You can watch the finals here: http://ghoshcup.com/international-yoga-asana-championship-2011/Prelim Results:
I went to US Nationals and I have to say that OVERALL I thought the level was a little lower than what I saw in November. Nevertheless, the talent at the top was still pretty high. I think the big story for the men was that Joseph fell out of standing bow. As you can see he still qualified for the Finals and I believe they start from 0 today (at least that is how it worked at US Nationals).
Joseph busted out the same routine as in Nationals which has a crazy transition from stretching to handstand to peacock, and then from locust scorpion pushing up into handstand scorpion. He is certainly very strong and has a sort of masculine style. In my opinion he is the odds on favorite. It will be interesting to see if falling out of standing bow will affect his confidence (I doubt it). I hope he doesn’t pull a Lebron. In my mind the main challengers are the Thai guy and Zeb. I thought the Thai guy was the Day 1 winner. The control and smoothness… it was very very solid. The performance wasn’t eye-popping but you couldn’t really ask for too much more. I took class with Zeb in the past and I think he’s a pretty cool guy so I might be a little biased, but I thought he was very strong yesterday. I think Juan from Spain is a dark horse. I heard him say at the break that he breathing was messed up from the beginning and he didn’t think his handstand was straight. I thought his handstand was absolutely incredible, especially when he tucked the chin a bit and had the top of his head pointing towards the ground. When I visited teacher training I saw this little dude in a handstand before class. He held it for like a minute. I think that was Juan as I heard from some people I was sitting near that he was working at TT. I have him as a darkhorse because it seems like you would have to actually TRAIN to win this thing. Maybe he trained on the sly. My impression was that the Canadian Jordan Palmer was good as well, but after watching 8 hours of yoga I can’t remember his routine very clearly.
I missed the Australian as I has having a late 5pm lunch.The women’s level was extremely high. In the old days, it was like - “Holy shit, did you see that full standing bow with the toe tuck and the arms extended?” I was talking about it with my buddy Jeff and he said before it was huge if someone “let go” in Standing Bow. I thought he called it “Athetico Standing Bow”. I think that should be it’s name. The future for the women is strength postures.The big stories (for me) were that Afton and Gianna from the USA fell out. Unfortunately for them (and us observers) they both fell out. It’s unfortunate because the Finals won’t have two extremely small yoginis. You want to see the best yoga in the Finals, right? Luckily for us it will be truly interesting today, because I don’t think there is a clear favorite.I think Stephanie has a good chance and I thought Gloria had a fantastic routine, except she does those postures where you are kind of expected to smile when you hold it, and she looked more like she was concentrating really hard. She might not win cause of a couple of smiles. The two Emilys are strong. I practiced next to Emily V at headquarters once and I was like “Damn, that girl is STRONG”. I didn’t know at the time she had a very decent chance to be international champ. Emily C doesn’t lock out in standing bow, which seems like a pre-requ for the ladies. I hope she does well. Mari Dickey seems like a contender as well.I don’t think there are any clear favorites, which means we can’t have dark horses… or maybe they are all dark horses…Oops it’s 10:10 and I still haven’t left my house yet. I hope they don’t start on time.
Mens Division
Jordan Palmer – Canada
Pablo de Haas – Netherlands
Solidon, Edward – New Zealand
Juan Manuel Martin Busutil – Spain
Kanisorn Namchaiswadwong – Thailaind
Michael Eley – UK
Bel Carpenter – USA
Jared McCann – USA
Joseph Encinia – USA
Zeb Homison – USA
I went to US Nationals and I have to say that OVERALL I thought the level was a little lower than what I saw in November. Nevertheless, the talent at the top was still pretty high. I think the big story for the men was that Joseph fell out of standing bow. As you can see he still qualified for the Finals and I believe they start from 0 today (at least that is how it worked at US Nationals).
Joseph busted out the same routine as in Nationals which has a crazy transition from stretching to handstand to peacock, and then from locust scorpion pushing up into handstand scorpion. He is certainly very strong and has a sort of masculine style. In my opinion he is the odds on favorite. It will be interesting to see if falling out of standing bow will affect his confidence (I doubt it). I hope he doesn’t pull a Lebron. In my mind the main challengers are the Thai guy and Zeb. I thought the Thai guy was the Day 1 winner. The control and smoothness… it was very very solid. The performance wasn’t eye-popping but you couldn’t really ask for too much more. I took class with Zeb in the past and I think he’s a pretty cool guy so I might be a little biased, but I thought he was very strong yesterday. I think Juan from Spain is a dark horse. I heard him say at the break that he breathing was messed up from the beginning and he didn’t think his handstand was straight. I thought his handstand was absolutely incredible, especially when he tucked the chin a bit and had the top of his head pointing towards the ground. When I visited teacher training I saw this little dude in a handstand before class. He held it for like a minute. I think that was Juan as I heard from some people I was sitting near that he was working at TT. I have him as a darkhorse because it seems like you would have to actually TRAIN to win this thing. Maybe he trained on the sly. My impression was that the Canadian Jordan Palmer was good as well, but after watching 8 hours of yoga I can’t remember his routine very clearly.
Womans Division
Sarah Wells – Australia
Mari Dickey – Canada
Paulina Solita Bianchi Valdes – Chile
Chaukei Stefanie Ngai – China
Yukari Miwa – Japan
Liza Schvartzman – Mexico
Sarea Hidskes – Netherlands
Gloria Suen – Singapore
Emily Carpenter – USA
Emily Vendemmia – USA
I missed the Australian as I has having a late 5pm lunch.The women’s level was extremely high. In the old days, it was like - “Holy shit, did you see that full standing bow with the toe tuck and the arms extended?” I was talking about it with my buddy Jeff and he said before it was huge if someone “let go” in Standing Bow. I thought he called it “Athetico Standing Bow”. I think that should be it’s name. The future for the women is strength postures.The big stories (for me) were that Afton and Gianna from the USA fell out. Unfortunately for them (and us observers) they both fell out. It’s unfortunate because the Finals won’t have two extremely small yoginis. You want to see the best yoga in the Finals, right? Luckily for us it will be truly interesting today, because I don’t think there is a clear favorite.I think Stephanie has a good chance and I thought Gloria had a fantastic routine, except she does those postures where you are kind of expected to smile when you hold it, and she looked more like she was concentrating really hard. She might not win cause of a couple of smiles. The two Emilys are strong. I practiced next to Emily V at headquarters once and I was like “Damn, that girl is STRONG”. I didn’t know at the time she had a very decent chance to be international champ. Emily C doesn’t lock out in standing bow, which seems like a pre-requ for the ladies. I hope she does well. Mari Dickey seems like a contender as well.I don’t think there are any clear favorites, which means we can’t have dark horses… or maybe they are all dark horses…Oops it’s 10:10 and I still haven’t left my house yet. I hope they don’t start on time.
Tumblr RSS feed
Twitter
Facebook
