Stuttgart World Cup: Not getting surgery this time

I always find it a tiny bit confusing when the Russians go to Germany and it's not for some medical treatment. But this time they're in Stuttgart, Germany, trying desperately to prepare for Europeans. Natalia Kapitonova, Elena Eremina, Daria Spiridonova and Lilia Akhaimova are competing at the Team Challenge, and Angelina Melnikova is taking part in the World Cup competition. The original team included Seda Tutkhalyan, and switching her with Kapi probably means that Seda is a lock for Euros already. They're testing Lilia, Lena and Kapi (and Spiri) trying to figure out the rest of the team.

The team with American Infiltrator Morgan Hurd

They started on balance beam (yikes), but made it through okay. Lena had a very solid and pretty routine with one big wobble and downgraded dismount, but didn't score that well (13.450). I'm a bit worried about it, she should score significantly better with a hit routine like this. Then again, the scoring was tough and that was their highest score. Kapi had a very mediocre showing, wobble after wobble, low dismount, actually grabbed the beam after her double Y, but still scored less than half a point behind Lena. Ouch. I'll have to check their difficulty scores... Spiri was very good and only had a few minor issues on beam, but landed her dismount with her head nearly on ground, as usual. They probably just go ahead and give her a double twist dismount. Or preferably, condition. They had to drop her score. Shelgie was excellent, but still Shelgie, so she didn't even break 13.

Floor was Lilia's time to grab herself a spot for Euros, but she decided not to, and landed her double arabian nearly on her knees. I don't know how her ankles survived that. They had to actually drop her score, not promising for a floor specialist. But I wouldn't put too much weigh on that performance, it's a new skill and if she hits it in team final, she's good to go. Whether they will ever send her, is another question. Spiri continued her amazing streak of not falling, but scored in the 12s along with Lilia. Kapi looked exhausted and downgraded one of her passes, but hit her mustafina beautifully and Lena was solid as usual. Solid as usual meaning nothing spectacular, just messy with no big mistakes.

The vault rotation consisted of some very bad 1.5s (Lena and Lilia) and low and powerless FTY from Kapi. Oh how low we have fallen... remember in 2010 when the Russians were the best vaulting country? Or in 2012 when they were the second best? Or a time when they could at least scrape together three DTYs? I know, I know, it's a World Cup and DTYs are not needed, but they don't actually have them even if they were needed. Bless you Seda.

Uneven bars was their time to shine and they actually did by getting two scores above 14. Yeah, that's considered shining now. Kapi had no major issues except for an extra stalder that broke a connection, and got the best score of the day. Spiridoz did all kinds of stalders breaking connections left and right, but didn't come off. I guess that's something positive. Shelgie managed to stick to her layout pak, but had major form issues on everything else. Lena gave up mid-pak in a weird fall and her jaeger was nowhere near laid out, but the rest was okay. She even cleaned up some handstands. 

The Russians qualified to the final (on Sunday) in second place, only 4 tenths behind Germany's number 1 team. So if hey hit, winning should be easy. But they were able to drop one score at the qualifying round, the final is going to be the traditional 3-up-3-count. So we'll see. I have an exam on Monday and I have to pass it because I'm trying really hard to graduate this spring, so I find it a bit unfair that they actually have two competitions with multiple events going on this weekend. It's like FIG wants me to spend another year in school doing nothing. Cruel.
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Note: I have wanted to make a post about Gymnix for so long now, but we don't have any videos because Flo is such an asshole. So if you're wondering, yes, I did notice that my dear Baby Swans competed and the 3 routines I saw were beautiful.