Zanetti 4th at the Still Rings, Sasaki 19th at the all-around

Great news for gymnast Arthur Zanetti. He finished fourth at the Still Rings, tied with renowned Stanescu from Romania. Way to go, Arthur! Sergio Sasaki also had a great meet and finished 19th at the all-around, the best position a brazilian male gymnast has achieved at the Worlds.

In sad news, at the women's competition, gymnast Jessica Gil from fellow neighbor country Colombia fell on her head and shocked the whole world. I started to cry when I saw her laying on the ground holding her head with her hands... very, very sad. Hopefuly she is ok now. I was really rooting for her, wishing that she could win Colombia's first medal at the Worlds. Hope she gets better and manages to win a medal at next year's World Championships. I will not link to the video of her fall because I think it is very shocking and, besides, if I see the video one more time I will weep again. Life can be unfair sometimes.

Zanetti and Sasaki make it to the finals!

What a great surprise! After seeing Diego miss the floor finals by 0.025, it was great to see that Arthur Zanetti and Sérgio Sasaki Junior made it to the rings and individual all-around finals respectively. Good luck, boys!

Diego misses the floor finals at the Worlds 2009

What a shock! I can not even say how much I am disappointed by that. Diego is the reigning World Champion and would attempt to defend his title had he made it to the finals. That is too bad. Nevertheless, I am very proud of Diego because he is still recovering from a shoulder injury. I hope that he can fully recover and regain the title next year.

The men who are going to London...

CBG has decided which boys will represent Brazil at the World Championships. The chosen are:

Diego Hypólito
Mosiah Rodrigues
Victor Rosa
Arthur Zanetti
Caio Américo Costa
Sérgio Sasaki

I am surprised to see Victor Rosa back (last time I heard about him, he had a terrible accident and injured both biceps). I hope he is still able to perform his amazing floor routine. I am also surprised not to see Sergio Eras or Petrix Barbosa on the team.

It will be interesting to see what strategy CBG will adopt regarding the vaulters. Sergio, Arthur and Diego are great vaulters and they can fight for a place in the finals. I am taking a wild guess here, but I think that the best route would be making Sergio and Arthur the all-arounders, while Diego only competes on Floor and Vault.

Mosiah will probably compete at Pommels and High Bar. I have absolutely no clue about who Caio and Sergio are (yeah, shame on me).

Who is going to London? (Part 2)

CBG has decided what girls are going to the Worlds 2009. The list is:

Ethiene Franco
Khiuane Dias
Bruna Leal
Priscila Cobello

It is a surprising list, considering that two of the girls have never been to a World Championships or Olympic Games (Bruna Leal and Priscila Cobello). I wish all the luck to them and I expect the girls to give their best and represent Brazil well (and I am sure they will).

No comments yet about the Men's team, though Diego Hypólito was officially confirmed by CBG. Initially, Diego threatened not to take part in the competition if his coach was not named head coach for the Men's team. His presence in the competition was only confirmed after CBG named Renato the head coach. It will not be a surprise if the alternate for the Women's team is Daniele Hypólito, for obvious reasons.

In other news, while Jade Barbosa will not take part at the Worlds 2009, she is going to compete in an international event in Italy later this year. I am really looking forward to see her new routines!

Who is going to London this year?

With the Brazilian National Championships taking place later this month, we can begin to speculate who is going to make it to the World Championships in October. After the Nationals, one "new" athlete will join the permanent team and CBG will be able to finally choose four girls to represent Brazil at the World Championships.

I would say Ethiene Franco is a lock for the team. Ethiene is not particularly strong in any specific apparatus, but her routines are solid and relatively difficult. This makes her a perfect candidate for being Brazil's best All-Arounder now that Jade Barbosa can not compete on every piece of apparatus anymore. As the team is now, I guess that the other three spots would probably be taken by Ana Claudia Silva, Khiuane Dias and Bruna Leal.

But there is one spot left on the team and both Jade and Daiane are going to compete at Nationals. Probably one of them will take the last spot and also make it to London as well. I bet on Daiane, since she is working hard to return to form. Earlier this year, she stated: "I want to go to London. (...) This is my objective, my dream". Good luck to her. If she makes it to London, Daiane is Brazil's best shot at a medal. The gymnast is a floor specialist and won the world title in 2003 at this apparatus. Can she make history again, six years later? We hope so. But first she has to secure her spot on the team.

At the men's side, Diego Hypólito is also a lock. I guess the other three spots will be taken by Artur Zanetti, Mosiah Rodrigues and Vitor Rosa. Sergio Eras will probably be the alternate. But this is just wild speculation and we still have a long way to go until October.