brian Stocks after the meet.
 Fan
Ye image Tom Ross
Individual All-around:
1. Beth Tweddle (GBR)- 37.100
2. Fan Ye (CHN)- (CHN)- 36.650
3. Imogen Cairns (GBR)- 36.325
4. Samantha Bayley (GBR)- 35.775
5. Melanie Roberts (GBR)- 35.725
6. Guo Li (CHN)- 35.700
The competition continues on Sunday with Apparatus Finals
from 2.00pm at the Park Road Centre,
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