Russian Cup 2016: Enjoy the Disaster

The Olympics are coming and it's time to show your best, what you're capable of, what you've been working on since you were 5. Or not, if you're Team Russia. There were falls and 12s everywhere, and nearly everybody completely fucked up bars. Aliya got a 12 on bars! Moscow, the deepest team didn't even medal. If this was P&Gs, Marta would have committed a mass murder.

But it was not the P&Gs. It was the Russian Cup, historically a bad event, so let's just enjoy the disaster that only Russian gymnastics can bring. They're so bad it's good.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to Romania. It's nationals and Lari has a concussion and Cata is getting rehydrated in the hospital because of a violent stomach flu. Wow. At least the Russians made it to the meet before combustion.


The national team began the competition on beam and things started go wrong immediately. Floor was a bit better, so was vault but then they went for a grand finale finishing on bars and, ummm, it was a grand, grand disaster.

Angelina Melnikova was the best of the day, which just means that she sucked the least. She finished AA first with 57.625 (2 falls, two other big mistakes), respectable considering the mistakes she had to count. She began with a shaky beam and grabbed the beam after her layout. She also put her knee down on the dismount. This bothers me, because her double pike was one of the best out there, high and powerful. Then she landed very badly at Euros EF and now again. I hope Euros didn't cause a mental block. We'll see this week. She also landed her first two passes low on floor, but was otherwise good. Bad wolf turn but what's new. She also had the best DTY of the day with 14.950, her form is getting better and only a small hop on the landing. She actually had the routine of her life on bars right up until her jaeger. She was nowhere near catching the bar and landed on her stomach, but still managed to score 14.650, obviously a bit very high, but still. The judges very probably either drinking or crying heavily after the day they had on bars, so maybe they missed the fall?

Seda Tutkhalyan, who was wearing Aliya's lucky blue leo, was second with 57.075, thank you Gym Gods. She had some uncharacteristic wobbles on beam (usually she just falls and then hits everything else perfectly) and threw the piked full in, but landed low and put her hands to the ground. Still a 14.125. Her floor was good like usually and she did her upgraded UB routine, too bad the bars were cursed today. She began with a nice church, but the pak after it was short and she lost her leg form and hit her feet to the ground. She continued like nothing happened, did a good van leeuwen, but then had another mistake when she fell out of a handstand on a pirouette. At least she didn't count any falls there...

Third was Evgenia Shelgunova with a 56.050. I only saw her UB routine, but that was excellent considering the day they had. She had the weirdest mistake though, hitting the chain with her feet on the high bar. Her scores on vault, beam and floor were to her usual standards, overall, a good meet for her compared to her teammates, who were disasters.

Tatiana Nabieva was actually fourth AA, even though she was he only one the judges scored realistically :D  Just take her to Rio. You know what, a team of her and Shelgie would make sense right about now. She was also great on bars, but was on the rotation before the national team. Hmmm... Sabotage?

Aliya Mustafina actually competed AA, even though Starkin said only yesterday that she would not. She didn't look like she was competing though, she looked like she was just testing her routines out, kind of like her terrible podium training sessions. She doesn't need to fight for her spot and it showed. Her beam was shaky and there were broken connections everywhere. She took out her usual acro series (front aerial+front aeria+BHS) and only did one front aerial. She did onodi+free cartwheel (that was supposed to be connected with a switch half) instead. I suspected at Euros that those elements were eventually supposed to be connected. She had a new beginning to her routine on floor and I love it. Then it got crazy with a full in as her first pass. When has she ever done a full in? Too bad the DLO and double arabian didn't make it :( Her turns are getting better, but she still wobbled a bit. As a positive, she didn't look like she was dying, yay. I didn't see her vault, based on the score (14.825), it was a DTY but not her best. Her last apparatus was bars and it looked like she wasn't having it at all. She nailed her dismount after an incomplete routine during which she jumped off twice after minor mistakes that would have allowed her to continue. Maybe she was tired, or had back pain, I don't know. Maybe AA proved to be too much. Or maybe it was the curse, or Nabs' sabotage. I'm sure Valentina will have excuses ready.

Natalia Kapitonova took herself out of contention for Rio with a 12.300 on beam, and bad time on floor and vault too. She performed an upgraded UB routine (stalder 1/1+komova II+ pak+chow 1/2) and fell. Surprise, it's not like anybody stayed on. Except for Nabs and Daria Spiridonova, yeah. Dasha wasn't perhaps as good as usually, but it was enough to make her look amazing because everybody else was terrible. Too bad she also scored a 12 on beam, along with Kapi and the other Dasha. I didn't get to see Daria Skrypnik's UB routine, but based on the score, it was not good.

Maria Kharenkova was absent due to some health issues, it doesn't look like she has any chance going to Rio. I feel really bad for her. She's a great gymnasts and I count her as one of the best beam worker of this quad, but she's really underappreciated and always overshadowed by someone else. It really makes me wish that she'd hit her UB routine and gotten that European AA gold in 2015. It was so close...

Let's end this with some good news, they are probably needed: Maria Paseka hit her amanar. It looked good too, big step forward, but in the air it's as good as last year. Maybe all is not lost. She too fell on bars though, and got mad at her water spray bottle. And her cheng was just super scary, I'm talking about heavily-twisting-on-her-knee-scary.

And it's not like tomorrow can be worse, right? RIGHT?
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The team competition ended with 

1. Central Federal District

2. Volga Federal District

3. St. Petersburg 

RIP Moscow

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You can watch some of the routines HERE or HERE.

Full results are HERE.

Picture from the meet are HERE.