Russian Championships 2018: The Queen Is Back

The Russian Championships began with the team competition today and I knew we weren't going to get the repeat disaster of last year, because the class is back. The one and only Aliya Mustafina made her return in her usual way, surprising everyone. No simple layouts, no timers, she had real skills and real routines, less than a year after giving birth. I don't know how, but I never know how when it comes to My Tsaritsa. Because there's no way she would return and not be The Champion again right away, the Moscow team won gold. My Queen is on the top of the podium again. The second team was Central, and third Moscow's second team. Because they aren't lucky enough with their athletes for just one team.

The official livestream doesn't start until tomorrow, so my recap of the day is based on instagram and periscope videos and results.

Stuttgart World Cup 2018: doing team final the Romanian way

So... Russia competed at Stuttgart and promptly disqualified themselves out of the team final. They're testing my patience. Because they have no excuse. It was not a bad team. Viktoria Komova, Anastasia Ilyankova, Lilia Akhaimova, Maria Kharenkova and Viktoria Gorbatova. Almost all of them belong to the better half of athletes they have right now. How can you go to a meet with a team of this caliber and screw up so badly. How? HOW? I don't know if you noticed, but I'm a little bit mad right now. Yeah, the other teams had some Worlds level gymnasts, yeah, it's really early in the season, yeah, the Russians downgraded and are saving their strength for Nationals in order to hit the perfect combination of utter disaster and great potential they so value there. And to be honest, this competition had really strict scoring. But even with these things considered, it was pretty bad.

Round Lake Update: upgrades and injuries on beam

Russian Gymnastics Federation posted some training footage of the gymnasts on their instagram account. Most of it was obviously about their biggest start Aliya Mustafina, but we saw glimpses of Maria Kharenkova, Elena Eremina and Anastasia Ilyankova too. We even saw a few skills form Aliya and Masha, but the rest was only choreography and warm-ups.

Бревно - самый коварный вид женского гимнастического многоборья!🤸🏼‍♀️ ▫️▫️▫️ Уделим ему особое внимание☝🏻😈 вместе с @musaliya135 @heleneremina @nastyailyankova @hariys98 ▫️▫️▫️ Enjoy❤️ #toprusgym

Henkilön Top Russian Gymnastics (@toprusgym) jakama julkaisu Helmi 1, 2018 kello 7.16 PST

this is me getting overly excited about a really small meet

The roster for WOGA Classic (on February 18th) was released and IT HAD RUSSIANS! Two and a half of them, to be exact. The two Baby Swans flying across the pond this time are Angelina Simakova and Ksenia Klimenko, who are both competing at the elite competition for juniors. The reason I got really excited is Klimenko, aka Ksyusha, who is currently my favorite Baby Swan. I've probably mentioned this about 100 times before, but she's gorgeous.

Just look at those lines.

Because of her young age (born in 2003), she hasn't competed internationally before, but it looks like that's about to change. Let's hope that someone in the audience appreciates true beauty and records and posts her routines on YouTube. So far it has been a pain to find quality footage of her.

Sima already has plenty of experience and plenty of typical Russian headcasing under her belt, but I'm really happy to see her too. She really underperformed at the Europeans, so hopefully she'll take this chance to really show what she can do. It's early in the season and she's a Russian junior, so probably not though...

The last half from my two and a half Russians is Irina Alexeeva. She's technically fully Russian, but since she has trained at WOGA since forever and is planning to switch nationalities, I'm only counting her as a half. She's the most advanced junior attending, so she's probably going to get quite a few gold medals.

My Favorite Routines from This Quadrennium (III)

BALANCE BEAM

The day of the 2013 World Championships balance beam final I was visiting my grandmother with my mother and missed it live, but when I came back, I immediately went to my computer (I wanted to watch the actual competition before looking at the results), but before it was even on, my mother had turned on the TV and yelled at me that they were showing highlights. I ran to the living room and looked at Aliya with her gold and my mother was like "isn't she your favorite gymnast, she won, how nice" and I was like "NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND this is BALANCE BEAM, it's her worst apparatus, SHE'S A WORLD CHAMPION on BALANCE BEAM!!!!". And that was Antwerp summed up for me. Of all the great beam workers in that final, it was Aliya who somehow took the gold. This routine is fucking legendary and it kills me that people who didn't follow gymnastics back then are like my mother and will never understand those feelings. Those two years when Aliya's beam was a complete disaster and she scored 11 at an international major competition are lost from memory and there's nothing shocking about her being a World Champion on beam anymore.

