Young Russia. Back row from left to right - national junior coach Bulgakova, ?, national junior coach Voinov, Andrei Rodionenko, ?. Front row - Maria Bondareva, Angelina Melnikova, Seda Tutkhalyan, Daria Skrypnik, Anastasis Dmitrieva
You can find the full results at http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000D000001000000FFFFFFFFFFFF02
Melnikova and Tutkhalyan lead Friday's all around qualifying
On vault, Tutkhalyan is an impressively powerful gymnast who could compete with Downie, Jurca and Tinkler for gold. In fact, vault will be a very close competition with less than .5 separating the top five in qualifications. Melnikova performs a DTY but is less powerful than the top qualifiers.
Russia scored first on bars in team, and it shows in these event qualifying results. Melnikova manages to combine the highest E score with the second D score at this competition.
Melnikova will compete in three event finals on Sunday. Tutkhalyan, with a fall, is less than a point behind the leader. Russia leads on beam with the top difficulty scores on the day.
Another impressively tight final on floor with the Romanians looking very powerful and confident by all reports. Britain's Catherine Lyons has the highest E score here while Jurca takes the top D score. Tutkhalyan and Dmitrieva have qualified to this final, meaning that only Bondareva will not compete in any final, as things stand.
MALADYETS, Russia! Angelina, Seda, Maria, Daria, Anastasia, keep fighting!
Tomorrow, look forward to the senior team qualifications. At present, Russia's working order stands as follows :
UB. Spiridinova, Rodionova, Mustafina
BB. Spiridinova, Mustafina, Kharenkova
FX. Spiridinova, Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya
Some lovely pictures have shown up on the girls' Instagram accounts. Seda looks so proud here - http://instagram.com/p/n_OKTvwMol/. All the girls look happy - http://instagram.com/p/n_OEdCwMod/.
the question is how many of these gymnasts are we going to see in the future. 2 years ago, when the junior team won the team final and the AA, everybody was raving about them. But where are Shelgunova, Baturina, Kuzmina? Only Maria Kharenkova is in the senior team.
ReplyDeletesorry, I remember now that they didn't win the AA.
DeleteTo answer your question, Shelgunova is injured with a shoulder injury but should be back. She is training an amanar, has a solid set on beam and is working on improving her bars routine - in particular her lackluster pak salto.
DeleteShelgunova had surgery on her arm in Germany just before Komova and Afanasyeva. She won't be back in training until later in the summer.
Deleteok. Shelgunova is injured. And the rest?
DeleteIt is the nature of gymnastics that gymnasts do not necessarily follow a vertical career trajectory from junior to senior. While I criticise Russia for its poor record of progressing great juniors to similar senior stature, let's look at it another way - Russia has won the last eight Junior European team championships. That's an incredible record. If you read Shawn Johnson's biography, you will understand why hitting puberty is such a key determinant in success. Not only the physical changes but also the emotional ones, life events and shifting priorities can all make gymnasts re evaluate their participation, and this is not exclusive to Russia. All national programmes see fall out from junior to senior level, and this has grown as the FIG has raised the minimum age requirement. Today, the gymnasts most likely to succeed long term are those like Sacramone and Afanasyeva, who have small, light, fit, tough bodies and can sustain training long term to make improvements into their twenties. Others, like Douglas and Wieber, peak in the earliest part of their senior career, but struggle to sustain their brilliance as their body and life goals alter.
DeleteBaturina decided at the end of last year that she no longer wished to pursue the life of a top level gymnast. Kuzmina, always a bars specialist, is on Russia's reserve team and will transfer to full senior status when she is ready. The forces driving this have been discussed on this blog in quite a bit of detail.
What a great team Russia has presented this year at Euros! not every one of them will progress to the senior team, but they are an example to the entire gymnastics world - fantastic basics, some great difficulty up and coming and healthy attitudes. I would rather see this than focus on the inevitable fall out that will happen in the coming years.
Douglas hasn't peaked yet and those are not my words, but Chow's. Agree on Wieber though. These little Russians have made a massive country proud and let's hope for a smooth transition into senior years, let's hope that current seniors, (remembering the lead of Alexander Alexandrov) help them on that journey with just as much support and encouragement. Btw Elizabeth, thank you kindly for your work with these updates.
DeleteActually Elizabeth I was going to suggest writing a blog pondering why the success of the Russian juniors doesn't translate to seniors. You've given some reasons above, but I do think that those factors apply to any team. They used to do it in the 1980s.....
DeleteThey didn't do it in the 80s - the Soviets did. Good question for my next interview with Grebyonkin though!
DeleteCongrats to all of them and the AA final will be a great fight between Seda and Angelina for Gold ...
ReplyDeletethis qualification reveals that:
Russia still produce a superb bars' workers (I mean they are all in the top 8)
The Junior team has 2 DTY while the Senior team unable to secure 2 DTY( without Musty)!!
Good luck to the Senior team tomorrow ...
Not to be the debbie downer (I am HAPPY for them) but leading up to this ppl were saying that Seda must prove herself for YOG and break atleast a mid 57, which seemed doable, and most people were confident she would break into 58's easily. Low 56 with a fall? I knew those Russian Champ scores were too good to be true; they were just too inflated i think even with the point she got deducted today for the fall (well, i heard she fell, not sure). No more bonuses and bring back fair domestic judging.
ReplyDeleteI take your point ... But puh-leez ... Anyone who has ever been to British nationals, the American Cup ('Scam') or indeed any local home grown comp will know that scores can be inflated. Seda and Angelina are fantastic gymnasts - forget the scores and remember that bias is not unique to Russia - in fact many would point to America more squarely!
DeleteTotally agree with you Queen Elizabeth
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