leg on the tuck). And 2010 world floor champion
Lauren Mitchell was not 100 percent.
“[The meet] served the purpose that we needed
it to,” Australian national coach Peggy Liddick told
IG. “With Lauren, it’s just getting her back, fitness-
wise (torn shoulder ligament). It’s pretty much offi-
cial that she will not do bars at the Olympics.”
For the U.S., uneven bars remains an official
question mark, which is why for the second time in
March (see American Cup on p. 17), Douglas found
herself in the spotlight. In the team event, she
crashed her planned Amanar (she did a double)
when her left hand missed the table, a mistake that
tweaked her left ankle. After swinging a brilliant
new routine on bars that scored a meet-high 15. 50,
Douglas dissolved on beam when her right foot
slipped on a front salto, and she also fell on a
switch-ring leap. She was scratched from floor to
stop the damage, both physically and mentally.
“During vault I rushed myself and missed the
horse and kind of messed up my ankle, and kind of
was struggling on beam a bit,” said a frustrated
Douglas, who would probably be sleepless near
Seattle until event finals. “I’ll take this as a great
[learning] experience.”
If Douglas, who had outscored Wieber at the
American Cup as an exhibition performer, had lost
her mojo in Everett, Wieber looked exceptional.
Her Amanar was the best of the team (tiny hop),
Japan went 1-2 in the junior men’s all-around
with Kaito Imabayashi (top right) and Koji
Nonomura (top left), respectively. Wu
Guanhua of China (top center inset) was
fourth and won rings, and Russia’s Grigori
Zirianov (right inset) placed fifth.
and her bars routine was perhaps her best ever in
competition. But it was on beam—where she link a
front handspring, tucked standing full and a flip-flop; and a side aerial and side somi in opposite
directions—where she really shone ( 15.70/9.3 E-score). Wieber’s lowest score came on floor (stuck
double-double), where her biggest error was small (a
delay between her triple twist and stag jump).
Whereas two weeks earlier Wieber had looked vulnerable to the likes of Douglas, in Everett she
appeared untouchable.
“I was pretty happy with my performance at
American Cup, and I wasn’t expecting to be in tip-
top shape at that competition,” she said. “But there
were still a few places I wanted to improve upon,
and I feel like I did that here.” Wieber was most
pleased with her beam routine, “because I connect-
ed all of my new combinations, so that was pretty
big for me.”
John Geddert, Wieber’s long-time coach, was
pleased as well. “Looks like she’s back on track,” he
said. “Right where we want her to be. And that’s
one of her highest all-around scores, so we’re pret-
ty happy with the performance and we’ll build on
that the next couple of months.”
Ohashi, Lexie Priessman and Amelia Hundley
led a U.S. sweep of the junior all-around, but
because of the two-per-country rule, Hundley was
replaced by fourth-ranked Sakura Yumoto of Japan
for the all-around bronze. Maria Kharenkova, who
showed perhaps the most potential of the Russian
team (beautiful lines), finished fourth, ahead of
teammate Yekaterina Baturina.
China was led by the relatively unknown Luo
Peiru, who smiled through her floor set and scored
her highest on beam ( 14. 50). 2011 world team
member Tan Sixin tied for seventh but looked
slightly out of shape. She vaulted a Yurchenko-full
but fell apart on her difficult bars routine (missed
low bar handstand pirouette), where her D- and E-
scores were almost equal: 6. 7, 6.75.
