He did not do a great exercise here.
First competition, this one so far though is looking much
better.
There's that one pommel work and
very well done.
Lot of distance between his hips and the pommels. Something
the judges are looking for. He struggled and fell on this
the first day,
way better today,
just fly up to the handstand. And
bang
2 for 2 tonight. Tim, he was moving for a while. Yes, that
was, that was really good.
So, when you're on one pommel, there's just not enough room on
those handles to hold yourself UPS in a stable position, but
you got to do it and he does it extremely well. As you see,
right there, every placement is critical.
And this is where he struggled night when he clipped that foot
on the leather, the first night.
But the judges are critical. He's a little bit what we call
skewed, he's not facing exactly straight out. Over the horse,
he'll get deductions for that but this should be a better
score.
Meanwhile after Hong up on still Rings. Now,
Third-best on the opening night, and this apparatus.
Nice position right here. Called a Maltese,
very well done.
I'll do another one. He can do that because he enters
the skill, a different way.
And this is that skill
that is so
it's really evaluated harshly. That is at least three tenths
of a point off.
Have to be so low on that skill in there. Just are very few
people that can do that in the world. Big stop.
Naughty add that one right here.
We see lots and lots of double-doubles
in the tucked position but to do it in the laid out position.
There's only a handful of people in the world that
presently do that
on a consistent basis.
And after Hong hanging on to third place behind on Elwood
Burt and Brody, Malone at the top. We go on ball. We can
always write three times around
Asher. Hi?
Unbelievable.
He just makes it
look too easy.
Wow.
So, three flips.
Stare down that table, smash it as hard as you can
and just keep going up and keep pulling those legs like crazy.
Asher's probably the best I've seen, really, to be honest with
you and I've had some great. So, I mean, I just got to go
this morning to go watch my former athlete, John Horton, be
conducting. The Hall of Fame. I mean, how often does that ever
happen?
Right. You have an athlete. That gets the Hall of Fame.
I mean, that's crazy. But this kid is special. This kid is,
I mean, everybody talks about the it factor in every sport, he
has that from the moment I saw him.
It's when his arm goes up for routine,
there's something a little bit extra special about that turn.
And you don't teach that, you know, athletically, you know,
we teach them and we work with them, but he just picks.
Things up, and he's a grinder. He's a,
he just, he has. He has it, man. It's just,
I haven't seen anything like it.
Well, I good luck tonight. We're looking forward to seeing
you in action. Thank you. Any fun. So ask her. How long he'll
be last to go on high bar? What
a US Championship. He has had in second place right now.
There you go.
You just saw him. Catch that Kovacs.
He actually fell on the one right before it.
He's like the Energizer bunny. It's like I'm,
I never
did major releases in the OneTouch warm-up. It's very
rare for people to do it. But look at this night one. He just
can't get both hands
around the bar
and it's possible that he'll do the same thing that we've seen
other gymnasts. Do he might not do that one
and just lower his start value.
Kind of has a little bit of a technical error as he's reaching.
For the bar, he kind of sits his shoulders up. And what that
does
is it takes a lot of the
variance of where you are relative to the bar. It makes
it a much smaller window to be able to capitalize and grab
onto that block. And it's possible that he could be
brought in blown on night to not sure overall, but brought
him alone in first place
after Hong is first trip to this
event, right there on the verge.
Tim, what do you do?
What do you do right here
at rip? And Matic bid to a World Championships, you're 18
years old, your first senior US championships, your statement
date, you take it out, you play, just keep going bake
a ham. I think he's gonna do it and I think it's good for him,
but we'll see, you never know.
There he goes.
This is coach, Tom metal said he's better when he raises his
hand. So here it is.
He doesn't and he gets the bar
one more though got to be careful here
and he was
good fight.
This is a little tricky for him at times.
Had to make a modification to his routine on that
and he is surviving but this is
kind of got a lot of old
errors and that one right there is a four point
one point off for that Landing.
So an 11-point 411 for the automat to move into second.
I'll put you on the spot. Tim,
you put your judges head on right now? This going to be closed,
if it's 11, what did you say? John eleven point four. One.
Two. Four second. Yeah, I think he's gonna get it.
I think he, I think he's gonna get it.
He's
It's gonna be very close though.
It kind of got a little crazy right here. Who's so close
being
a little bit overly conservative, has to bend his
elbows to get over the bar.
Wow, that's a good. Look at the hand. That's just it, like, at
the bottom of the swing,
and this is
an area where he changed his routine. These are German
Giants and he's supposed to go all the way over the top on
this. He does.
Not do it. So he loses a little bit of difficulty score.
My shoulders hurt, just looking at it.
But this so uncharacteristic, watch his coach.
Oh boy.
Feel your pain. Tom. No it's 11. .05
0.36
to. That's how close he came so he does not get it done. Tim
Daggett but he does Donna went bird second place.
What a showing for him in Tampa.
Unbelievable.
So happy for him.
So many people, you know, maybe they didn't say it to Danelle
but they had said
you know what? He really needs to be done.
So happy that he put in the work, made the sacrifices and
was able to hold on the hug for Donnell Wittenberg.
Yeah, I just had a birthday and and Brody Malone wins. The US
all-around title for the second straight year.
Now, it doesn't mean that Asher Hong isn't going to get
a chance to go to the World Championships. He's just going
to have to earn it.
He'll absolutely be invited to the
selection camp.
Wow, that close though.
Coming down to that final routine and a mistake or two.