Russian Cup 2018: Event Finals

The event finals of the Russian Cup were pretty underwhelming, it seemed like everyone important was already over this competition and thinking about getting some rest before the European Championships next month. Melka only competed in the uneven bars final which was a good decision in my opinion.

I couldn't catch the live feed because I've spent 60 hours of this week at work, but I'm trying to write this post based on scores and any videos I can find. As of yet, no one has posted the full coverage to YouTube.

Russian Cup 2018: All Around Final

I know I'm bad, trust me, but I wasn't going to miss the Russian Cup. So even though I'm a bit late, I'm here with a recap of the all around.

The Russian Cup took place in Chelyabinsk this year, and the arena actually looked like an ice rink based on its shape.That reminded me of this dream I once had. I'm happy to say that the competition didn't turn out like in my dream. Not that I would have been surprised if it did, this is the Russian Cup.

The Russian team has been riddled with injuries as usual, and the most notable missing gymnast today was Aliya Mustafina. She's had problems with her knee ever since Nationals. Elena Eremina and Maria Paseka have both returned to training after their back injuries, but are not yet fit to compete, and probably won't be for awhile. Irina Alexeeva, who just made her return to Russia and has been licensed to compete internationally by FIG, is out with an ankle injury.

The scores from the qualifying competition and team final carried over and coming into the final, heavily taped Angelina Melnikova was less than a tenth ahead of Anastasia Ilyankova for the gold medal. Angelina Simakova was comfortably third only a point behind and I would have actually been very happy with this podium. Viktoria Komova came to the all around in fourth place and the always surprising Tatiana Nabieva was fifth. The last gymnast in the top group was another veteran, Daria Elizarova, after Lilia Akhaimova pulled out of the final due to some nagging injuries.

Russian Championships 2018: The Mighty Melka at the Event Finals

The Russian Championships concluded with 3 more gold medals and a silver for Angelina Melnikova. If this is going to be the peak performance of her career, I will be mad. She could have gotten Worlds medals for these performances, but no, she had to hit almost everything at Russian Nationals instead. I'm not mad that she hit, I'm still really happy, I just wish that she could stay in this zone when it really matters. Maybe she will in the future, even if Simone Biles is going to come back and make everyone else nearly irrelevant. Aliya Mustafina finally managed to run out of stamina and finished without medals. Except for her team gold of course. She had to have that one gold so that the competition was worth showing up to.

Round Lake Update: Rumor has it

This is all from my wild and speculative tumblr dash, the sources range from the gymnasts' instagrams to pure fan speculation, so don't take anything too seriously. But let's go over some recent rumors. The topics include injuries, returns and the Queen's marriage.

The one and only Ksenia Afanasyeva is back at Round Lake. The source is Angelina Melnikova, so I'm pretty sure this is true, but to what extent? Is she BACK back, or just visiting for fun? I have a hard time believing that she's fully training, which she needs to be if she's at Round Lake. I don't have a hard time thinking that she's training, but usually gymnasts come back from injuries (and retirement) by training at home and after awhile and only when they're super serious, they go back to Round Lake for evaluation and begin training there if they're far enough in their recovery. Even the veterans like Afan do it like this. Aliya did it like this and Afan has done it several times in the past. If she's back, she has been super sneaky about it. There's of course the complication that Afan's coach is a part of the staff and has a personal gymnast at Round Lake, so she could be forced to return early. I don't know. But I'm excited.

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. 

Round Lake Update with some old friends

The Munich Munchkins. That's my nickname for the half-German Russians, who spend more time in Munich than in Round Lake. Queen Aliya, the leader of the Munchkins, seems to have stayed in one piece since the Olympics and doesn't have any broken parts that need either replacements or regular maintenance at the moment, but Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka are in Germany.

Vika was diagnosed with some fractured vertebrae before the Olympics and is probably just getting a routine follow-up. I don't think she can return to full training before 2017, but we'll see. Masha has been suffering from back pain for months and was in and out of training because of it all year, but I think this is her first time visiting the German Miracle Doctors, hopefully they'll figure out what's wrong. Vika spent a long time in Russia with a wrong diagnosis and treatment, so Masha should be better off in Munich too. It's October and they're in Bavaria, so my mind immediately went to Oktoberfest, but unfortunately (or fortunately) for the girls, it ended a week ago. No beer and lederhosen treatment for back pain then.

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. 

Russian Cup 2016: Event Finals

The Periscope streams we had were terrible and mostly focusing on the men, so I can't really write much about the event finals. Click read more for my short recap of the events.

But more importantly, Andrei Rodionenko announced the Olympic team (yes, again, this the 100th team probably) after the event finals, and it's currently:

• Aliya Mustafina
• Angelina Melnikova
• Maria Paseka
• Daria Spiridonova
• Seda Tutkhalyan
• Alts: Kapitonova, Afanasyeva, Akhaimova

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Here are the event final medalists: 

Vault

1. Maria Paseka 14.867     

2. Seda Tutkhalyan 14.734

3. Tatiana Nabieva 14.234 

Uneven Bars

1. Natalia Kapitonova 15.333  

2. Angelina Melnikova 15.033

3. Daria Spiridonova 14.933    

Balance Beam

1. Angelina Melnikova 15.400

2. Seda Tutkhalyan 13.967      

3. Evgenia Shelgunova 13.867

Floor Exercise

1. Lilia Akhaimova 14.367      

2. Natalia Kapitonova 13.867  

3. Angelina Melnikova 13.733

Russian Cup 2016: A Better Day

I actually wrote this yesterday right after the competition and then forgot to publish it, whoops. So that's why I keep using today and yesterday wrong. Forgive me.
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Today was the Day 2 of all around, with yesterday's scores coming back to haunt everyone. Good thing everyone had equally bad day yesterday, and equally good day today (except for Aliya), so no one suffered too much from yesterday's disaster.

We also got an explanation to that uneven bars fiasco yesterday. Apparently the team has changed their equipment to a new brand and model to match the equipment in Rio (Gymnova if I remember correctly). This particular UB set not only differed from their usual set, but was not "broken in" and had a different fool to it because of that. At least that's what they're saying. I'd think the girls were used to adapting fast to new equipment, but maybe this brand is just very different. Hopefully they get used to it before leaving for Rio. Today most of the girls actually hit their routines, but Aliya was still having difficulties. Since she's the most experienced gymnast, you'd think that it was the other was around, but since she also has nothing to prove, she just didn't want to keep fighting when it didn't feel right. Hopefully it's that instead of those old nagging injuries presenting themselves.

And one more thing about yesterday. If you were wondering like me why most of the national team showed up to a team competition wearing whatever they wanted, I have no answer to that. But I can say that their respective teams were deducted for it on their scores, oops. :D So let's thank Natalia Kapitonova for following the dress code and not costing for her team because of it.

But onto today's competition. Melka owned it, as expected of her. I really wasn't a fan of her when she was a junior, but she's blossomed into a beautiful gymnast and excellent all arounder, how could I not like her. Princess Tut had an impressive performance too for a silver medal and Aliya climbed up from her 5th spot to third. That needed to happen. Shelgie was right at her heels....

1: Angelina Melnikova 117.150 (57.625/59.525) 

2. Seda Tutkhalyan      116.150 (57.075/59.075)  

3. Aliya Mustafina   112.800 (54.900/57.900)      

Russian Cup 2016: Enjoy the Disaster

The Olympics are coming and it's time to show your best, what you're capable of, what you've been working on since you were 5. Or not, if you're Team Russia. There were falls and 12s everywhere, and nearly everybody completely fucked up bars. Aliya got a 12 on bars! Moscow, the deepest team didn't even medal. If this was P&Gs, Marta would have committed a mass murder.

But it was not the P&Gs. It was the Russian Cup, historically a bad event, so let's just enjoy the disaster that only Russian gymnastics can bring. They're so bad it's good.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to give a shoutout to Romania. It's nationals and Lari has a concussion and Cata is getting rehydrated in the hospital because of a violent stomach flu. Wow. At least the Russians made it to the meet before combustion.

Dear Valentina

Dear Valentina, 

Love,
Nabs (and her squad)

Nabs and Nabs 2.0 are making a bad day better

I'm still crying about Vika, but...

The Nabs is back! 

Лена Еремина

Video, jonka Vera Kiryashova (@kiryashova) julkaisi 15. 06ta 2016 klo 14.40 PDT

Elena Eremina, Tatiana Nabieva's mini-me, actually followed in her teammates footsteps and brought back the Nabieva, the most difficult release move on the uneven bars. I don't think anyone has performed it in competition after Nabs herself, so hopefully Lena can integrate it in her routine in the future. The Russians really need a good daredevil to mix things up next quad, Princess Tut has been filling that role all by herself and performing under pressure is not her thing.

Fight night with Queen Aliya and the return of Spinstafina (ft. Nabs)

What goes on in Aliyastan doesn't stay there. This post is just a collection of things found on social media.

So one of my readers who watches MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) informed me on tumblr that they saw Aliya on tv during an MMA fight. What?

Kuva, jonka WARRIORMMA (@warriormmashop) julkaisi 30. 04ta 2016 klo 10.51 PDT

Yup, there she is, fabulous as ever. And I guess it's not too far fetched, since her father is a wrestler. You can watch the entire fight here, Aliya shows up around 1:12:20 to give out a trophy. I recommend watching it just for her, because she is looking really, really beautiful. I also love how she is really nicely and formally dressed when everyone else is wearing anything from jeans and t-shirt to underwear. She's the Queen all right. And I bet she could take down those guys just with her stare, no sweat and blood needed. Maybe after she retires from gymnastics?

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...

Nobody Retired, but Maybe Valentina Herself Should

As I suspected, Valentina is talking shit again. We already knew Nabieva wasn't retired, but now both Grishina and Kramarenko have denied their retirement too. Kramarenko isn't sure if she's able to fully come back from an injury that happened last summer, but she is training.

Valentina however is of retirement age and clearly all kinds of crazy, so let's hope she takes her own advice and retires.

Heartbreaking Retirements - Or Just the Usual Nonsense from Valentina

According to tass.ru, Valentina Rodionenko announced the retirements of three of Russia's former national team members, Anastasia Grishina, Tatiana Nabieva and Ekaterina Kramarenko. Even though the retirements wouldn't be that surprising, you should take this news with a grain of salt. Valentina has a habit of making announcements that don't make sense or are plainly untrue.

And sometimes I actually feel like she uses publicity as psychological warfare, warfare against her own team at that. She's a bit like genuinely delusional dictator who sees enemies everywhere and uses propaganda and mind games to keep everybody under control.

Anyway, at least Nabieva has already denied being retired. And even back when she did retire, she still went to Worlds.... ;)