Natalia Kapitonova (Наталья Капитонова)
Natalia Kapitonova made such a late and surprising surge in the gymternet this year, that I don't think we even have a set nickname for her. Is she Natasha, Natashenka, or just Nata? Who knows. But if she continues to surprise, I'm sure we'll find out.
Natalia comes from Penza and is coached by O. Matrokhina and G. Starkina (Sergey Starkin's wife perhaps?). She has been a member of the Russian national team for the last few years, but this definitely was the breakout year for her.
Competitive history: She started this year by competing at Gymnix and won 4 medals, one of them gold on her specialty, uneven bars. This was also her 3rd year competing at the Voronin Cup and she medaled on every event except vault, winning gold on all around (beating Melnikova), uneven bars, and balance beam, and silver on team event and floor. She also won uneven bars gold at Massilia this year.
Strenghts: Uneven bars. She has a beautiful routine with 6.5 difficulty and she's capable of scoring close to mid-15s. She also took a surprise win in the all around at Voronin Cup with a big score of 58.150. She's been improving a lot this year on every apparatus and has beautiful turns (at least when she hits them) on floor and beam.
Weaknesses: She is still a bit unpolished at places and often visibly nervous. She also needs more difficulty and expression on floor (5.6) and beam (5.8), and even on bars if she wants to contend for medals on senior level. She also needs to upgrade her vault (FTY) if she wants to contend on AA.
Some of her routines from this year:
VT:
UB:
BB:
FX:
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Ekaterina Sokova (Екатерина Сокова)
Ekaterina Sokova, also known as Juice or Katya, is not only cute as a button, but also a tiny powerhouse with huge guns. Her best events are floor and balance beam (which would make her an asset to the Russian team), but unfortunately she's been out with injuries much of this year, so her current status is M.I.A. (she is still training at Round Lake with the national team, so hopefully she's well on her way back).
Katya comes from Vladimir and is coached by A.V. Kulkova, A.V. Makeeva and M.I. Khorosheva.
Competitive history: She has competed internationally since 2013 and has several national titles (gold on balance beam), as well as gold on vault, balance beam and floor exercise at 2014 Voronin Cup.
Strenghts: Balance beam and floor exercise. She has a great beam routine (6.6 maximum difficulty) with fast pace, precision and plenty of confidence. She's also energetic and charismatic on floor and a better tumbler than most Russian juniors. She's been improving consistently on every event.
Weaknesses: She has been out with an injury (back, if I remember correctly) for awhile. She upgraded her bars this year but still needs to get comfortable with the routine. She could also use a more difficult vault (FTY).
Some of her routines from this year:
VT:
UB:
BB:
FX:
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So there we have it, the 4 Russian new seniors I think you should get to know. It's still difficult to predict who will be the breakout star this year. Melka has everything going for her right now, but Kapitonova is definitely the most improved of last year. Sokova has what her team lacks on floor and beam, but Skrypnik could have a gold medal routine on uneven bars.
In her typical way, Valentina Rodionenko already announced the Olympic team for Rio, and 4 of the 5 gymnasts are veterans from London (Aliya Mustafina, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka and Ksenia Afanasyeva). She will announce 100 teams this year so we shouldn't put a lot of emphasis on the team she already selected, but the strong pool of semi-healthy veterans the Russians have right now can mean that many of these new seniors will have to wait until 2017 to make the most important competitions.
All we can do right now is hope that no one dies or retires before their time.
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