Smooth Skills…Marcel Nguyen
Check this out!
As you may know, a “Ri Jong Song” is a triple twisting double back on floor (named for the Korean who competed it in Athens in 2004). There have been a very small handful of other gymnasts who have competed or at least done this skill on the real floor…Justin Spring and Kohei Uchimura to name a couple.
Want to see it stuck perfectly in competition? Germany’s Marcel Nguyen did just that in the all-around competition of the Japan Cup this weekend. This video shows four of his routines, but his floor routine starts right at 3:00.
Marcel Nguyen PB, HB, FX, PH 2010 Japan Cup
If you’re like me, you might have had to watch it a few times to fully convince yourself that it’s a TRIPLE twisting double back, because at first glance it may appear like just a double-double. However, it is a triple twisting double, and his start value of 6.6 substantiates it as well:
Triple twisting double (G) 0.7
Front double full + (D) 0.4
Front full (C) 0.3
Connection 0.1
Laid-out Thomas (E) 0.5
Wide-arm press (C) 0.3
Whip + (B) 0.2
Laid-out Arabian 1 ¾ (D) 0.4
Connection 0.1
Back 2 ½ + (D) 0.4
Barani (B) 0.2
Connection 0.1
Full-in (D) 0.4
Total Difficulty 4.1
Element Groups 2.5
Total D-Score 6.6
Just wanted to prove to myself that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me, because that one was pretty hard to believe! Marcel scored a 15.45 for this routine, and ended up 7th in the all-around with an 88.55. He scored a 15.6 on floor in the team competition, where Germany won the silver behind Japan.
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