Livestream Schedule for the weekend.
Friday July 27 – 8 a.m. ET – Junior podium training
Friday July 27 – 10 a.m. ET – Senior podium training
Friday, July 27: Hopes Championships – 2:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, July 28: Junior Women’s competition – 1:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, July 28: Senior Women’s competition – 7:30 p.m. ET
Region 5 Insider US Classic Coverage
Region 5 Insider will be onsite covering all the action. Follow along all weekend on our coverage page sponsored by Tumbl Trak. Here is a preview of our Region 5 athletes competing this weekend.
For HOPE’s it’s championship time, but for many of the junior and senior elites its all or nothing. This weekend the GK US Classics/HOPES Championships take place at the Schottenstein Center on the campus of Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Though there will be anticipation and excitement in the arena for the return of 2016 Olympic All Around Champion Simone Biles, for many of the athletes in the junior and senior sessions this competition is either a tune up for nationals or the last opportunity to qualify to the USA National Championships in Boston.
Kicking off the weekend will be the HOPE’s Championships, final competition of the season which for many included a full Junior Olympic (level 8,9 or10) season as well. For some, this will be the first experience competing on a podium. Sydney Jelen of Legacy Elite is our regions only qualifier for this session and will be competing in her second HOPEs Championships. As we have documented before, Sydney competed is this competition back in 2016 and was the 2018 Junior A JO National Bars champion. Sydney is looking to showcase a few upgrades in her routines this weekend and hopes to finish on the podium in multiple events. Check out our R5 Spotlight on Sydney posted this week.
In the Junior Elite session JPAC’s Elizabeth Gantner is competing in her first US Classic but 2nd classic for the newly qualified elite. Liz is looking to improve upon her performance at the American Classic in Utah where she struggled a bit. Liz achieved her USA Championships qualifying score at the elite qualifier earlier in the season which unfortunately didn’t count but shows her potential to meet the score to qualify to her first elite national championships. She added a new combo on bars, Toe Blind 1/1 to Pak at the American Classic but missed it during the competition and will be looking to rock that this weekend. Check out that combo and more in our R5 Spotlight with Liz. (video)
Cincinnati’s Lilly Lippeatt, current junior elite national team member, has scratched from this weekends meet due to a glute muscle injury. Lilly is hoping to be ready to compete in Boston in 3 weeks. Here is Lilly on bars at the Pacific Rim Championships verification. Lilly was USA’s alternate for these Championships.
video from USA Gymnastics
In the senior session, all eyes of course will be on Simone’s return (though probably will not be doing all around this weekend), however Region 5 has two senior elites who are coming off a high from their performance at the American Classic and will compete in front of hometown fans. Shilese Jones from Future Gymnastics won the American Classic and is already qualified to championships. She will be looking to improve on her beam routine as she fell at the American Classic. She has posted some upgrades on Instagram so it will be interested to see if she adds any upgrades this weekend. (video)
Shania Adams from Buckeye, 2nd at American Classic and qualified to championships as well, has been dealing with a back injury this year and competed some watered down routines at classics earlier this month. Shania will possibly be upgrading all of her routines at classics this weekend in preparation for nationals. (video)
Absent from this weekends meet will be 2017 Jesolo junior all around champion Gabby Perea from Legacy Elite. Gabby who has already qualified to championships at camp this year and is recovering from a lower leg injury. Gabby and her coaches are unsure if she will be back in time to compete in Boston but hopefully will be ready for world selection camp. Here is a look at Gabby’s 6.5 bars start value routine from day 2 of the 2017 P&G Championships.
video by USA Gymnastics
