Lu Yufei (Henan, China) shocked many gymnastics fans after winning the 2021 Chinese all-around title, upsetting favorites including returning stars Li Shijia, Tang Xijing, and Liu Tingting along with newcomers like Ou Yushan and Guan Chenchen. Lu accomplished this through her fantastically clean execution and an amazing, polished beam set filled with difficulty. Ultimately, it was her consistency that put her on the top spot -- she did her job and did it superbly, even when other competitors faltered. These results are definitely shaking up team predictions for the Tokyo 2020/Tokyo 2021 Olympics, given that not many considered her to be a frontrunner for a spot at the games. Congratulations to Lu Yufei on winning a Chinese all-around title and putting herself further into Olympic contention!
Unfortunately, I couldn't find super good records of the scores, so I wasn't exactly sure how each routine actually scored regarding difficulty and execution. I was quite surprised by her floor score -- she performed a very strong exercise, but I felt that the score she received (14.133!) was a bit too high. I initially had her at around 13.700, but for the sake of matching the scoring "mood" of the competition (which was much more lenient than normal), I took off a few deductions for excessive preparation on each individual element and "bundled" them into one artistry deduction :). I know that China sometimes does internal bonus programs, where they give bonus tenths out to reward certain skills or parts of a performance, and I'm unsure if that happened at this competition.
The score that she received in competition, 57.765, would be extremely competitive internationally. For comparison, Viktoria Listunova became European champion with 56.731 (I made a video calculating her score!) and Jordan Chiles won Winter Cup with 57.050.
Notes:
- I'm not totally sure if she was off center on the vault; it was a bit difficult for me to tell. I thought that she was and took off 0.1, but if you're judging yourself, you should form your own opinion.
- On balance beam, I deducted 0.1 on her Front Aerial (D) + Split Jump (B) for a slow connection. I forgot to indicate this on the video, so you'll see the deductions number go up to 0.8 randomly -- it is correct; don't worry! You can see on the timer that she finishes at 1:37, so she lost a tenth for finishing too late. I think it was smart of her to not worry about the timer and focus on the skills, because it definitely saved her points in the end.
- On floor exercise, I initially deducted two tenths from her Gomez (E) -- one of precision and one for lack of control -- but I decided to go with one, just precision. It was a very well done turn, especially given how difficult it was, and I was happy to hear that the audience/other gymnasts seemed to recognize it :).
- I initially deducted 0.1 for excessive preparation on her Memmel (D) and Back 2.5 Twist (D) + Front Pike (A), but I took those off and gave one artistry deduction for flow/fluidity instead. Otherwise, I'd say her Memmel was practically perfect -- precise with textbook form.
- I deducted 0.1 form on both of her ring leaps on floor exercise because it looked like the back foot didn't exceed the crown of the head height? It wasn't a great angle. This could explain the discrepancy between my score and that awarded in competition.
- I counted the movement right before her end pose on floor as a piece of complex choreography. I also counted her beam mount and the following movements as complex choreography for beam, although that's much more dubious -- would you deduct for lack of complex choreography on beam?
I'm not an expert judge and gymnastics can be very subjective -- if you have questions, please feel free to ask, and if you have other ideas, please feel free to comment below! Lu is doing very difficult skills at a world class level, and this video is not intended to diminish her accomplishments but only to help viewers understand how she was successful at the championships by explaining the scoring.
Actual scores earned by Lu Yufei (CHN) at the 2021 Chinese National Gymnastics Championships in Chengdu, Sichuan, China:
Vault: 13.533
Uneven Bars: 14.633
Balance Beam: 14.466
Floor Exercise: 14.133
Total score: 56.765, 1st place, 2021 Chinese National Champion in Women's Artistic Gymnastics
Timestamps:
0:00 Vault (with slow motion replay)
0:31 Uneven bars
1:26 Balance beam
3:22 Floor exercise
5:15 Total score and end screen
I do not own this footage. Footage was found on RU-vid channel HongKong Gymnastics, which has many more videos from these championships -- check them out to see other routines and competitors! These videos are all being used legally as they are educational by nature and therefore qualify under fair use.
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8 май 2021
