Routines Not to Miss From the 2014 P&G Championships

Aug 26, 2014 by Marissa From Gymnastike

1. Ashton Locklear - Uneven Bars - 15.850

Locklear’s routine, the same routine she performed a few weeks ago at the Secret U.S. Classic, is incredibly unique and packed with difficulty. Her connections are highly impressive that gain her huge bonus points and she hits her handstands with immaculate form and pointed toes. She’s a very clean gymnast, that swings nicely between the bars with stunning lines that give her that extra edge on presentation. Her releases are beautiful - her jager and range of shaposh’s, and she almost always sticks her dismount landing. Although with so many connections comes a large risk, but she has shown that she can deliver under pressure and hit her incredible routine almost every time. She’s easily currently one of USA’s strongest bar workers. Watch her incredible routine here.

2. Simone Biles - Vault - 15.900

Biles’ Amanar gets bigger and better the more she competes this vault. Her execution is huge, allowing minimal deduction. She’s getting more confident, presenting no hesitation before competing, and it’s evident that she’s focusing on nailing the landing in order to perform it as close to perfection as possible. Twisting skills typically cause the legs to cross, which Biles use to show a small sign of during her Amanar last year. However, she’s cleaned up her form and with a nailed landing, she going to be a high contender for the Worlds vault title later this year in Nanning, China. Check out her huge vault here.

3. Madison Kocian - Uneven Bars - 15.500

Like Locklear, Kocian is another solid bar worker and performs a packed 16.5 starting value routine. She swings well between the bars and also performs some impressive connections. She hit a great routine at P&Gs, although she had several leg separations and her form and toe point isn’t as outstanding as Locklears. Despite this, she showed consistency over the Championship week and has the room to improve and score even higher than what she delivered at P&Gs. Here is her routine from day two of Championships.

4. MyKayla Skinner - Floor - 15.100

Skinner is a powerhouse gymnast and has the ability to deliver a world class medaling floor routine, however, her biggest downfall is form and execution. Opening with a layout double double (also known as a Moors), double double tuck, full-in tuck, and 1 1/2 walkout into 2 1/2 last pass, she has a huge 16.6 starting value routine. She’s upgraded from Secret U.S. Classic where she performed a 1 1/2 walk out into double full third pass and full-in tuck last pass - a 16.3 starting value routine. At the Classic and on both days of competition at the P&G Championships, Skinner shows that she continues to struggle on form, especially in her Moors opening pass. Her legs are sloppy and she has yet to clean up her landings to minimize those critical deductions. She’s very talented and improved tremendously over the last year. With a little cleaning up, this highly impressive world-class routine will deliver the score it deserves every time. Check it out here.

5. Alyssa Baumann - Beam - 15.150

Baumann’s style is a pleasant reminder of Nastia Liukin’s. Her presentation is beautiful, she’s elegant all the way through to her finger-tips with stunning dance flow and rhythm throughout her routine. With her long lines, she shows impressive power in her opening standing arabian then continues with beautiful jumps, leaps, and connections. Not only is she a beauty to watch, but she’s clean and hit an excellent routine at the P&G Championships. Watch it here. It was key for her to demonstrate consistency, which she did as she score the same on this event on both days of competition. However, unfortunately, Baumann slipped off the bars on the second day during the last rotation of the competition. Although she finished her routine and was selected for the Pan American Games team, she had to withdraw due to an elbow hypertension injury.

6. Kyla Ross - Floor - 14.800
Although Ross does not perform as much difficulty than some of the other gymnasts, she presents her routine beautifully. It's mature and fits her very well. On the first day of competition, Ross competed a whip into double arabian first pass, but unfortunately fell. During the second day of competition, she decided to minimize the risk and took out the whip, going back to her original routine. She's a beauty to watch with clean and well executed tumbling and has the potential to upgrade several of her passes in the future. It's encouraging that she took the chance and stepped up her tumbling despite falling. Hopefully we will see her upgrade not only her first pass again, but other passes in the future. With the potential to score higher on floor, this will help her overall total in the all-around. Here is her routine from day two of competition.

7. Nia Dennis - Floor - 15.100
Dennis is proving herself to be a strong up and coming gymnast to look out for heading towards the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Her floor performance was solid, with exceptionally good landings and executed tumbling. She has a good range of difficulty and she continues to mature and excel as an all-around gymnast. This was her last year competing as a junior, and we can safely say that she looks ready to take on the senior elite field and become a strong contributor for Team USA in the future. Make sure you check out her routine here.

8. Jazmyn Foberg - Bars - 14.450

After rapid improvements over the last year, Foberg had an exceptional two days of competition at the P&G Championships and was crowned the 2014 Junior National Champion. She performed a much improved routine with some nice skills with stuck clean dismount. She reached her goal of making the Junior National Team after a very successful weekend. It will be great to see her continue to progress over the next few years. Check out her solid bar routine here.