Fearsome Amanar may hold key to women's gold

It sounds like an ancient civilization, or perhaps a villain from the Indiana Jones films, but the Amanar could hold the key to glory in the women's gymnastics at the London Olympics. One of the most fiendish vaults in the women's event, the Amanar requires gymnasts to perform two and a half twists in mid-air after producing a back handspring onto the vault. The more orthodox double-twisting Yurchenko vault -- named after Soviet gymnast Natalia Yurchenko -- requires only two twists to be completed, and the extra half twist in the Amanar makes all the difference. With the vault 10cm lower for the women than it is for the men, female competitors are not as high in the air when they spring into their salto, giving them less time to introduce twists and tucks to their routine. The Amanar also necessitates a blind landing, as the final half twist obscures the gymnasts' view of the floor and means that they finish their vault facing away from the apparatus. "A lot of people don't think that a half twist is that much, but it's a lot harder," said Jordyn Wieber of the United States, the reigning women's all-around world champion, in a New York Times interview earlier this month. "It takes a while to master it." It is not a vault for the faint-hearted. Quite apart from the terror of not being able to see the floor until the very last moment, the final twist exerts extreme pressure on the knee and ankle joints of the gymnast. Russia's Aliya Mustafina can testify to the Amanar's menace, having torn the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee when attempting the vault at last year's European Championships. It remains to be seen whether she will attempt the Amanar in London, but Wieber certainly will. Only the Americans boast a team of five female gymnasts who can all perform the Amanar, with the graceful McKayla Maroney -- who took gold on the vault at last year's World Championships -- arguably the finest exponent. The Amanar is named after Romanian gymnast Simona Amanar, the three-time Olympic champion, who unveiled a rusty version of it to the world at the 2000 Games in Sydney. It has a 6.5 difficulty rating -- 0.7 points higher than the double-twisting Yurchenko -- which means it is a vault that confers a serious advantage upon any gymnast brave enough to pull it off. With the vault a feature of the all-around competitions for both teams and individuals, as well as an event in its own right, the Amanar looks set to deliver a decisive twist in the tale at the O2 Arena.