Some awesome floor routines from the men’s European Championships that just completed!

Matthias Fahrig Floor 2010 Europeans Event Finals

He won floor here with a 15.65.  I can’t believe how easy he makes that tumbling look – especially the first pass of front double full immediate double front…STUCK!  How is that even possible?  I did notice some knee bends, especially on the second pass (piked double Arabian half out), and side pas (back 2 ½ to front full), but they did take over a point in deductions (D-Score 6.7).  Awesome routine.

Eleftherios Kosmidis Floor 2010 Europeans Event Finals

LOVE THAT ROUTINE!  How IN THE WORLD did he lose 1.3 in execution??!!  The guy stuck every pass except the dismount!  He scored a 15.4 with a 6.7 D-Score and ended up 2nd, and he clearly had fewer deductions that Fahrig.  I also CAN’T believe how many guys do laid-out double-doubles nowadays.  It used to be that only a couple of gymnasts in the world could do that pass, and now it’s become commonplace…and very often stuck cold.  I’d be willing to bet there are more guys doing laid out double-doubles than there are females doing just DOUBLE LAYOUTS.  The rest of this routine is super clean too – love the 1 ½ to front full twisting 1 ¾, as well as the double Arabian half out dismount.

Marcel Nguyen Floor 2010 Europeans Event Finals

Yet another laid out double-double…stuck!  Interestingly, even with his big break on the 2 ½ to barani, slight form breaks on the whip to Arabian 1 ¾, and a couple other landing deductions, they took less off for him than they did for Kosmidis.  Nguyen scored a 15.25 out of a 6.5 D-Score, which is 1.25 in deductions.  I still really like this routine, but sometimes I wonder if the judges are actually looking at their scores at the end to see if they make sense.

Samuel Purvis Floor 2010 Europeans Event Finals

AWESOME stuff again!  He definitely has a certain elegance about him – good presentation and clean tumbling and landings.  He tied for third with a 15.25 also…6.4 D-Score and 8.85 in execution!  So obviously they are being very tough on everyone, but I still wish I could understand where they are taking these deductions.  I just watched this routine again and found about FOUR TENTHS to take off!!!  One of my favorite parts of his routine was simply the way he kept his legs straight while rolling out of the laid-out Thomas…made it look really cool.

Flavius Koczi Floor 2010 Europeans Team Finals

This was from the team finals, as I didn’t have his event final routine (placed 6th in the finals), but it’s always worth watching that 3 ½ twist to barani!  Do you notice how out of line his head is when he twists???  It’s strange to have to criticize one of the best twisters in the world, but his twisting skills actually aren’t very pretty to watch, and I think it’s because of his head.  Watch especially on his 2 ½ to rudi because we can see it from the side…his head his all over the place!

We’ll look at lots more routines from the men’s competition over the next couple of days!