Glasgow Grand Prix - The last World Cup of the old Circuit

* F I N A L S  (* Source: British Gymnastics)
Louis Smith fresh from his recent World Championships Silver medal once again produced the goods to take the Pommel Horse Gold medal scoring 15.550 ahead of great rival Kristian Berki in second 15.300.
Theo Seager, the powerhouse of the Men’s Team took the Vault Silver behind Chile's Gonzalez, Theo scored 15.875 on Vault and also made the Rings Final.

Louis said: “I'm really pleased with my routine today and the Gold medal against a truly World class field in Glasgow including the two former World Champions. This year I've achieved everything I set out to do and next year I will be unleashing a bit more difficulty and continue to progress towards my goals at London 2012.”

Imogen Cairns, Commonwealth Vault Champion and recent World finalist took the Silver on “her” piece, with 13.875.

Hannah Whelan, 2010 British Champion took Australian Lauren Mitchell on in the Beam competition and came a very close second with 14.500 behind Laurens 14.675.

Jenni Pinches then took her first ever Grand Prix medal with the Bronze on Floor scoring 14.150.

Daniel Purvis failed to medal but produced solid routines in his 3 Finals, whilst debutant Ashley Watson competed in the High Bar Final.

Overall, Australian Lauren Mitchell was the star performer in the Women's events, taking the Beam and Floor titles along with the Asymmetric Bars Bronze, Lauren said: "It's been an amazing few months, not only for me but for the whole Australian Team. The Commonwealth Games was a great chance for us all to compete in a big event and get experience ahead of the World Championships, which were the big aim for the whole Team. To qualify for the next step of the Olympic Qualifications was key so we were really happy with that and then of course for me to win the Floor title was just the icing on the cake - the day just went perfectly for me and I was amazed to get the title! From there I've been really hectic traveling to lots of events, which have given me great experience. Here in Glasgow I've been really happy with my performance and the two titles as the equipment wasn’t what I was used too so it show that I can adapt and work in a range of environments which is important and shows I'm developing."

The Men’s events were more evenly split with apparatus specialist battling it out on each separate piece.

WOMEN's Reports-

WOMENS VAULT
With Yurchenko 1 1/2 twist and Yurchenko half on piked front off Imogen vaulted to a Silver medal, 13.875. Jennifer Pinches scored 13.337 with the Gold medal won by  Ekaterina Kurbatova of Russia, certainly the most accurate vaulter with Yurchenko
1 1/2 and Yurchenko half on piked front half off, 13.912.

ASYMMETRIC BARS
Liufang Wu of China confirmed her qualifications dominance of the Bars with 6.1 difficulty and 14.75 to take Gold. Jessica Lopez, 13.8  and 13.725 for Lauren Mitchell of Australia were a league behind in difficulty and precision.

BEAM
Lauren Mitchell of Australia found herself in a real battle with Britain’s Hannah Whelan with just 0.175 sending the Gold “down-under”. A great result for Hannah establishing her as a competitor on the World stage.

WOMENS FLOOR
2 British gymnasts in such a quality final was a great inspiration for the audience. Jennifer Pinches held the Bronze medal with 14.15 as World champion Lauren Mitchell made a positive Gold performance. Hannah Whelan finished 5th.

MENS FLOOR
As World Floor Champion Eletherios Kosmidis of Greece bombed, out Alexander Shatilov of Israel won the days first Gold medal with 15.375. For Dan Purvis of Great Britain 14.925 for 5th, not as precise as he can be.  

POMMELS
Head to head once again, World Champion Kristian Berki and Louis Smith. Extreme elegance versus extreme difficulty.
For Louis 100% improved form to convince the judges that his outrageous difficulty takes full credit. 15.55 was an awesome target that no other could match. Berki straddled his Wu and 15.3 scored for Silver. An interesting Bronze went to Saso Bertoncelj of Slovenia who just may be the heir apparent to Smith and Berki.

RINGS
Alexsander Balandin was the most convincing in shapes and holds, a pencil thin Maltese with 15.825. He was separated from Junlin Liao’s 15.825 by the complex countback rules using the E jury scores. Theo Seager, 13.7 for 8th; Rings is a very exclusive club.

