Women’s Competition
EVEN though it was a field of eight, the women’s competition was really just a two- gymnast battle. Current world all-around
champion Aliya Mustafina of Russia was the
favorite, but Wieber had beaten a soon-to-be world
champion in 2009, when she won the Cup over
Bridget Sloan. Could she do it again?
Ariella Käslin (Switzerland) started the women off
on vault with a layout rudi (low landing, 14. 8).
Alexandra Raisman (USA) performed a nice double-twisting Yurchenko, as did China’s Huang
Qiushuang.
Three gymnasts—Lauren Mitchell (Australia),
Jessica Lopez (Venezuela) and Hannah Whelan
(Great Britain)—vaulted Yurchenko-fulls with varying degrees of success. But to compete at this level
of competition, such a relatively simple vault should
be performed as well as it was two decades ago.
Wieber and Mustafina both vaulted a 21⁄2-twisting
Yurchenko. The Russian’s attempt earned a
15.566 in spite of obvious form issues (bent legs,
crossed feet, low landing), while Wieber seemed to
have mastered this difficult vault (straight legs, solid
landing). Wieber found herself in first, with 15.833.
American Alexandra Raisman (right), China’s Huang
Qiushuang (top) and Switzerland’s Ariella Käslin
(above) finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Huang had a chance to finish in the top three
until she bombed balance beam ( 6.733 E-score).
