In 2001, the traditional horse was completely phased out and replaced by a larger, more stable vaulting table to provide gymnasts with additional safety.
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Scherbo (vault) – a Yurchenko-style vault defined by its unique entry, specifically a full twist within the back-handspring between the springboard and the vaulting table.
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When performing a Yurchenko, gymnasts round off so their hands are on the runway while their feet land on the springboard. From the roundoff position, the gymnast travels backwards and executes a back handspring so that the hands land on the vaulting table. The gymnast then blocks off the vaulting platform into various twisting and/or somersaulting combinations. The post-flight segment brings the gymnast to her feet.
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Yurchenko is the name of both a specific vault and a vault family in artistic gymnastics. The Yurchenko was named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko in 1982 during a competition in Moscow. The first gymnast to actually perform it in a competition was Viktor Levinkov, a male Russian gymnast, who was the original inventor of the Yurchenko. In a Yurchenko vault, the gymnast does a round-off onto the springboard and a back handspring onto the horse or vaulting table.
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In the lower levels of gymnastics, the gymnasts do not perform this move. These gymnasts will jump onto the springboard with both feet at the same time and either do a front handspring onto the vault or a roundoff onto the vault. In 2001, the traditional vaulting horse was replaced with a new apparatus, sometimes known as a tongue, horse or vaulting table. The new apparatus is more stable, wider, and longer than the older vaulting horse, approximately 1 m in length and 1 m in width, giving gymnasts a larger blocking surface.
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Amânar ranks highly (117th) on the list of most medal gymnasts in the world, with 10 World and 7 Olympic medals. She played a large role in the four consecutive World team titles and Olympic title that established Romania as the top-ranked women's gymnastics team in the world. The Amanar vaultFIG Women's Artistic Gymnastics Code of Points 2009–2012, page 163 involves a round-off entry onto the vaulting table followed by a laid-out salto with 2 twists. Amânar first competed this skill at the 2000 Olympics.
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At the 2007 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany, her teammate Ekaterina Kramarenko ran up and touched the vaulting table but stopped and received a 0. Zamolodchikova performed a solid vault, but the Russian team had already ended up eighth (last). In the event finals, she fell on her second vault, and finished again in eighth. Zamolodchikova continued training in 2008 in hopes of making the Russian Olympic team for the third time, but a back injury prevented her from a better showing and she failed to do so.
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In the vaulting events, gymnasts sprint down a runway, jump onto a springboard (or perform a roundoff or handspring entry onto a springboard), land momentarily inverted on the hands on the vaulting horse or vaulting table (pre-flight segment), then propel themselves forward or backward off that platform to a two-footed landing (post-flight segment). Every gymnast starts at a different point on the vault runway depending on their height and strength. The post-flight segment may include one or more multiple saltos, somersaults, or twisting movements. A round-off entry vault, called a Yurchenko, is the most common vault in the higher levels in gymnastics.
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"Smiling Sang Lan" Xinhua News Agency, August 29, 2003 In a series of crashes when the horse's height was set too low at the 2000 Olympics, gymnasts either rammed into the horse's front end, or had bad landings after having problems with their hand placements during push-off."Vault mixup could have cost gymnast medal", ESPN, September 28, 2000 Following the accident in 1988 and compounded by the ones in 1998 and 2000, International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) re-evaluated and changed the apparatus, citing both safety reasons and the desire to facilitate more impressive acrobatics. The 2001 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were the first international competition to make use of the "vaulting table", an apparatus made by Dutch gymnastics equipment company Janssen-Fritsen since the mid-1990s. It features a flat, larger, and more cushioned surface almost parallel to the floor, which slopes downward at the end closest to the springboard; gymnasts nicknamed it the "tongue"; it appears to be somewhat safer than the old apparatus.
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Ri was the first North Korean ever to win a gold medal on vault at the Asian Games, where he performed solidly at the 2006 Asian Games and was the first one for North Korea on that apparatus. He later went on to win a bronze medal on vault at the 2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships. In 2009, Ri successfully performed an extremely difficult new vault, a Tsukahara (1/4 entry in the first flight) on the vaulting table, followed by a full twisting double backwards salto in tuck position. The new vault is named after Ri. The vault, now officially named the Ri Se Gwang, was valued a difficulty score of 7.2 and the second highest difficulty value in the world, with Yang Hak Seon's vault the Yang Hak Seon (front handspring triple twist) being the most difficult with a start value of 7.4 in the previous 2009-2012 Code of Points for men's artistic gymnastics (MAG).
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