Gymmin' Miel!

The 36th Joaquim Blume Memorial was held in Barcelona, Spain on the 17th of November. Russian Anna Dementyeva and Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine where triumphant in their respective divisions. Dementyeva, who achieved the top scores on the Uneven Bar, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, won the title convincingly over Switzerland's Giulia Steingruber and Spain's own Maria Paula Vargas. German stalwart Oksana Chusovitina finishing fourth in the All Around after scoring the highest mark on the Vault. 

Verniaiev achieved top marks on the Floor Exercise, Pommel Horse and Parallel Bars in order to win the All Around honors over Great Britain's Daniel Purvis and Spain's Fabian Gonzalez. Spaniard Javier Gomez scored the highest on the Still Rings, with Purvis taking the Vault honors whilst American Joshua Dixon took the honors on the Horizontal Bar.

RESULTS:

WOMEN'S ALL AROUND:

MEN'S ALL AROUND:

1. Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) (14.867, 14.933, 13.833, 16.067, 15.900, 14.400) 90.000
2. Daniel Purvis (GBR) (14.367, 14.700, 14.200, 16.100, 14.900, 14.467) 88.734
3. Fabian Gonzalez (ESP) (14.733, 14.333, 13.633, 16.033, 14.467, 12.100) 85.299
4. Nestor Abad (ESP) (14.033, 13.000, 14.433, 15.200, 13.933, 13.067) 83.666
5. Joshua Dixon (USA) (13.933, 11.633, 14.133, 15.667, 13.500, 14.567) 83.433
6. Arnaud Willig (FRA) (13.867, 13.233, 14.300, 15.267, 13.033, 13.300); Nikita Ignatyev (RUS) (14.667, 11.100, 13.633, 15.667, 13.733, 14.200) 83.000
7. 
   
8. Javier Gomez (ESP) (14.633, 13.000, 14.533, 15.300, 13.100, 12.033) 82.599
9. Ruben Lopez (ESP) (13.867, 9.267, 14.200, 15.533, 14.767, 13.400) 81.034

The 36th edition of the Memorial Joaquim Blume is set to take place on the 17th of November at the Center Esportiu Municipal "Olimpics" Vall d'Hebrom in Barcelona, Spain. The actual competition gets underway at 5pm (Local time in Barcelona) and runs until about 8.15pm (Local time) and sees some big name gymnasts take place!

The competition is paying tribute to greats Oksana Chusovitina, Vitaly Scherbo, as well as Spain's own Jesus Carballo and Alvaro Montesinos and Spain's 1992 Olympians:

• MEN'S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: Miguel Angel Rubio; Alfonso Rodriguez de Sadia
• WOMEN'S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS: Eva Rueda; Sonia Fraguas; Cristina Fraguas; Alicia Fernandez; Ruth Rollan; Silvia Martinez

PARTICIPANTS:
WOMEN'S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS:

• Cintia Rodriguez (ESP)
• Maria Paula Vargas (ESP)
• Anna Erika Pakkala (FIN)
• Oksana Chusovitina (GER)
• Elisabeth Seitz (GER)
• Dorina Boczogo (HUN)
• Anna Dementyeva (RUS)
• Giulia Steingruber (SUI)
• Angelina Kysla (UKR)

MEN'S ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS:

• Nestor Abad (ESP)
• Javier Gomez (ESP)
• Fabian Gonzalez (ESP)
• Ruben Lopez (ESP)
• Arnaud Willig (FRA)
• Daniel Purvis (GBR)
• Nikita Ignatyev (RUS)
• Oleg Verniaiev (UKR)
• Joshua Dixon (USA)

The XXXV Joaquin Blume Memorial is over for another year... and I still am amazed at how fast 2010 is going. Pretty soon it'll be the Rotterdam World Championships and yes I am actually waiting for it very muchly! Wow that made absolutely perfect sense. Anyways Spanish woman Ana Maria Izurieta took out the All Around title with a score of 56.250, 1.1 points ahead of Venezuelan Jessica Lopez (55.150) who came second and who I feel is having a fantastic start to the year, with Great Britain's Rebecca Downie rounding out the top three with a total score of 54.800. The top scorers on each event were Ana Maria Izurieta (14.900) on vault and balance beam with a 14.650, Rebecca Downie on uneven bars (14.550) and Diana Chelaru on floor (14.100). For the men Britain's Samuel Hunter took out the all around honours (85.450) from Frenchman Arnaud Willig (84.800) and the Ukraine representative and last year's winner Mykola Kuksenkov (84.450). High scorers on each event were: Samuel Hunter on floor (14.800), pommel horse (14.400); and parallel bars (14.350); Spain's Enrique Navarro on still rings (14.900) and vault (16.350); and Mykola Kuksenkov on horizontal bar with a 14.200.

WOMEN'S ARTISTIC AA:

1. Ana Maria Izurieta (ESP) 56.250
2. Jessica Lopez (VEN) 55.150
3. Rebecca Downie (GBR) 54.800
4. Diana Chelaru (ROU) 54.450
5. Marta Pihan-Kulesza (POL) 52.650
6. Angelina Kysla (UKR) 51.300
7. Jessica Diacci (SUI) 51.100
8. Clara Della Vedova (FRA) 50.700
9. Claudia Vila (ESP) 46.850

MEN'S ARTISTIC AA:

1. Samuel Hunter (GBR) 85.450
2. Arnaud Willig (FRA) 84.800
3. Mykola Kuksenkov (UKR) 84.500
4. Sergio Munoz (ESP) 84.300
5. Roman Manuel Gisi (SUI) 83.000
6. Enrique Navarro (ESP) 82.950
7. Jacob Dalton (USA) 82.500
8. Christos Lympanovnos (GRE) 80.500
9. Paolo Principi (ITA) 78.350