it's a different team now

The Russians are on their annual training/recovery vacation and this year they are back in Mallorca after trying out Italy last year. Unfortunately it looks like the Spanish snoops are vacationing too, because we haven't seen any training footage yet. I was going through the gymnasts' social media though, and this group picture really hit me hard:

From left: Daria Spiridonova, Lilia Akhaimova, Elena Eremina, Maria Kharenkova, Valeria Saifulina, Angelina Melnikova, Angelina Simakova, Viktoria Gorbatova, Anastasia Ilyankova, Ulyana Perebinosova, Seda Tutkhalyan

This bunch of babies is the team. This. I knew Aliya, Masha, Afan and Vika are all taking a well-earned break/slow decent into retirement, but this team picture made me really see the situation as it is. Masha K. and Spiridoz are now the team leaders, their most experienced and accomplished gymnasts. Didn't they just turn senior? Seda and Melka are right behind with some major international experience and all around capability. Even they are "veterans" of the last quad come next year, even though we just saw them grow up. Lilia is technically the oldest gymnast of this bunch, but because she hasn't ever been on the main team, her face in the team picture seems even newer than Melka's.

And if you thought like me at first that the rest this picture is filled with tiny juniors, no, it's not. This group (save for Lera, Vika and Sima) is THE SENIOR TEAM. It just feels so weird. The post-Olympic "where is everybody?" slump has officially begun for me. Don't get me wrong, I love all of these gymnasts and the super young "veterans" have a very special place in my heart, plus I'm really excited that Nastia, Lena and Ulya will join the senior team, but I need to adjust to the new makeup and look of the Russian nuclear team...

Looks like Kapi and Shelgie stayed home, I don't think either one of them is retiring though. And Polina might continue her B-team career. Alla is probably a lost cause by now. 

I needed some cheering up after my gloomy realizations because of this picture, and Seda was up for the job. Just look at her in Mallorca, posing with Miley Cyrus :) Who knew they were friends.

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I'm working on a series of posts dedicated to my favorite routines from this quad, probably with a side of some other good things that happened, like leotards, pictures, memorable moments and stuff. We'll see what I come up with.

From Russia to Rio: Floor Exercise

4th and final installment of this series, unless I suddenly get super inspired and do a separate one just for individual AA.

FLOOR EXERCISE:

Floor is where Russia loses most against their main rivals. They are lacking in difficulty and creativity (and conditioning) and most of the team struggles to break 14. It's been like this the entire quad and they've done little to fix it, while other teams have made the gap even larger year by year. We can only hope for better results next quad, but if the team administration doesn't change (they currently focus on complaining instead of working), I don't see any major improvements coming. It's starting to look like the situation with Romania and I really don't want Russia to end up like that next quad.

The Russians at Osijek World Challenge Cup

Excuse me while I take this great opportunity to rave about Seda Tutkhalyan (because I take any opportunity to rave about her). My girl hit 4 for 4 this weekend, won some medals to top it off and I'm so happy for her! Apparently she was sick prior to the meet so she only competed on beam and bars, but she competed excellently. And this means she didn't ruin her chances for Euros! 

It was a good weekend for all of the Russians actually, except for a tiny hiccup for Kapi.

Just look at this beam routine from Maria Kharenkova!

From Russia to Rio: Balance Beam

Third part part of the series, it's time for the terror of women's gymnastics (be scared, be very scared)...

BALANCE BEAM:

This is where things get really unpredictable. The best gymnasts Russia has on balance beam are currently nowhere near actually making the team, so the lineup is not going to be ideal, no matter how things work out. But when you can only take 5 gymnasts, you can't have the best everywhere. Not to mention that if things go wrong on balance beam, they go really wrong, even if they can put the best gymnasts up.

I really don't think Russia should have any problems putting up a good beam rotation. But they shouldn't have had problems in Glasgow either but somehow managed to screw it up. So we won't know until it's over.

