An Episode of The Twilight Zone or Worlds Qualifications?

The drama that were the Worlds qualifications are over and it was much like an episode of the Twilight Zone. Judges overscoring, underscoring, falls, you name it!

The craziness!

The craziness started when Sanne Wevers (my new favorite beam worker) fell off the beam. She fell off on an element she does beautifully, her full twisting back handspring mount and then touched the beam after a triple turn on beam. It's perplexing and I kept wondering if someone put Vaseline on her feet before she went up because she is one of few gymnasts who can complete those difficult turns with ease. To make matters worse, she went overtime and it killed her score. After Sanne, several gymnasts in that rotation went overtime or fell off the beam. A domino effect of sorts.

McKayla Maroney was a victim of the two per country rule as she was edged out of the floor finals by an overtime on floor exercise and some questionable judging. Watching the routine, the music continued right through the buzzer to tell her to finish up in 10 seconds. It's hard to hear over the music. The judges somehow did not find it in their cold hearts to qualify her for the final. She placed behind Kyla in seventh place. Kyla had a lower D-score but higher execution. I like Kyla's floor, but I would rather have seen McKayla in floor finals.Simone Biles qualified in first place and had only one tenth higher execution than McKayla.

Speaking of Simone, the girl qualified to every single final. I'm not even kidding. How is that for a freaking unicorn? She started off on bars, definitely not her best event. But she always manages nice swing and good height and amplitude on her releases and she clearly works hard at keeping her legs tight and trying to hit her handstands. Her biggest issue was a small overarch of her back on the high bar. On beam, she had a wobble after her pike jump and had a couple more wobbles but managed to keep it together. Did not expect her to make bar finals, but looking at the scores, she had the best execution score of 8.8, which is what got her into the finals. She qualified second for vault behind McKayla, but somehow got a better execution score? They both took a huge step forward on both their vaults and it looks like McKayla landed a little towards the side on her first one. Should Simone have gotten a better execution score? Questionable.

Yao Jinnan. I'm disappointed in you. You did not do your Mo salto for qualifying! Unacceptable, but whatever, it was qualifications and you did have the highest score even if you were underscored on your execution.

Oh, dear, dear little Aliya Mustafina. She had a rough day. She started on beam and had a pretty big wobble, but managed to stay on, but she looked really nervous the rest of the routine but managed to finish okay. On floor, she had the exact opposite problem she had during University Games finals. Instead of falling on her butt on her last pass, she did it on her double arabian to stag jump opening pass. Needless to say, she didn't do that stag jump out of it. Her twisting form is still perplexing because she always holds one leg straight while she crosses the other one. Her bars was beautiful, a little on the safe side, looks like she took some connections out and then switched out her Mustafina dismount for a double double back tuck. Vault for dear Musty? Let's just say there was the mat and her butt and they came into contact.

Elsewhere, Larisa Iordache had a good day on the floor and beam. She beat Shang Chunsong for the top spot in the beam finals and she looks like she's very happy. Might I also say, she looks great in blue. She looked so cute and she smiled the whole time on floor. She just looks like she's having a great day.

Mai Murakami's floor routine. Love it! It's totally crazy and weird and just awesome. I really hope to see her on the medal podium perhaps?

Victoria Moors landed her double double layout on her feet.

Oh Chuso... you are my over 30 idol and you qualified for vault finals.

Hong Un Jong's beautiful Amanar.

That's all for now.

All Around Finalists:

1	BILES Simone	USA	60.133
2	ROSS Kyla	USA	59.198
3	YAO Jinnan	CHN	57.965
4	IORDACHE Larisa Andreea	ROU	57.865
5	MUSTAFINA Aliya	RUS	57.165
6	SHANG Chunsong	CHN	56.998
7	FERRARI Vanessa	ITA	56.915
8	STEINGRUBER Giulia	SUI	56.465
9	BLACK Elsabeth	CAN	55.465
10	POPA NEDELCU Roxan	ESP	55.332
11	LOPEZ AROCHA Jessica Brizeida	VEN	55.065
12	van KLAVEREN Noel	NED	54.999
13	FERLITO Carlotta	ITA	54.948
14	MOORS Victoria	CAN	54.798
15	RODIONOVA Anna	RUS	54.599
16	HARROLD Ruby	GBR	54.232
17	SASADA Natsumi	JPN	54.166
18	TUNNEY Rebecca	GBR	54.132
29	MAKRA Noemi	HUN	53.906
20	MYS Gaelle	BEL	53.665
21	WAEM Laura	BEL	53.632
22	SEITZ Elisabeth	GER	53.532
23	TERAMOTO Asuka	JPN	53.182
24	KAESLIN, I	SUI	53.131

Vault Finalists

1. McKayla Maroney, USA, 15.641
2. Simone Biles, USA, 15.550
3. Hong Un Jong, North Korea, 15.249
4. Phan Thi Thanh, Vietnam, 14.966
5. Giulia Steingruber, Switzerland, 14.799
6. Oksana Chusovitina, Uzbekistan, 14.750
7. Yamilet Peña, Dominican Republic, 14.683
8. Chantysha Netteb, Netherlands, 14.516

Uneven Bars Finalists

1. Yao Jinnan, China, 15.433 (6.7 D)
2. Kyla Ross, USA, 15.133 (6.4 D)
3. Huang Huidan, China, 15.133 (6.6 D)
4. Rebecca Downie, Great Britain, 15.100 (6.6 D)
5. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 14.900 (6.2 D)
6. Simone Biles, USA, 14.800 (6.0 D)
7. Ruby Harrold, Great Britain, 14.600 (6.3 D)
8. Sophie Scheder, Germany, 14.566 (6.4 D)

Balance Beam Finalists:

1. Larisa Iordache, Romania, 15.266 (6.4 D)
2. Shang Chunsong, China, 14.866 (6.1 D)
3. Kyla Ross, USA, 14.566 (5.9 D)
4. Anna Rodionova, Russia, 14.466 (5.9 D)
5. Simone Biles, USA, 14.400 (6.1 D)
6. Vanessa Ferrari, Italy, 14.216 (5.7 D)
7. Carlotta Ferlito, Italy, 14.216 (6.2 D)
8. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 14.133 (6.0 D)

Floor Exercise Finalists:

1. Simone Biles, USA, 15.033 (6.5 D)
2. Sandra Izbasa, Romania, 14.733 (6.2 D)
3. Larisa Iordache, Romania, 14.500 (6.1 D)
4. Vanessa Ferrari, Italy, 14.500 (6.3 D)
5. Mai Murakami, Japan, 14.466 (6.3 D)
6. Kyla Ross, USA, 14.333 (5.7 D)
[7. McKayla Maroney, USA, 14.333 (6.1 D)]
8. Giulia Steingruber, Switzerland, 14.033 (6.1 D