MENS VAULT
Gold for Gonzales of Chile, he took a big risk with double piked Tsukahara and it was a good decision. For Theo Seager a hard won Silver with Roche and 2 1/2 twist for 15.75. Theo has the tenacity and single-mindedness to keep firing on all cylinders even when there is no petrol in the tank; born to succeed.

PARALLEL BARS
Mitja Petkovsek of Slovenia knocked Dan Purvis off the podium with the last routine of this final. His clarity of technique and elegance were outstanding.

HIGH BAR
Gold to Manjo Moznik of Croatia, whilst the youngest of British stars Ashley Watson enjoyed his first Grand Prix Final.

World Cup winners-
As the final event of the 2010 Grand Prix series the World Cup winners for the year were also announced-

Men’s Floor – Eletherios Kosmidis (GRE)
Pommel – Krisztian Berki (HUN)
Rings – Alexandr Baldandin (RUS)
Men’s Vault – Jeffery Wammes (NED)
Parallel Bars – Mitja Petkovsek (SLO)
High Bar – Mariji Moznik (SLO)

Women’s Vault – Tijana Tkalcec (CRO)
Bars – Liufang Wu (CHN)
Beam - Liufang Wu (CHN)
Floor – Jessica Lopez (VEN)

* Q u a l i f i c a t i o n   R o u n d s
... British Hosts:
Daniel Purvis, undoubtedly one of the stars of the British Team throughout 2010, continued his fine form by finishing 4th on Floor (15.150) – the apparatus he is World and European Bronze medallist on; 6th on Pommel (14.225) and 4th on Parallel Bars (14.850).

Theo Seager was delighted to make two Finals, finishing in 3rd on Vault, 15.475 and 8th on Rings, 14.775:  “ I’m really happy with today’s performance. I think I was a bit unlucky to not make the Floor Final, but Vault went to plan, and then Ring I'm delighted with, as it’s a brand new routine that I've performed for the first time. British Gymnasts are once again proving themselves here against some of the worlds best gymnasts in Glasgow, like we have been doing all year.”

Ashley Watson, making his Grand Prix debut produced a superb performance to make the High Bar Final finishing in 4th in qualification with a score of 14.550.

Imogen Cairns was 2nd on Vault (13.687), so will be confident of medalling tomorrow in the event she is Commonwealth Champion at.

Jenni Pinches, finished 8th on Vault and so makes the Final (13.400) and will also compete in the Floor Final where her score was 14.075.

British Champion, Hannah Whelan comfortably made it into the Beam (14.450) and Floor (14.300) Final in 2nd place: “I’m really happy with today, 2 routine and 2 finals, so I've done what I came here to do. It will be tough tomorrow, especially against World champion Lauren Mitchell on the floor but I'm hopeful of medals, everyone in the British Team is in really high spirits.”

International highlights
MEN
The new World Champion on Floor Eleftherios Kosmidis (GRE) was once again the best on "his" apparatus (15.275)

Kristian Berki (HUN) set the ultimate challenge on the opening piece, the Pommel Horse with a 6.4 difficulty with 15.45 pts; a superb first half routine that pushed the boundary of perfection.

Jeffrey Wammes (NED) produced some great Floor tumbling (double Arabian piked), had a very successful day and will compete in three Finals tomorrow (Floor, Vault and High Bar, where he scored highest, 14.875pts.)

On Rings Junlin Liao (CHN), was accurate, positive and difficult (15.850 - top score in the Qualifications), whilst, Georgallas (CYP), textbook strength holds but a rough back giant (14.475, and tenth place on Friday, missing tomorrow's Final).

Mitja Petkovsek (SLO) was superb on P.Bars, fantastic single bar work - front straddle, double pike dismount, and 15.375- leading the field on this apparatus.

But the best was saved for Jayd Lukenshuk, of Canada, who won ‘moment of the day’, caught his Kovacs hanging on his WRIST BANDS and completed a giant before sorting it out (14.500 and eight place in the Qualifications).