It is one of those vaults that really requires a lot of air to complete that last half turn or else you could snap your ankles back. At the 2014 European Championships, I believed that Oleg Verniaiev would for sure injure himself on that vault. He was heavily taped and it was very scary to watch. Luckily for Oleg he ran extremely fast giving him bigger air. I think that the FIG needs to downgrade the vault to discourage men who shouldn't be performing from attempting it.
Sam Oldham performed the vault and from eyewitness reports landed it but shortly afterwards fell to the floor in pain. It is like that Kerry Stroug moment in 1996. The news coming out is that he has torn some ligaments and his chances of competing at the World Championships are in serious doubts. His scores aren't impressive but he fills in at spots where the British team is weak.
I won't really talk about Men's gymnastics all that often but I do want to leave my opinion on the matter of this injury. It is in my opinion that the Great Britain team, in their attempt to catch up to the two top teams, the Chinese and Japanese, are pushing new skills without fully preparing them. The team only recently lost their gold medal at the Euros to the Russians and know they need higher D-scores if they plan on medaling. I would like to end on this note, Max Whitlock was training the triple twisting yurchenko for over a year before he performed it in competition. I have serious doubts that Sam prepared it for that long.Video below is of Oleg Verniaiev - he looks like he's in pain after performing the vault. First picture is from Gymnastics Coaching and the second one is from Cambridge News.
Russian gymnasts have too many athletes injured and/or recovering from injuries, surgeries, etc. The latest news coming out of Lake Krugloye (Round Lake) is that Viktoria Komova is back to training beam, previously was only training uneven bars. She had a surgery, not required but recommended, on a problematic ankle that was continuously getting aggravated. Let's hope for the best because Vika needs to be performing her lovely gymnastics. Rewriting Russian Gymnastics has an fully translated interview for those that are interested here.
Gymnasts like Aliya Mustafina and Anastasia Grishina are back in training - the latter only at her home gym. It is really unlikely that Grishina will be going to the World's for political reasons while Mustafina has a bye from Russian Cup. With the emergence of new bars workers Grishina is being pushed and will need to have a good beam and floor set to challenge for a spot.
Video of Grishina's injury - she looked like she had enough air and great form but probably didn't have enough air.
Evgeniya Shelgunova and Emin Garibov are both still out of training due to surgeries and/or injuries. It is quite sad not to see Evgeniya as she has only been a senior for about a year and a half now and has been injured for about half of that time. She was rumored to have been training an amanar before her injury. Coincidentally both are said to have shoulder issues, Emin for sure but she possibly.
US Gymnasts seem to be all good with the exception of McKayla Maroney and Bailie Key. Maroney opted for a surgery that would clear her for an Olympic run. I would classify her move as similar to Komova's but more necessary than not. Bailie Key is recovering from a mysterious minor surgery. The information being filtered out is shady at best. It is like news on Ohashi, nothing much.
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