Russian Championships 2017: Meanwhile in Kazan...

It was a rough start for everyone...

Russian Championships 2017: Finally a good day

Today was Day 1 of event finals, and we had a high quality stream again. Too bad that whoever was responsible of the stream, didn't really care about WAG and kept the cameras on the men. They actually tried to show both by having a tiny box in the corner of the screen with a different footage, but gave up on that within two minutes and went back to MAG. The Russian WAG team is much more accomplished than the men, just saying. At least show both tomorrow.

I would have really loved to see more, because it looked like the girls were finally, finally getting their life together. Not only did we have plenty of acceptable and good performances, but there were even a few brilliant ones. 

As a plus, we had Aliya Mustafina commentating. She has such a relaxing and soothing voice that I think she could make even beam finals less nerve wracking. She will be put to the ultimate test tomorrow.

Best and Worst of This Quadrennium

Someone asked me to pick my "superficial favorites" and "podiums of shame" on tumblr and I originally meant to add those posts to the series about my favorite routines from this quadrennium, but forgot. But good thing this a blog, not a newspaper so I can just forget stuff and then post it whenever I like. So here we go. The categories were a part of the request, not picked by me.

SUPERFICIAL FAVORITES

BEST LEOTARD

1. Aliya's "lucky blue leo". This leo had some great moments (its Worlds medals include 2013 BB gold, 2014 BB & FX bronze), and it' pretty too. It was definitely one of the favorites among the team too, worn by many.

2. Euros 2016 Team QF. I first wasn’t quite sure about this leo because the rhinestones that go right across the chest looked a bit awkward, but now I actually love the design. Very simple, but still something different. And the color is amazing. The "antlers" on the neck line also good because of the coloring, I'm not a fan of the design when they stick out too much.

3. Baku TF day 2. I just love simple, sporty leos and this one is great. A+.  The patriotic colors are nice and don't seem "forced", and the leo looked good on anyone who wore it, a rarity. I guess this is technically from last quad (they wore it in Jesolo 2012), but I’m just going to ignore that.

A special mention for these two throwback leos:

Vika’s leo gives me those good 2010 vibes, but with a new color. And it must be even luckier than Aliya’s lucky blue one, because Glasgow was the only major competition Vika competed in all quad and this leo got her through alive with a gold medal to top it off. And it looks beautiful on her.

Seda’s vintage leo has survived 3 quads (baby Aliya included), and it actually looks great on her. I love it. 

My Favorite Routines from This Quadrennium (II)

Since the uneven bars is obviously the team's best apparatus, this post is going to be a longer one.

UNEVEN BARS

My favorite has to obviously be Queen of the Uneven Bars Aliya Mustafina just being herself  and taking what's hers, the Olympic gold to be precise. She successfully defended her gold on the same apparatus from London, which is an incredibly difficult feat in gymnastics. She also won Russia's only gold in gymnastics, just like she did in London. After struggling with injuries and low difficulty all quad and being counted out from the race to the Olympic gold, she brought her best to Rio, because that's what mattered. She actually ended up having the highest difficulty score out of all the contestants in the final, and since her execution is always impeccable, there was no stopping her. 

My Favorite Routines from This Quadrennium (I)

I've been meaning to do a compilation post about my favorite Russian routines from this quad (2013-2016) ever since I recovered from the Olympics, but procrastination got in the way. I'll do this one apparatus at a time, so the first part is going to be a bit boring. There's only so much you can get out of vault, especially with Russia.

VAULT

Obviously this moment had to be included, Maria Paseka winning gold on vault at the 2015 World Championships. Look how far she's come after London, her amanar was basically a gymternet joke back then, but now it's solid. And to think that she was out with injuries for almost two years prior to 2015, but came back with a cheng. Not to mention winning silver at the 2016 Olympics, and vaulting the amanar that clinched Russia the Olympic silver during the last rotation of the team final.

My Official Predictions for Russian Championships

I tend to make predictions before important competitions.

Here are the ones for Russian Nationals:

Aliya wins the AA while performing only on balance beam and uneven bars.

On beam she lacks most of the required elements and her “dismount” is falling on her double turn, and not getting back up because she made it look half legit and the judges decided that perhaps it was a new element.

On uneven bars she performs half of a routine and scores 17 because she’s that good.

Dasha hits beam, but it’s Seda who gets second on bars after Aliya. What can I say, people fell a lot and there was some sketchy scoring.

Vika wins second on AA based on a video she posted on vk with her watching the championships.

Beefarm has a beam routine. And it’s good.

Beefarm also sticks an amanar and debuts a new vault, “Paseka”. It’s yurchenko half on 2 twists off in a layout starfish position.

Melka and Kapi fight it to the death. By death I mean a wolf turn.

Masha K. performs well, hits her routines and looks solid but gets forgotten by everyone. Alla has the same fate.

The Guinness World Record for most turns on floor in a single competition is broken.

So is the record for most falls on double tucks.

Andrei Rodionenko files a petition for FIG to remove balance beam from artistic gymnastics.

Pavs makes a return to competition and Russia, and is one of the few ones who makes it out alive and makes the team for Euros. Unfortunately someone forgets to file for a visa and she gets left home.

Afan is back with the weirdest and flashiest floor routine ever seen. She wasn’t supposed compete, but got tired of watching the boring routines and improvised one on the spot. It ended with a sat down wolf turn, because just stopped caring in the middle of it. And was appalled about doing a wolf turn.

Valentina runs around looking crazy. People think it’s because there is some shit going on on the beam, but it’s really because she’s looking for her bottle of vodka. It was Melka who stole it. She watched Grishy’s Olympics and it was just too much pressure.

The FIG denies Andrei’s petition and he sets off to fabricate a new birth certificate for Varvara Zubova as a last resort.

Khorkina gets tired of it all and makes a comeback. By the time Olympics come, it’s only her against Cata in an empty arena because everyone else is injured. Both are in a full body cast, but they get shit done anyway.

Meanwhile in Penza

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Meanwhile in Penza...
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Melka is bravely facing her destiny as the savior of Russia...

From Russia to Rio: VAULT

With the Olympics approaching fast, I thought I'd take a look at what Team Russia has to offer for Rio. This is the first part (1/4) in the series.