Gymmin' Miel!

The Fourth edition of the Central South Asian Gymnastics Championships, took place from the 26th to the 28th of December in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Six teams participated in the event, including Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Nepal and Pakistan. The host nation's star Syque Caesar won the first gold medal in Bangladesh's international history. Caesar, who competes for the Michigan Wolverines and who is a Senior this year, won the medal on the Parallel Bars. Indian star Ashish Kumar won four individual gold medals, one individual bronze medal, plus the team medal. Whilst Uzbekistan's Asal Saparbaeva was the top Female gymnast taking three golds. The next edition is to be held in Uzbekistan in December. Unfortunately, I could not find complete results, but this is what I did find courtesy of various news sources. 

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: A Colombian Superstar!

On the Eleventh Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: My Favourite Floor Worker's Return!!

Video courtesy of EdwinTV42. I adore Alicia Sacramone. Always have and always will. Her comeback on Vault and Beam last year was remarkable and when I heard that she was training Floor Exercise once more - I couldn't wait to see its debut. Phenomenal routine and choice of music for Alicia. Shame she got injured before Worlds, but I say bring on the 2012 Olympics!!

On the Tenth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: Aussie's Emily Little!

 On the Ninth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: Hungarian Dorina Boczogo!

On the Eighth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: Puerto Rican Up-And-Comer Paula Andrea Mejias Rodriguez!

On the Seventh Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: A Czech Republic Superstar!!

On the Sixth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: The Pan American Games Floor Champion!

ANA ESTEFANIA LAGO SERNA (MEXICO)

Image courtesy of Getty Images and sourced on News.daylife.com. It's been a busy year for Mexican Ana Estefania Lago Serna. The sixteen-year-old who joined the Senior ranks in 2011 has made quite a splash. Lago was a member of the Mexican teams at the World Championships and the Pan American Games this year - who placed 17th and third respectively. At the Pan American Games, Ana finished 10th in the All Around, scoring 52.450, and finished first on the Floor Exercise with 13.800 - becoming the first Mexican Women to win a gold medal in Artistic Gymnastics at the Pan American Games. In Tokyo for the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in October, Ana came 47th in the All Around scoring 52.732, coming 122nd on the Uneven Bars (11.533), 43rd on the Balance Beam (13.766) and 28th on the Floor Exercise (13.733). And according to the nominative registration for next month's Olympic Test Event, Lago is expected to be competing, alongside veteran Elsa Garcia Rodriguez Blancas. Good luck Ana!! See below for the winning Pan Am Games Floor routine, with thanks to Youtube user ciciginastica! 

On the Fifth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me: Venezuelan Ivet Rojas!

On the Fourth Day of Christmas, Gymnastics Brought to Me:

An Incredible Valeriia Maksiuta!

There is no denying that I am a huge fan of Valeriia Maksiuta! Starting her career in Ukraine, Maksiuta switched to compete for Israel a few years ago (late 2007 if I recall correctly?). And personally, I think she has gone from strength to strength as a result. And 2011 has been a superb year for the 24-year-old. At the conclusion of the Gymnastics season in the Category B World Challenger Cup series she is top of the Vault and Beam World Rankings, tied for 9th on the Uneven Bars and 4th on the Floor Exercise. At the 2011 European Individual Championships, Maksiuta came 22nd in the All Around with a score of 49.575, was 18th on Vault (13.437), 54th on Bars (11.700), 33rd on Balance Beam (12.925) and 21st on Floor (13.200). At the Cottbus Challenger Cup she was 6th on the Beam scoring 13.325. Valeriia then participated in the Ghent World Cup event where she finished 7th on the Beam (13.175) and 2nd on the Vault (14.025). At the Salamun Memorial Maribor Challenger Cup, Maksiuta won the Vault title with an average of 14.125 and came second on the Bars (13.100) and Beam (13.950). At the Osijek World Cup, she also took out the Vault title (average of 14.275) and came third on Beam (13.225) and Floor Exercise (13.500). Valeriia competed at the World Championships in Tokyo as well where she finished 44th in the All Around (52.915), 10th on Vault with an average of 14.016, 121st on the Uneven Bars (11.566), 48th on Beam (13.600) and 37th on Floor Exercise with a 13.583. She has qualified to the Olympic Test Event in London next month and I wish her all the best! Here's hoping she has great success at this event! Image above by Thomas Schreyer on IG see here for related article and video below from Youtube user maksyutka777. 

