#goshima

Kawazoe vs. Goshima

There are two ways for an artistic gymnast to become a legend in their beloved sport. They can win major competitions to establish their names, which could potentially die down a few years after they have retired. Or, a gymnast can perform a jaw-dropping original skill that no one has ever done perfectly before and have that skill named after them. This way, the gymnast’s name is immortalized and would live on in the sport even years after they have taken their final bows on the international stage.

On Tuesday, the International Gymnastics Federation Men’s Technical Committee has announced the approval of eight new elements for the Men’s Code of Points that are named after the gymnasts who performed them. All were done successfully at World Cup events that started in late 2016 until early 2017.

Included in this list is a vault skill named after the Rio Olympic team gold medalist Kenzo Shirai, who is expected to follow after his teammate’s footsteps, Kohei Uchimura—who, unluckily, is still the only one in his team who haven’t had any skill named after him despite hoping to make it happen leading up to the Tokyo Olympics.

Uchimura didn’t call Shirai as “Japan’s next ace” for no reason. The 20-year-old’s new namesake vault called the “The Shirai 3” was his sixth one. He now has three on vault and three on floor exercise, making him the male gymnast with the most number of skills named after him. The latest skill had an element value of 5.4 for its high degree of difficulty. It is based on a vault once performed by six-time Olympic gold medalist Vitali Scherbo, but added with a double twist. Shirai is the first one to pull it off at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup last February.

Another new skill named after a Japanese man was “The Goshima”, named after Takahiro Goshima who performed the skill in floor exercise competition in 2017 DTB-Pokal Team Challenge. Despite being a newcomer to senior international competition on the Japanese team, Goshima successfully did the forward somersault in layout position with three and a half twists. The skill basically adds a half twist to the “The Shirai 2,” earning a difficulty upgrade from F to G.

The third skill on the list was named after the 2015 World bronze medalist and European Games champion on floor exercise, Rayderley Zapata from Spain, who is known for his powerful tumbling. His first skill called “The Zapata” was one he performed at the 2016 Cottbus World Cup floor exercise, a double salto forward tucked with 1.5 twists. It has an element value of F.

Saeedreza Keihkha from Iran also had a new pommel horse skill named after him. This is the first for all Iranians and was called “The Keikha” which is a side support full twisting spindle with both pommels between the hands, either flair or circle, performed at the 2017 Baku World Cup. Its element value is also F.

The latest still rings skill is named after the resident strongman of the Turkish team, Ibrahim Colak, who also performed it at the 2017 Melbourne World Cup. It is a vertical pull up with straight arms to V-cross and has an element value of E.

On parallel bars, Adam Babos from Hungary have successfully performed a skill at the 2016 Szombathely World Challenge Cup and this is now named after him. It was a straddle cut backward directly to hand and has an element value of C. At the same competition and apparatus, another skill has been approved, called “The Gagnon” which is named after Joel Gagnon from Canada. This is a basket roll backwards with stuck salto half to upper arm hang. Element value is also a C.

At the 2017 Doha World Cup, the 2016 Swiss Olympian Christian Baumann has performed a giant swing backward with Makuts in parallel bars, which is now the first skill named after him.

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