The Nominative Teams for European Championships

The nominative teams for the 2018 European Championships were published a few days ago and the senior team was named Viktoria Komova, Angelina Melnikova, Angelina Simakova, Ulyana Perebinosova and Maria Kharenkova. I don't even know what to say. Maybe just laugh? Because it's not like they're even trying to name a team here. They're just throwing random names out there. Which is technically allowed, but I think most countries still make a little bit of effort into naming the nominative team.

I think I named my team at the end of my post for the Russian Cup and I'm sticking to it, it's going to be Viktoria Komova, Angelina Melnikova, Angelina Simakova, Anastasia Ilyankova and Lilia Akhaimova. There's absolutely no way that they're going to leave Ilya home and there's also no way that Masha K. is getting a spot. Unless everyone else dies, which is always a possibility with Russia. Ulya didn't even compete at the Russian Cup, so I just assumed she's injured again. Her UB routine is great when she hits it, but she hits it even more rarely than Ilya. It's not like Russia will ever leave anyone home because they're inconsistent, but I just don't see Ulya making the team over Ilya, especially after the Russian Cup. And while Mashka K. earlier in the season looked like she's on her way back, she certainly didn't at the Russian Cup. Lilia showed that she's capable of a routine, bad ankle or not, so she should go.

So the team should look like this:

• VT: Lilia, Sima, Vika, Melka
• UB: Sima, Melka, Vika, Ilya
• BB: Ilya, Sima, Vika, Melka
• FX: Ilya, Sima, Melka, Lilia

The junior team made a lot more sense, it was Daria Belousova, Olga Astafyeva, Yana Vorona, Vladislava Urazova and Ksenia Klimenko. These gymnasts were all on my list for the team and I would be fine with them. Even if my heart breaks for Elena Gerasimova. The problem is however the start list. According to it, my darling Klimenko isn't doing vault. She sucks on vault, so I get it, but she's still capable of winning the all around. So she should do vault just for that. They put Belousova on vault instead, and it's not like she's a vaulter either. She a tiny bit better than Klimenko, but there's no reason to have her vault in the qualifying over her. I really want Vlada and Ksyusha at the all around finals. Olya should do the all around in the quals too, but out of the three, I think she'll be two-per-countried.

My team would look like this:

• VT: Ksyusha, Olya, Vlada, Yana
• UB: Vlada, Dasha, Olya, Ksyusha
• BB: Olya, Yana/Dasha, Vlada, Ksyusha (whatever tbh, beam will be be risky no matter what)
• FX: Olya, Yana, Ksyusha, Vlada

Again, the nominative teams mean nothing so I shouldn't be over here rating about these, but I am. Because it's Russian gymnastics. Ugh.
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Source: Junior/Senior