Stuttgart World Cup: Spiri as a vault specialist?

Russia won the Team Challenge! But let's not get too excited...

1. Russia 2. Germany 3. Spain
This was the only picture of the podium, sorry Spain :(

The DTB Pokal Team Challenge final was yesterday and Russia showed up in one of my favorite leotards. They were promising me good things with that leo, but didn't deliver. They did win by several points, but it was not because they were really good.


The final had 4 teams, Russia, Germany (1), Germany (2) and Spain, competing on 2 apparatus with three gymnasts on each. I really liked the format, only one gymnast was competing at a time so we saw every single routine, but it must have been a bit uncomfortable for the gymnasts. They actually had to stand next to the apparatus waiting for their turn while someone else was doing their routine on another apparatus. Lots of time to get nervous...

Russia and the top qualifier, Germany (1), started out on vault and managed to depress me in the process. It's not that difficult to depress me, but still, a bad way to start the competition. It all began with Shelgie, who performed a low FTY that was somewhere between tucked and piked. The judges clearly disagreed with me and gave her 13.500 for it. The scoring doesn't tell much until you compare it with the other vaults, but it seemed high considering that Kapi was next with a low, but straight FTY, that scored only 0.050 more. Sure, she piked a little bit too, but still... Lena tried to get me out of my slump of bad FTYs with a 1.5, but it was tucked too, so no. She had better amplitude, I'll give her that, but even worse longitude than the FTYs and she was off direction. You know who has a good FTY that I would have loved to see instead of these atrocities? Spiri! Her days as a bars specialist are pretty much done, so she could probably make it as a vault specialist with her nice FTY. The situation on vault is getting that bad.

I'm definitely worried that the A-team only has 2 semi-solid DTYs (there are a few very inconsistent DTYs in the B-team) and a few bad DTY attempts, but what gets me more is that even their easier vaults are so bad. FTYs in smaller meets are fine with me (I'm ignoring the fact that these are their A-team gymnasts who don't even have anything else for larger meets), but if you only do a FTY, it should be as close to perfect as it can get. If you have to tuck and pike and crank your FTYs and 1.5s around, there's not really any hope, is there? You're supposed to be Russia, one of the best gymnastics countries in the World, and beautiful even when you suck. Oh, how the mighty have fallen...

Anyway, Team Germany rubbed salt in my wounds with 2 nice FTYs and 1 nice FHS half. Easy vaults, but they at least looked good. And scored better too, Germany was leading after the first rotation. But that was alright, Russia naturally still had the potential to get ahead on bars and at the same time make up for some future mistakes they would inevitably make on floor and beam.

Germany had Kim Bui and Elisabeth Seitz on bars, both usually great, but Eli was really, really sloppy (handstands!) and didn't score well. Bui on the other hand was comfortably in the 14s. Michelle Timm performed a very easy routine, so it was time for Russia to grab the opportunity for a nice lead.

Kapi started out on bars with another solid routine. It was downgraded and had a few unsteady pirouettes, but still very clean (at least until the front giant, she had a major form break on that, even worse than usual), perfectly acceptable for this meet. Lena was next and did a good job too, some form and release issues, but nothing out of the ordinary for her. So both were perfectly acceptable, but... I'm used to being impressed by Russian bars. They have usually impressed on bars even in smaller meets like this. They're never just "perfectly acceptable" on bars. So even though they did a decent job, I was still depressed. I didn't even expect Spiri to hit and she didn't, it was the inbars again. She has really had a bad, bad season. She would have shined on vault though, I'm telling you.

So even after bars, Germany was still leading. Ouch. Kapi was first up on beam too (did she inherit the "nervous newbie" spot from Melka?) and looked good. She was a bit shaky, but remained calm and actually looked a lot more aggressive than usual. She probably saw the weakness in Spiri and knew it was time to go for the kill and steal that UB-specialist-who-is-also-mediocre-on-beam spot from Spiri. And she did, at least in my eyes. Congrats Kapi. Spiri wasn't taken down that easily and instead continued her recent burst of confidence on beam, delivering a good routine. Until she also continued her recent streak of terrible, horrible beam dismounts that she miraculously doesn't fall on. Her head has been either on the mat or a few centimeters from it every time this season. I checked. Lena managed to lift my mood a bit by giving us another beautiful routine, the highlight of the day for the Russians. She also got the best score on beam, 13.600. And to think of it, they didn't count any falls. Very good.

Germany couldn't match Russia's good beam rotation and counted 2.5 falls. They had one hit routine from Carina Kroll, but it had low difficulty compared to the Russians, so it wasn't enough to keep them in the lead. Bui did her best to give the audience their money's worth on floor, but low scores from Timm (a fall and a few stumbles, low difficulty) and Kroll (hit routine, but low difficulty) made it easy for the Russians to grab the gold.

Kapi gave the Russians a great start with a clean routine as usual. She didn't even look as tired as in quals, but mostly because she kept bursting into huge smiles after her great landings. It was quite adorable actually. She scored 13.500 with a downgraded routine, a big score for the Russians and best floor score of the day. Together with their good beam rotation it basically meant, that Lilia and Lena could fall as much as they wanted and still win. Lilia didn't feel like falling this time and returned to her usual consistency after the uncharacteristic quals, but couldn't match Kapi's score, even with her higher difficulty. She still got 13.300, making it easier for Lena to finish with the gold. All she needed, was a routine with one or two skills, no matter how bad. So she took the opportunity to do as much damage as she safely could, and underrotated her triple enough to make it a clear 2.5 with a fall to top it off. Since she already performed a 2.5 earlier in her routine, it was a huge mistake. But the gold was already theirs. 

I already expressed my depressed feelings about vault and bars. But the rest was okay, at least until Lena's issues on floor. Nothing special though. And about Lena... That floor mistake has been waiting to happen. Not the fall, but the built-in composition error. Her triple is underrotated at best and it's a huge risk. I don't know what they can do about it anymore though. Her stamina prevents the most obvious changes. Then there's Spiridoz and consistently scary her beam dismount. I don't understand why they don't just go for a double twist. Even a 1.5 twist would be only 0.1 lower in difficulty score, but gain 0.5 AT LEAST in execution. Not to mention the lowered risk for broken neck. That should really be a factor.

But I have something positive to say, Kapi! She hit 7.5/8 routines (grabbed the beam on day 1) and kept getting the top scores on AA. She's like a new athlete this year, confident and consistent. A huge part of why she looks so good is that the team surrounding her isn't that great, but still, I'm proud of her. I still have a feeling that she'll be like Alla Sosnitskaya, a B-team gymnasts temporarily in the A-team until someone better comes along, but who knows. I hope she proves me wrong. And she's definitely earned a spot at the Euros team.

Which brings us to Euros... My team right now: Kapi, Melka, Seda and Lena. Remember Euros 2013 when Aliya, Grishy and Afan were all doing their best to get 2-per-countried out of the AA final? And Afan won? Just imagine it with this bunch. What a fierce competition, anything could happen. Yikes.

-----

Full results HERE.

For once YouTube is filled with routines, it's hard not to find them, try.