Rough Going at Varna World Challenge Cup 2016

Evgenia Shelgunova and Daria Skrypnik competed at the Varna World Challenge Cup in Bulgaria, and managed to win 3 medals, gold for Dasha on bars and silver and bronze for Shelgie on bars and floor, respectively. I wouldn't go ahead and call it a successful competition though, despite hitting two bar routines, Dasha especially looked really rough. I was in pain just watching her floor from qualifying.

She scored 12.700 for a routine without a fall, so she managed to get deductions for pretty much everything. She looks like she's really winded from the beginning and I have no idea how she managed to land the tumbling, pure grit I suppose, and I really congratulate her for that. I must have taken a lot of willpower to get through that. She obviously could use some a lot of conditioning, but her beam didn't go any better. She fell on her Y-turn, downgraded her dismount and looked close to tears afterwards, so maybe she was hurt? She didn't limp though, and the fall didn't look ad at all. Or maybe it was just a really, bad horrible no good day and she didn't feel right. Sometimes you just have one of those days.

Her make-up at finals said she was ready to fight and she did look a bit better. 

And she won the bars title by a full point. She was wearing one of those rhythmic-styled leos that she's fond of and I actually like on her. Maybe her mother made this one too?

Shelgie was performing better, even though she didn't' hit her beam routine either or make the finals. But I was actually really impressed by her floor routine. It wasn't any better than her usual gymnastics-wise, but she was actually performing. Look at that smile after her first tumbling pass! And she looks like she enjoying the dance elsewhere too and paying attention to what she's doing instead of just going through the movements. I didn't even like her routine before, but with the way she presents it, why not. I'll watch this gladly.

She was good on bars too. Her pak and shap 1/2 were the usual, but this time she actually made that first pirouette without a form break, and her handstands were really nice too. This was a good routine for her.

She has that unique blend of disaster with a hint of occasional beauty and it's still a mystery to me. Really, no one switches between polar opposites like her. She also made the vault final with a DTY as her first vault, but I didn't see any improvements there either. Except that she hit it two days in a row. Wow.

Giulia Steingruber had another great competition, golds on vault and floor and bronze on uneven bars. She looks like she's ready to snatch some gold medals at Euros, held in her home country in Switzerland. Beware, team Russia, beware.
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ROUTINES FROM FINALS:

Daria Skrypnik:

• EF: UB|FX

Evgenia Shelgunova:

• EF: VT|UB|FX

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Full results HERE.