Gummy Bears and Gymnastics: Vault Finals - Pan American Games

Like in Tokyo the vault of finals here at Pan Ams will be a diversified final with some interesting new faces and powerful vaulters.

1. Brandie Jay from the USA qualified first for this final with two clean vaults. She could improve by landing her DTY with her chest higher so she does not look bent down, sticking it would not hurt her either. She needs to put her feet down more aggressively instead of letting the floor hit her. Her second (half on full off) was better with the chest but the landing was not very controlled. In qualifying she had a average of 14.687, 0.3 ahead of the second qualifier, so if she lands on her feet I think a medal is guaranteed. All the best to her in the final.

2. Catalina Escobar of Colombia qualified second with 14.312. I did not see her vaults on terra.com feed and did not find any video of them. I did find a video of her doing vault back in 2008 in Glasgow, and although her run was very strong, the vaults were not very clean. However much can have changed since then and she clearly had two good vaults in qualification, so I will keep my eyes on the final. I have already learned about one great gymnasts I had been overlooking in this competition, so finding another would be even better.

3. Yamilet Pena Abreu: at Worlds Abreu unfortunately could not land her very difficult handspring double front to her feet, but she did make it (although with a not so great landing) in the AA competition here. On qualifications she, wisely, went with a easier vault and her usual 1.5 Y for a solid 14.087. The question is what she will compete in this final, she can go with her easier vault and with better landings on both attempts she can guarantee herself a medal, but if she goes for the more difficult vault and makes it, she is undoubtedly going to take the gold. I am hoping her and her coach reflect about this decision because although I was very impressed with her for going for the Produnova in Tokyo, the landing in EF was a little scary, so maybe steady will be a better option for her at this point. She can go back home and work more on this vault to present it next year and attempt a wild card spot in the London Olympics. A gold medal here however would increase significantly her chances to be at the Olympics, so it is a complex situation.

4. Elsa Garcia will again have the support of the audience. In the qualifying she did a 1.5 Y and round off half on double pike front off for a 14.0 average. Her landings, especially in the first vault were out of control, and as such with some clean work she can move up. Otherwise she is tidy and stylish. A medal here would help improve her competition. After some disappointments here in Guadalajara she could use some good performances in the EF. Jessica Gil from Colombia also averaged a 14.0 so she is also in the hunting.

6. Brazil did not have a good team competition, but even without their star Barbosa, they still managed to get two gymnasts into this final: Adrian Gomes and Daniele Hypolito. However, since they are in 6th and 7th, they will need some people to make mistakes to get on the podium. Besides a higher chest on the second vault and stuck landings, I really do not see much space for Gomes to improve her vaults, she is doing them as well as she can.

Hypolito finished 0.075 behind Gomes at 13.850. Her 1.5 Y had a big step in the landing and she landed the second vault very low and with a very big step to the side, so she can move up if she does these routines much cleaner. Nevertheless, the Brazilians have looked exhausted and demoralized in this competition and I don't know if these girls have it in them. I wish them both luck and I am rooting for them to do well.