The 2011 edition of the Voronin Cup begins today with the Men being first up. They will today compete in a team competition/All Around competition/Prelims from 9am to 2.30pm with the Women's Team/All Around/Prelims taking place from 3.30pm to 8pm. Then tomorrow will see those gymnasts who have qualified for Event Finals compete - the Men from 10am to 1pm and then the Women from 2pm-4.30pm. It is set to be an exciting competition for both the Men and Women! Cannot wait to see the results! 

PARTICIPANTS:

SENIOR WOMEN:

JUNIOR WOMEN:

SENIOR MEN:

JUNIOR MEN:

• Aram Movsisyan (ARM)
• Vigen Hachatryan (ARM)
• Vasiliy Mihalitsyn (BLR)
• Frank Baines (GBR)
• Tom Arnon (ISR)
• Yair Shechter (ISR)
• Ahmed Ashraf Abdelaal (EGY)
• Tarek Hamdy Hassan (EGY)
• Alexey Podlinnov (KAZ)
• Brian Wai Kit Fong (CAN)
• Alexandre Bratty (CAN)
• Robert Tvorogal (LTU)
• Tomas Kuzmickas (LTU)
• Ernestas Liaskinas (LTU)
• Yaroslav Pochinka (USA - WOGA)
• Emmanuel Monroy (USA - WOGA)
• Oleg Stepko (UKR)
• Eduard Ermakov (UKR)
• Chiba Kenta (JPN)
• Shirai Kenzo (JPN)
• Sato Takumi (JPN)
• Iwasa Ryo (JPN)
• Horiuchi Shuto (JPN)
• Yuasa Kenya (JPN)
• Vladislav Polyashov (RUS)
• Evgeniy Vasilev (RUS)
• Shamil Gatiyatov (RUS)
• Mansur Zaripov (RUS)
• Igor Lemeshenko (RUS)
• Grigoriy Zyryanov (RUS)
• Andrey Lagutov (RUS)
• Artur Dalaloyan (RUS)
• Sergey Eltsov (Astrakhan)
• Ivan Stretovich (Novosibirsk)
• Vladislav Kozin (St Petersburg)
• Dmitriy Jigalov (St Petersburg)
• Lev Nosov (Dynamo-Moscow)
• Dmitriy Radionov (Rostov-on-Don)
• Konstantin Babenko (Rostov-on-Don)
• Alexandr Sychugov (Dynamo-Moscow)

Stay tuned for a roundup of the results from the Artistic Gymnastics at the 2011 Arab Games in an upcoming post. The gymnastics portion of the competition was held at the Aspire Academy Dome in Doha, Qatar and took place from the 10th to the 14th of December. Thanks to Getty Images and news.daylife.com below are a selection of images from the event. General observation from the images below: Egypt's leotard choices absolutely rock!

Egyptians Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed.

Qatar's Shaden Wohdan (Image from Reuters Pictures). She's grown up so much since I last saw photos of Shaden!

Tunisian Feten Aouadi. Oh wow, it's a different kind of colouring that I have seen, whether I like it or not it remains to be seen. 

Egyptian Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed (Reuters Pictures) during the Uneven Bars Final.

Algerian Lahna Salem. Very patriotic leotard from Algeria!

Salma Mahmoud El Said Mohamed (EGY) from Reuters Pictures

Home town favourite Shaden Wohdan (Reuters Pictures) from AA Final. I quite like this leotard!

Egyptian Aya Mahgoub (Reuters Pictures) from Uneven Bars final.

UPDATED:
Aljazy Al-Habshi from Qatar. (AFP/Getty Images)

Egyptian Aya Mahgoub (AFP/Getty Images)