China’s Huang Qiushuang wins DTB Stuttgart World Cup 2011
Gold medalist, Huang Qiushuang is the latest sensation in the news, following the gymnast’s Stuttgart win last weekend.
The Stuttgart World Cup took place from November 12-13 this year in Germany. It is the third of the four World Cups organized under the aegis of the International Federation of Gymnastics every year.
The next and the last World Cup of the year will be held later this month in Tokyo.
Qiushuang started the competition with a somewhat deceptive performance, where she ranked third after the first rotation.
Hereon, she brought out the big guns and scored the highest on all events that followed. She consistently ranked first except for the vault.
Qiushuang took a minute hop at the end of the routine and had slightly bent legs during it, which cost her the first position at the vault.
Giulia Steingruber’s perfect layout Rudi was a more difficult vault than Qiushuang’s and landed her in the first position, while Emily Little’s double-twisting Yurchenko came in second.
The second rotation, uneven bars, instated Qiushuang in the first position, with a score of 15.2. She won the bronze medal for the same in the World Gymnastics Championships Tokyo last month.
Impressing the judges once again Qiushuang, performed seamlessly on the balance beam in the third rotation (tucked front, Korbut, front aerial, back pike, switch leap to back tuck, sheep jump, Onodi, switch ring).
The only flaws were: missing some connections and the long pause she took between her front aerial and her bhs.
She closed her performance with an appealing floor routine. Her beautiful dance routine made up for the relatively weak tumbling (triple twist, double pike out of bounds, 1 ½ to front full, 2 ½ twist), awarding her the spectators’ appreciative gasps along
with the top rank.
With a striking total of 58.032, Qiushuang walked out of the Porsche Arena 15,000 Swiss francs richer. Her win was a comfortable one, whereby the first runner-up, Kim Bui of Germany, had scored 54.732 and the second runner-up, Yulia Inshina scored 54.432.
Qiushuang started training for gymnastics when she was only five years old. Now, at 19 years of age, she has several honours to her claim.
She won the Championships titles in the vault, uneven bars, balance beam, all-round and the team in 2005 and 2006 as a Junior National gymnast.
In national championships of 2008, she secured the gold as part of her team. The following year, she earned more medals in the national championships, in all-round (silver), floor (bronze) and team (bronze).
2010 was a good year for her after sitting out the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships due to an injury. She participated and obtained gold in various competitions, mainly the Asian Games, Pacific Rim Championships and Doha World Cup.
Qiushuang’s remarkable performance in the Stuttgart World Cup is definitely a positive sign for China’s chances in the London Olympics 2012.
Tags: