Full results can be found here.
Once again, I have uncovered a mysterious Russian practice, with Viktoria Komova double agenting for both the victorious Central and second placed Moscow team AND Anna Dementieva also doubling up for the winning Central team and the 3rd placed PFO (Volga Federal District??) team.
The results are as follows :
1 Central (Komova, Pavlova, Inishina, Dementieva, Kruglikova, Stepanova) 174.95
2 Moscow (Mustafina, Komova, Myzdrikova, Novikova, Syrinkova, Chibiskova) 171.132
3 PFO (Volga Federal District?) (Dementieva, Telitsina, Skorodumova, Polyan, Lavrushina, Smirnova) 164.4
4 St Petersburg (Sazonova, Nabieva, Sapronova, Terenteva, Krylova, Zemskova (did not compete)) 162.6
Aliya Mustafina apparently won the battle of those competing on all four pieces of apparatus, except for that she didn't perform at all - please see below for an explanation. In her absence, Dementieva had the better of the entire field all around and on beam and floor, where she finished with the highest scores (15.4 and an impressive 14.8 respectively). Viktoria Komova worked bars and beam only, garnering the top mark on bars again (16.2) and almost matching Dementieva's beam (15.3).
Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Pavlova were the only gymnasts outside the power three to finish in the top three in apparatus: Pavlova's 14.95 vault headed Nabieva's 14.7, while Nabieva managed to grab the third highest points on bars with 15.4.
I would like to say that this was an interesting tour de force for Mustafina, but it looks as if her scores were gleaned from another competition (my take on a posting on the Russian language gymnastics board so I guess fairly reliable) so we'll just have to wait and see how she performs at the American Cup. For sure, a tour de force from the beautiful Dementieva, cementing her position as a strong all arounder on the Russian team. Komova's position seems a little weakened since last year's impressive displays of strength, but let's not make any hasty judgements.
Quite a confusing competition all around, which perhaps it is intended to be, as I doubt the Russian coaches want other teams to know exactly how their best gymnasts are faring against each other this early in the season. But we do know, as I guess we are expected to, that Russia now has three strong all arounders instead of just two - Dementieva, Mustafina and Komova. The Russians seem to have lost none of their inscrutability as competitive tacticians, and I relish the forthcoming rivalry between these three fantastic gymnasts, who are so individual, crowd-pleasing and ambitious.
I'm glad to see that Nabieva managing to pull out reasonably consistent work two days running. In my opinion, after a scrappy world championships Tatiana needs to persuade the Russian coaches of her reliability if she is to stay in contention for the Olympic team.
Let's see how the apparatus finals unfurl tomorrow and Sunday.
Pictures of the teams appear here.
Once again, I have uncovered a mysterious Russian practice, with Viktoria Komova double agenting for both the victorious Central and second placed Moscow team AND Anna Dementieva also doubling up for the winning Central team and the 3rd placed PFO (Volga Federal District??) team.
The results are as follows :
1 Central (Komova, Pavlova, Inishina, Dementieva, Kruglikova, Stepanova) 174.95
2 Moscow (Mustafina, Komova, Myzdrikova, Novikova, Syrinkova, Chibiskova) 171.132
3 PFO (Volga Federal District?) (Dementieva, Telitsina, Skorodumova, Polyan, Lavrushina, Smirnova) 164.4
4 St Petersburg (Sazonova, Nabieva, Sapronova, Terenteva, Krylova, Zemskova (did not compete)) 162.6
Aliya Mustafina apparently won the battle of those competing on all four pieces of apparatus, except for that she didn't perform at all - please see below for an explanation. In her absence, Dementieva had the better of the entire field all around and on beam and floor, where she finished with the highest scores (15.4 and an impressive 14.8 respectively). Viktoria Komova worked bars and beam only, garnering the top mark on bars again (16.2) and almost matching Dementieva's beam (15.3).
Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Pavlova were the only gymnasts outside the power three to finish in the top three in apparatus: Pavlova's 14.95 vault headed Nabieva's 14.7, while Nabieva managed to grab the third highest points on bars with 15.4.
I would like to say that this was an interesting tour de force for Mustafina, but it looks as if her scores were gleaned from another competition (my take on a posting on the Russian language gymnastics board so I guess fairly reliable) so we'll just have to wait and see how she performs at the American Cup. For sure, a tour de force from the beautiful Dementieva, cementing her position as a strong all arounder on the Russian team. Komova's position seems a little weakened since last year's impressive displays of strength, but let's not make any hasty judgements.
Quite a confusing competition all around, which perhaps it is intended to be, as I doubt the Russian coaches want other teams to know exactly how their best gymnasts are faring against each other this early in the season. But we do know, as I guess we are expected to, that Russia now has three strong all arounders instead of just two - Dementieva, Mustafina and Komova. The Russians seem to have lost none of their inscrutability as competitive tacticians, and I relish the forthcoming rivalry between these three fantastic gymnasts, who are so individual, crowd-pleasing and ambitious.
I'm glad to see that Nabieva managing to pull out reasonably consistent work two days running. In my opinion, after a scrappy world championships Tatiana needs to persuade the Russian coaches of her reliability if she is to stay in contention for the Olympic team.
Let's see how the apparatus finals unfurl tomorrow and Sunday.
Pictures of the teams appear here.
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