Russian team for European Championships is not surprising, but HAPPY MAY DAY anyway

The Russian team for European Championships was announced and there were no changes from earlier, except for Vika, who is still suffering from back pain (more about it later).

It's going to be:

• Aliya Mustafina
• Angelina Melnikova
• Ksenia Afanasyeva
• Maria Paseka
• Daria Spiridonova
• Seda Tutkhalyan (reserve(ish))

The first two have clearly earned their spot. Aliya for just being Aliya, and Melka for having performance of a lifetime at nationals. If I have to actually come up with an actual reason for Aliya having earned her spot, it's her persona. She's the team leader, the girls respect her, love her, listen to her and she can hopefully keep everybody calm with her own calm no bullshit presence. Clearly Afan wasn't up for that role last year. Aliya can also medal on bars, stay on the damn beam (albeit shakily) and most likely come up with a good double twisting yurchenko. As far as I know, she's been training with full loads since nationals, so I trust her to be ready.

Melka is a no-brainer. She can do all around at team finals: passable DTY, good bars, good beam, decent floor. She should also be able to contend for individual medals on beam and bars. Maybe even floor if she gets her connections and the competition has some mistakes.

So those two I'm fine with, but as for the rest...no.

Russian Nationals 2016 - Melka is The Chosen One

It is official, Angelina Melnikova is The Chosen One, the one Queen Aliya has chosen as her successor.

The team and all around events finished today and Melka continued her near perfect performances to grab the top spot on the podium. She actually dominated the competition with her two-day score points ahead the silver and bronze medalists, Seda Tutkhalyan (yay!) and Maria Kharenkova respectively. Her vault was the usual, off to the side, but beam and bars were as great as day one. On floor she didn't quite make all of her turns and connections and had to settle for lower difficulty (down to 5.8), but there were no other notable issues. Like Melka, Masha also had an amazing competition, 8 routines with no big errors. And this is Russians we are talking about! What is going on?

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: Uneven Bars

And we go on to the second part of this series of Team Russia's routines for Rio, time for uneven bars.

The Russians compete for worst vault of the day in Stuttgart!

And the winner is...... Shelgunova! With a score of 12.550. Not only did she fall, but she also underrotated a DTY badly enough to get her vault devalued. What a performance. Watch the action here:

Dmitrieva came in second with a DTY worth 13.250 and Melnikova third with a DTY worth 14.250. A DTY that scores over 14, wow. Kapitonova competed the worst worst vault. A solid FTY. The score (13.900) was bit lower than Melka's, but I'm giving Melka the bronze medal for terrible execution. Congrats to everyone!

Oh, and a special mention goes to my favorite, Seda Tutkhalyan, who competed at a different competition but still stuck to the party line with 13.400 for an underrotated DTY with hands down. Amazing camaraderie, just like in Glasgow.
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Now that the awards for the worst vaulting have been given, I'm going to move on to the actual competition, DTB Pokal Team Challenge. I'm actually really happy that we got an entire team of Russians for this competition. They kept the most important (and injury prone) players at home, and failed to acquire a visa for Maria Kharenkova (who was supposed to compete in Glasgow World Cup earlier), but sent a team of youngsters, all of whom are fighting for one final spot on the Olympic team, to Germany to show their skills.

News and Updates from Round Lake: Valentina Might Be High but Vika Is Still Alive and Aliya Is Finally Giving up Circus

I started off my weekend by walking home from work (I didn't have money for the bus because I spent it on a pastry to get through the day), taking a shortcut across the ice (I live on an island and work in the mainland) and tripping on someone's unmarked fishing hole and breaking the screen of my iPod in the process. I guess I should be glad I didn't fall in and drown/die of hypothermia. But I wasn't because my iPod is my most important possession.

So my weekend didn't look so great at first but The Wicked Witch of Round Lake aka Valentina Rodionenko decided to cheer me with some updates. Now Valentina likes to remind everyone of her existence every now and then by giving out (un)important news or false information and I'm hoping this falls under the former category, because it means that Vika has survived the winter (so far) and Aliya is slowly starting to wake up from her hibernation.

She's also sharing some information about the competitions to come this year, team selection for the Olympics and their best medal hopes.