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Mustafina wins gold on bars at Russia Cup

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Today's event finals have taken place, with finals for the women on vault and uneven bars, and for the men high bar, floor and pommels.  The gold medallists are Anna Pavlova (vault), Aliya Mustafina (bars), Ignatyev (high bar), Belyavski (pommels) and Ignatyev (floor).

Courtesy of the RGF
Vault was especially disappointing for specialist Maria Paseka, hopeful for the Olympics, who for some reason incurred a 2 point deduction on each of her two presentations and finished in last place in that final.  This competition did not feature those who are expected to be strongest in vault by the Olympic Games, namely Komova, Grishina and Mustafina, although it is fair to say that the Russians do seem to have a weakness in depth on this apparatus and are reliant on their three star performers.

Both Mustafina's and Komova's bars routines had a start value of 7, with Mustafina performing hers without error.  Komova's bars were good but for sitting down her dismount.  Anastasia Grishina's score of 15.45 earned her second place, although as she was competing as a guest she did not medal, leaving Komova and Nabieva to mop up silver and bronze. 

Ignatyev went against earlier form to take his two gold medals today, while Belyavski and Pakhmomenko made strong efforts on the Russian men's weak piece, pommels.  Both have therefore reinforced their claim to spots on the Olympic team.  Ablyazin suffered errors on floor and so failed to medal there.

The competition concludes tomorrow with finals in (women) beam and floor and (men) rings, vault and parallel bars.  Rodionenko has said that the Olympic teams will be chosen following the Russia Cup - although I expect each squad to include more than the minimum five gymnasts required for the competitive line up!  I am also not sure if this means that there will be a public announcement ;-)

With thanks to Nora at the All Around Forum, who provided the reports.  Full results are available at the Federation website.

Women's Vault

1.    Anna Pavlova                   14.390 (5.8/5.6)
2.    Tatiana Nabieva               14.150 (5.2/5.8)
3.    Anna Myzdrikova            13.800 (5.0/5.6)
4.    Ekaterina Svetkova          12.880 (4.6/4.6)
5.    Kristina Bodryagina          12.790 (4.6/4.4)
6.    Olga Bikmurzina               12.025 (4.0/4.6)
7.    Maria Paseka                   11.930 (6.5/5.8)

Women's Uneven Bars

1.     Aliya Mustafina                 16.150 (7.0)
2.     Anastasiya Grishina           15.450 (6.5)*
3.     Viktoria Komova              15.150 (7.0)
4.     Tatiana Nabieva                14.900 (6.1)
5.     Anna Dementieva             14.425 (6.1)
6.     Anna Rodionova               13.500 (6.2)
7.     Maria Paseka                   13.175 (6.1)
8.     Ksenia Afanasyeva           12.900 (5.7) 

* appearing as a guest


Men's high bar

1.     Nikita Ignyatev                14.833 (6.7)
2.     David Belyavsky             14.467 (6.0)
3.     Sergei Khorokhordin      14.033 (6.2)
4.     Alexei Rostov                 13.833 (6.0)
5.     Kirill Ignatenkov             13.333 (5.9)
6.     Andrei Cherkasov          12.533 (4.9)
7.     Danil Kazachov              12.500 (5.1)
8.     Alexander Klochkov      10,700 (2.7)

Men's floor

1.      Nikita Ignatyev               14.633 (6.1)
2.      Sergei Khorokhordin      14.433 (5.8)
3.      David Belyavsky             14.167 (6.0)
4.      Alexander Ilyn                14.067 (5.6)
5.      Denis Ablyazin               14.033 (7.1)
6.      Igor Pakhomenko           13.767 (6.2)
7.      Dmitri Gogotov               13.533 (6.0)
8.      Andrei Cherkasov          10.900 (4.0)


Pommel horse

1.       David Belyavsky             15.200 (6.3)
2.       Andrei Perevoznikov       15.033 (6.6)
3.       Igor Pakhomenko            14.766 (6.2)
4.       Sergei Khorokhordin       14.433 (5.8)
5.       Nikita Ignatyev                14.300 (5.6)
6.       Alexander Ilyn                 12.967 (5.5)
7.       Alexander Balandin          12.200 (5.1)
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Comments

  1. M16 June 2012 at 22:01

    Yay for Aliya, I wonder if she will upgrade her bars. If the Russian's can't do the Amanar, they could go for a vault that is 6.3 or soemthing. Or do the 5.8 vault but have more difficulty on bars to make up some points.

    Paseka is not helping her self make this team, she fell on both her vaults!! Not good at all. I hope Grishina comes back and Afan gets in shape because everything is riding on Aliya and Viktoria's shoulders right now, and that's a huge burden for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth17 June 2012 at 00:43

      I really hope Grishina is better and back more or less immediately ... they really do need her if they are to fight for gold seriously.

      I hope Paseka makes the Amanar reliably in time for London.

      I agree the injury risk is to great to have the all arounders practicing the Amanar.

      Delete
  2. Anonymous17 June 2012 at 10:11

    These Amanars are a pain in the ass is what they are and they start to backfire, especially on the Americans. They use to perform them flawlessly and now, it looks like an injury waiting to happen. It sounds weird, but I really do hope that not all of the Russians will perform them in July, simply because I still believe that winning an Olympic gold should not depend on one vault when it is an all around sport for crying out loud... I love my Russian team and pray for their gold so I do realise that an Amanar is needed. I just hate that it's become compulsory

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth17 June 2012 at 10:19

      I so agree with everything you say and hope the Russians do not just sheep like follow the trend. There are other high value vaults and i would also rather see well executed Dtys than, as you say, an injury waiting to happen.

      Delete

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