Qualification scores

The scores are on page 2 here
https://www.british-gymnastics.org/...ic-2/9189-wag-tc-update-15-december-2017/file

You now have to qualify from a regional competition to attend challenge cup. I expect most regions will nominate their FIG levels competition for this.

 

The qualifying scores to be able to attend this competition (National Challenge cup) are:
Espoir 44.00
Junior 44.00
Senior 42.00

The scores that must be achieved in order to enter the British Championships the following year are:
Espoir 47.00
Junior 47.50
Senior 48.5

Do you think the pass marks are high, looking at the results from the English championships at the weekend (https://www.gymdata.co.uk/events/competitions.aspx?eid=803) not many would pass including squad members (4 espoirs, 5 juniors, 11 seniors). Even the qualifying scores are high imo.

I have always like the challenge as obviously it gives a route to the British but allows those who haven't qualified an option of competing in a national competition. I think this discourages participation, most girls would have competed in one the grade systems and suddenly there is very little structure and I believe adds to rate of girls giving up.

In general there seems to be a push to make it harder to qualify to the British, does this drive standards up or just provide a smaller pool of talent to chose?

Thoughts?

 

From last year’s Challenge Espoir only 1 would have qualified with a score above 47 so it is much more difficult this year, it does seem like a big jump! It’s strange when national squad members are scoring less than 47....would love to know the rationale behind it.

 

The only think I can think of is that the elite levels can be done out of age now so there is another route. They have also changed the rules to allow you to do more than 1 grade a year (I think it was in the technical committee minutes from Dec 2017) so in theory you can comp 3 in march/april, comp 2 at retake time (September) and Comp 1 the following feb (based on current calendar) so qualify for the British with a year.

 

I haven't seen many videos from the English. I wondered if there were lots of falls (on beam for example) as people tried out new routines for the first time this year. And then by the British the scores generally would be much higher? Does that generally happen? I'm completely just hypothesising.

 

I don't think there were more falls than normal. I know the beam scores at worlds were very harsh so maybe that had an affect. The top senior girls need to bring their A game as it was commonwealth trial.

I watched challenge cup last year and the scores looked quite generous (most of the girls don't get near that score again) so I guess there is some hope.