The 'Best One Liner of the Meet' award

David Black - After Viktoria Karpenko's disastrous preliminary FX, Dave exclaims, 'Where does she think she is, The American Cup?!!' Hee!!

The 'Mistaken Identity' award

Vladimir Dmitrienko - While the KAZ men were competing we sat with the rest of the KAZ delegation to watch. Among them was Alexei Dmitrienko's brother Vladimir, who I thought was Alexei and was about to ask if he was injured or something. Remarkable resemblance.

Me! - All the security and local press and organizing officials thought I was a native and spoke to me in Chinese.

The 'So Much for the Dark Horse' award

Jesus Carballo Jr. - He had great routines and looked very stable during the prelims so I decided to follow him during the AA and take pictures. As it turns out, he falls on his very first event and never recovers in the standings, so I had to bail out on him. Happy to see him win HB finals though.

The 'Worst Traffic in the World' award

Tianjin and Beijing - The traffic in Tianjin was just nuts. Unreal how the bikes and cars interweave with each other with nary an accident. After shopping and taking a cab home, we hit an intersection that was unbelievably gridlocked. I mean nothing moved except the people on foot. After sitting in the heat for 15 minutes, we paid the guy off and walked. It was much faster. Many of the things the cab drivers do in Tianjin would definitely get them shot in LA.

In Beijing during rush hour, I almost lost my mind sitting in a big bus unable to move amongst the cars and bikes. On the whole the traffic seemed a little more controlled than Tianjin, but that's not saying much at all.

The 'Health Hazard' award

Smog in Tianjin - So thick that sometimes you couldn't even see down the block! There were a few hours that were very clear when the wind blew the smog away and made Tianjin look very beautiful, but that was rare

Taxi rides - More often than not while riding in a cab you would get a huge blast of exhaust from passing busses, motorcycles and other cars. Nauseating.

Intersections - The control logic of the street intersections completely eludes me, and I am sure it does for most westerners. I mean, where else can the light turn red and you can still keep going? When in doubt, I just followed behind the natives across the street.

The 'Coolest Packaging' award

Tickets to the competition - If you bought tickets to all events and prelims, it came in a very nice and fancy envelope tied with a gold colored string. The tickets themselves were unusual, measuring around 24" x 3". Neat!

The 'Questionable Strategy' award

Russian women's Team - During prelims they had an injured Anna Kovaleva on FX, which she performed with disastrous results. What's amazing is that they did it again for finals. She wasn't as bad the second time, but she still faltered. Also, having Yevgenia Kuznetsova, the 98 European balance beam champ, not perform on beam during prelims. At least she did in finals.

The 'Staying on Top is Really Hard to Do' award

Ivan Ivankov (BLR) - 97 AA champ was not in tip top health and stopped competing in the first round following a fall on HB.

Sergei Fedorchenko (KAZ) - Stumbled on both of his EF vaults.

Jani Taskenen (FIN) - Fell twice on HB during prelims, the second time severely injuring his shoulder and knocking him out of further competition.

The 'Beehive' award

The Arena Press Center - open 24 hours, the press center was a virtual beehive of activity following every subdivision. In the lobby were provided current results, although sometimes the current results weren't so current. Downstairs, foreign correspondents from all over the world typed up reports on their laptops and had photos developed for free. Upstairs was the press conference area for interviews with the media. Quite fascinating to see the inner workings of the press corps.

The 'Looking Good' award

Bi Weijing - Bi now sports short hair and is much taller. I almost didn't recognize her. WOW!

The 'Center of Attention' award

Russian women's team - They probably had more cameras on them during prelims than even the Chinese women and men at any other time during the meet.

The 'Baby Fat' award

Bai Chunyue - Although she's 16, she still has those roundy cheeks that make her look like a baby.

Vanessa Atler - After suffering injuries to her ankle earlier in the year she hasn't been able to train as much. As a result she is not as lean as she used to be, but when she gets back into the swing of things she should be combat ready.

The 'Best Expressions During a Release Move or a Dismount' award

Olga Roschupkina

The 'Price of Fame' award

Alexei Nemov - After the AA Nemov heads to the press center. He walks hurriedly in my general direction from the mixed zone and immediately is spotted by a large group of teenage Chinese girls. Nemov runs quickly by me and I move out of the way of the stampede. In the wake of the dust cloud is Yevgenia Kuznetsova and Ludmilla Yezhova casually walking towards the press center and laughing at Nemov's predicament.

The 'Best Bargain' award

China in general - As a colleague put it, "This makes shopping in Russia look like Tiffany's."

Taxis - Fare to the arena was 10 yuan, which is roughly a dollar. And there were no shortages of taxis, making it quite convenient to get to the arena at any time.

The 'Best Subdivision' award

Men's subdivision two with GER, FRA and ESP - Although none of these teams made it to the finals, the head to head competition of this subdivision was truly exciting. I didn't even take photos, but just sat back and enjoyed the spectacle.

The 'Third World' award

Public restrooms at the Great Wall - While in Tianjin we visited a relatively remote portion of the wall to avoid the crowds. It was very nice and uncrowded. But the restrooms were basically these large coin slot shaped holes in the concrete floor which simply emptied onto the side of the hill. Nasty. No big deal for guys to drain the main vein (as usual), but for the women......? I am now informed that the local farmers use the waste on the hillside for fertilizer. Why didn't we think of that??

The 'Waste of Film' award

Awards ceremonies - I don't think I will ever take another picture of awards ceremonies again. All it is is people just standing around. I have better use for film than that. Bleh.

The 'Hydrogen Bomb' award

Vanessa Atler - At the beginning of the year she predicted 3 medals in China and came away with none. She performed poorly during team finals and placed 31st in the AA, which is very uncharacteristic of her. Of course, the coaching change that occured a month earlier probably was a big factor. It will be interesting to see what her next move is.

The 'Blown Money Shot' award

Me! - After the conclusion of the mens AA Nikolai Krukov comes around the corner and gives Alexei Nemov a big hug. It would have been a fantastic picture, but I didn't have any lens wider than 70mm and much of the scene got lopped off. But I took the shot anyways. Kind of reminiscent of the movie 'Sixteen Candles.' Drat!

The 'Most Annoying' award

Souvenir hawkers at major tourist sites - Worse than Red Square in Russia. Pushing postcards, kites, maps and other useless paraphernalia with unusual aggressiveness on the western tourists. Luckily for me, I resembled the natives so they didn't bother me too much.

The 'Worst Smell of the Arena' award

Public restrooms - **SNIFF!!** Ahhhh! Nothing like the pungent aroma of an outhouse wafting through the air while watching the competition.

The 'It's No Big Deal to Me' award

Maria Olaru (ROM) - Upon winning the AA title, Maria remains very calm and almost stoic. I suppose this is a characteristic of most of the Romanians, but she seems to possess a certain regal quality about her.