A well planned and efficiently run judges meeting prior to the first competition (chaired by the very able and friendly) eff Cheales of Australia) actually set the tone for the entire competition. During this meeting, a special session was held to point out the original moves we could expect to see in the meet. Those moves were: Floor: Double front salto, Thomas Flair with turn ( I think it went counterclockwise), back salto with double twist to immediate punch front 1 Y2 side salto to dive roll. Pommel: It was pointed out that the combinations were so complex as to define description and that the judges were on their own. Rings: Brani out fliffis dismount. Vault: handspring 1 Y2 with 1 Y2 twist. Parallel Bars: giant with 1/2 turn, Voronin hop(?). High Bar: one arm giant to release and regrasp. I was also impressed with a Takemoto with 1/2 twist to handstand on top of the high bar (performer came out to the absolute vertical position after 1/ 2 turn), and with a parallel bar sequence of - peach to handstand on end of the bars, to stutz to handstand again still on the end of the bars, to immediate giant to handstand to the middle of the bars, to front uprise. On the pommel horse the Chinese did exceptional good double leg work, high amplitude and extended with excellent difficulty and one of the Japanese did several triple fly-a-ways from the high bar, both in practice and in the competition, that were absolutely excellent with no lack of control whatsoever. Unfortunately, during the first session it quickly became obvious that most of the gymnasts were not in top competitive form. They did put on a fine show but some were very rough in spots and apparently left out some difficulty. Byng of Australia was short a B part in FX and Matt Arnot may have been caught leaving out a B part in FX. Two or three of the AA performers did look very good though. The second night the men performed on V-PB-HB and the women finished up with BB and FX. I was on vault this session with a very gracious gentleman by the name of Trevor Creagh, from New Zealand, and the superior judge. I got the impression Trevor was New Zealand's Glenn Sundby (Editor, publisher, etc).
Once again the judging was amazingly good. The only problem w ith the judging in my opinion, was that the scores were 8.5 to 9.4 and should have been 7.5 to 9.4 but the best scores went to the best performers and that in itself made this meet an historic event. The Hong Kong team, competing for the first time in an international meet, was understandably weak but hung in there and showed a lot of class under difficult circumstances. Ability wise the Hong Kong team would not have qualified as an AllAmerican high school team in the States. The Australian team looked quite good but the Japanese gymnasts made several major errors w hich they seem prone to do recently. The U.S. men 's team did a marvelous job considering the time of the year for them. Brian Meeker was injured in the last event of this meet and in the second meet he was only able to compete in PH-SR-PB so a third place finish by the men there was fantastic . A major problem, in this session (and the next meet ), from my point of view was the rudolph-out vault that one of the Chinese did. It was actually more like a Cuervo into a back with a full twist and performed with the worst p ossible form. What does one do wi th a skill performed for the first time with poor form7 We all gave a 9.8 but I felt uncomfortable about it. Not unlike when the Cuban years ago did handspring double-front and landed in a deep squat or even on his butt as first reported by Ken Allen. Ken, I remember, felt the same concerns I have just expressed but suggested that a great deal of latitude could be given on a new move. Pacific Cup: In Canberra, the National Capitd, the competition was all in one night (see results ) . .. six men 's events and four women 's events at the same time and it ran beautifully. On the floor exercise, the men and women simply alternated performers and the event did not even hold up the other events. In this competition I again served as superior judge on FX and almost every gymnast did a better job that in the previous competition. jerry Wright
PACIFIC CUP CHAMPIONSHIPS SEPTEMBER 20, 1982 CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA Lou Yun Toshiya Muramatsu Huang Wo Fu Toshiro Kanai Fu Luming Tiachi Okada Matt Arnot Tom Kennedy Roy Palassou Chunichi Matsumoto Frank Nutzenberger Danny Gaudet Gennady Gleyberman Marshall Gartield Warmer Birnbaum Ken Meredith Shay Byng Yves Dion Robin Hutchins Mark Jujnovich Geoffrey McNaughton Paul Van Saarloos Kuang Xianyao Ming Seto Hing Choi Ma Sai King Yip Brian Meeker
TEAM PRC JAP PRC JAP PRC JAP USA USA USA JAP CAN CAN AUS CAN AUS AUS AUS CAN NZL NZL NZL NZL PRC HKG HKG HKG USA
FX 9.80 9.60 9.50 9.15 9.30 9.25 9.45 9.40 9.50 9.15 9.10 9.25 9.20 9.15 9.20 9.05 8.15 9.15 8.75 8.30 8.50 8.65 1.50 8.55 8.05 7.45 0.00
PH 9.40 9.45 9.00 9.70 8.75 8.85 9.50 9.35 9.65 9.15 9.05 8.55 9.00 9.10 9.10 8.70 8.15 8.00 7.10 7.70 7.40 6.70 9.80 6.75 7.25 4.50 9.50
R 9.50 9.35 9.45 9.40 9.55 9.45 9.30 9.35 9.25 9.20 9.25 9.25 9.00 8.75 9.15 9.15 9.05 9.05 8.55 8.40 8.30 8.50 9.35 7.30 6.60 5.70 0.00
v 9.80 9.55 9.65 9.60 9.50 9.50 9.20 9.20 9.05 9.50 9.35 9.30 9.60 9.35 9.25 9.55 9.45 9.20 9.20 8.95 8.95 9.30 9.35 8.65 8.20 8.30 0.00
PB 9.40 9.50 9.45 9.40 9.35 9.50 9.30 9.15 8.75 9.20 8.80 9.35 8.90 8.75 8.55 8.50 8.30 8.35 8.50 8.30 7.90 8.25 9.15 7.65 7.40 6.00 8.70
HB 9.10 9.55 9.65 9.35 9.60 9.45 9.20 9.35 9.40 9.40 9.30 9.10 9.00 9.20 8.95 9.00 9.50 8.35 8.55 8.90 8.40 6.70 8.50 6.50 5.55 5.70 0.00
TOTAL 57 .00 57 .00 56.70 56.60 56.05 56.00 55.95 55.80 55.60 55.60 54 .85 54 .80 54 .70 54 .30 54 .20 53.95 52 .60 52 .10 50.95 50.55 49.45 48 .10 47 .65 45.40 43 .05 37 .65 18.20
1 1 3 4 5 6 7 B 9 9 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
TEAM RESULTS TEAM PRC JAP USA CAN AUS NZL HKG
44
FX 28.60 28.00 28.35 27.55 27 .45 25 .90 24.05
PH 28.20 28 .30 28.65 26.70 26.80 22 .20 18.50
R 28.50 28.20 27.90 27 .55 27 .35 25.45 19.60
v 28 .95 28.65 27.45 28 .00 28 .60 27.45 25 .15
PB 28.20 28.40 27 .20 26 .90 25 .95 25 .05 21.05
HB 28 .35 28.40 27.95 27.60 27.50 26.15 17.75
TOTAL 170.80 169.95 167.50 164.30 163.65 152.20 126.10
USGF GYMNASTICS NOV./DEC. '82