From Russia to Rio: Uneven Bars

And we go on to the second part of this series of Team Russia's routines for Rio, time for uneven bars.

UNEVEN BARS

This is the apparatus that Russia should handle well, even if half of the team ends up injured. The main problem for these girls is going to be getting 2-per-countried out of the finals by their team mates. They are still behind China with D-scores, but slightly above United States. The judges also seem to usually prefer the Russian execution over China, so that maks the scores a bit more even. GB is behind on both difficulty and execution, but mainly execution, and Romania is a disaster even if they qualify. So Russia should fare well in the team finals on this apparatus, and they are likely to win any color individual medal on this event, even gold. I would be surprised if they went home without a medal, but if Vika and Aliya continue to suffer from injuries and Spiridoz can't figure out how beam works, anything is possible.

DV: 6.5+

• Daria Spiridonova: Difficulty of 6.7 with great execution. She's also pretty consistent, but occasionally has weird mistakes in smaller competitions. Her best score this year was 15.650, but she usually ranges from 15.3 to 15.5, depending on the judging. She doesn't seem to be prone to injuries, which is amazing for this team, but she's still event specialist with only 1 apparatus, so it's quite risky taking her to Rio with a 5 member team.
• Viktoria Komova: Difficulty of 6.6 with great execution (I refer you to my former love letter for her bars ;)). Unfortunately ever since her growth spurt after London, she has been really inconsistent. With a hit routine she can score that infamous 15.366, but I wouldn't put it past her to go higher depending on the judging. She's also injury prone and currently struggling with back problems which is a major issue on bars. Prayer circle and some sacrifices to Gym Gods are needed to get her to Rio in one piece and fight mode. 
• Daria Skrypnik: She has a maximum difficulty of 6.6, but usually performs easier routines at international competitions, worth 6.3-6.4. Her execution is great when she's on, but she has been inconsistent with smaller mistakes sometimes piling up to several tenths, and her scores reflect that. Domestically she has scored 15.5 with her difficult routine, but internationally (with the easier routines) she stays between 14.5 and 15.0. I don't think she's had any major injuries, but smaller ones occasionally.
• Aliya Mustafina: My Tsaritsa is still world class on bars, her difficulty from Baku is 6.5. She has excellent execution and she is the most consistent of these girls. She scores from 15.2 to 15.5. Unfortunately she has been out with injuries all year and has chronic back problems. We'll see after Russian Championships where she's at right now.
• Natalia Kapitonova: She has a difficulty of 6.5 with nice execution and body type for this event. She suffers from occasional errors, but is pretty consistent and has been improving fast the past year. Her scores range from high 14s to low 15s, with a high of 15.400. No major injuries as far as I know.

DV: 6.0-6.4

• Angelina Melnikova: She has a difficulty of 6.4 with nice execution, but not as great as the previous group. She's pretty consistent with occasional errors, and a lot of missed handstands. She scores in the high 14s or low 15s and is pretty much neck and neck with Natasha, both beating each other in turns, with Natasha having a slight edge when you compare their absolute best scores. She's had minor injuries, but recovered well and has been competing regularly.
• Alla Sosnitskaya: Last year she surprised everyone with a majorly upgraded difficult routine of 6.4 difficulty, built on neverending connections (like the routine of teammate Paseka). Her execution suffers mostly from minor errors like missed handstands, but she's fairly consistent. She scores from mid to high 14s with her difficult routine. She spent most of last year with ankle injury, which probably led to to this improvement on bars.
• Maria Paseka: She has a maximum difficulty of 6.3 (nearly she same routine as Alla), but she doesn't always make all of her her connections or performs a safer routine, so she can start anywhere from 5.9 to 6.1. She has a good execution and she can generally be counted on to perform well on this event. Her scores range from mid to high 14s internationally (always with simpler routines) with a domestic high of 15.300 with her full routine. She's extremely prone to injuries.
• Evgenia Shelgunova: Her routine is different every time we see her, but I think it's around 6.3 currently. We'll see at nationals. Her execution is okay when she hits which is rarely, usually she has plenty of form breaks and occasional falls resulting in a wide range of scores from 11s to 15.300. So she's a bit of a wild card here, but extremely unlikely to get put up on uneven bars during a team final, even if she somehow makes the team.
• Maria Kharenkova: She had a maximum difficulty of 6.2 last year, but performed very inconsistently with that routine. She also suffered from back problems, that made her remove her inbars and downgrade to a 5.8 routine towards the end of the competitive season. She has plenty of minor problems with her execution in addition to common major errors, but her usual scores from low to mid 14s with a high of 14.733 at the European Championships last year before her back injury.
• Seda Tutkhalyan: Extremely unlikely to be put on bars in a team final situation, but she's been improving. She upgraded to a 6.0 routine and is consistent with minor errors. Her execution is okay, but nowhere close to the top group, she scores along the the lines with Masha, low to mid 14s. But I love her. And she doesn't seem to be injured all the time.

Possible upgrades:

• Viktoria Komova: From the top group of girls, I think she's the most likely to go up with her D score, if she gets this back issue sorted out. She already showed a routine with maximum difficulty 6.9 (even more difficult than her routine in London in this code) last year, upgrading her full out dismount to a fabrichinova, and getting her jaeger counted as layout (it was downgraded at Worlds resulting in a lower D score). 
• Aliya Mustafina: If she's healthy, she can go up to a 6.7 by changing her maloney to a komova II and adding a mustafina dismount. Another option is to go back to her 2012 routine, also worth 6.7 in this code, or 2013 routine worth 6.7. Not sure how likely this is, she's been favoring easier routines the past 2 years with the back issues.
• Daria Spiridonova: I don't think upgrades are likely. She already has all the connections she can have, so she'd have to change her elements, which is difficult. She could go for a layout jaeger or fabrichinova like Vika, but we've never seen her train those so I'm doubtful. We'll see what she's going for at the Russian Championships this week.
• Melnikova and Kapitonova: Both have yet to make the ever important pak+shaposh variation connetion, and Melka could change her maloney to a komova II if she gets her handstands sorter out. Kapitonova's tkatchev is quite low (Vika is pretty much the only one with good tkachevs on the Russian team) so I'm doubtful about getting it up to piked.
• Seda Tutkhalyan: (Because I just have to throw her in here.) She upgraded to 6.0 routine this year and performed it consistently, plus she has the same coach as Paseka and Sosnitskaya, so they could possibly make a routine all connection for her too, but I'd say unlikely.
• Evgenia Shelgunova: Who knows. She has been upgrading but she's such a question mark with everything.

Highest scoring TF lineup without any upgrades: Mustafina, Komova, Spiridonova