Jesolo 2018: Junior Team and AA Final

Today was day 1 of Jesolo and the day began with the junior all around and team final. Russia sent a  4 member team consisting of Ksenia Klimenko, Daria Belousova, Elena Gerasimova and Vladislava Urazova and placed second behind Italy and ahead of France. They had quite a few unfortunate falls, (including two on bars, shame on you kids), but I'm very proud nevertheless. The youngest member of the team, Vlada won the all round competition beating a favorite, Italy's Asia D'Amato. Vlada then made my day even better making the cutest mistake during the awards ceremony. When her name was called, she though she was third (they didn't go with the normal reversed order of the medalists for some reason) and the announcer had to repeat "first place" a few times before she realized her mistake and took the right podium.

I wrote this post while watching the competition live, so it might be a bit incoherent and there are plenty of mistakes, but bear with me.

Russia starts out on floor. Dasha looks beautiful, as always. Her lines and attention to detail is miles ahead of the other juniors we've seen on floor today. Sometimes it really seems like Russia has lost their way, but then moments like these happen and I have hope again. Lena is next, and her triple is scary as usual. The rest is pretty good though, even if she's not quite as great as she can. Vlada looks amazing. She doesn't have the elegance of Dasha and Lena, but compared to Lena, her tumbling is really high and flighty. In addition, she has all the confidence in the world and she hits her skills like a beast. I haven't been a huge fan because she looks quite rough, but she's winning me over with her confidence. They saved the best for last, time for Klimenko. She looks nervous and has a few stumbles with her tumbling, but it's a hit routine. Not her usual quality though. But 4 hit routines on floor for Russia, I'm happy.

On vault Ksyusha is missing from the warm-ups. She isn't doing the AA? Or is she injured?  I'm worried. Lena does low, piked and underrotated FTY. A big step to the side. Dasha does much better with her FTY. It isn't the flashiest, but it's still well-executed. Vlada is going for a vault final with a decent 1.5 and..... The stream cuts right when she's doing her second vault. Where is Klimenko? I know her vaulting is pretty bad, but she could win the all around with an okay vault.

Lena is first on bars and falls on a pirouette right at the beginning of her routine. Ksyusha has to wait forever for her turn and starts to look nervous. Two floor routines and she's still waiting. She already re-applied water three times. Poor girl. A fall on a gienger. Well, the rest of it was good. And this is not the upgraded routine from training. A bad UB rotation for Russia. Dasha luckily saves the day with a good routine. Vlada makes a few mistakes, a very short handstand and bad landing on dismount, but a hit routine from her. She's really impressing me today.

Ksyusha continues her bad streak on beam and falls on her side aerial-LOSO series. She wobbles basically on every single element and dismounts with a front full. I'm not regretting the vault thing anymore. Lena on the other hand is brilliant. She's quick and light, no hesitation and only two teeny tiny wobbles. And a bad wolf turn. A nearly perfect routine with a beautiful 2.5 dismount. Gorgeous, the best routine on beam all day. Dasha looks nearly as confident as Lena, but falls on an onodi. The stream hasn't showed the team standings even once, so I have no idea how much bars and beam have hurt them. Vlada looks as amazing as on all the other events today. Some wobbles and the elegance is not really there, but she's a confident competitor. All the pressure is on her too, because her teammates just fell and she's the last competitor in the arena competing. The audience's attention is entirely on her.

Overall, a bad day for my favorite, Ksyusha. But she'll be fine. She'll win everything at the Youth Olympic Games, she has to. She probably didn't do vault today because she has an amanar and is saving it for something more important. Just kidding. But congrats to Vlada for starting her international junior career with a bang.