Skip to main content

Russia's future turns gold in Turin

By

A young Russian team led by Seda Tutkhalyan and Evgeniya Shelgunova did themselves proud today by performing their way to a team gold medal and a clean sweep of the individual AA medals at the 4 Nations Trophy in Turin against rivals Italy, Romania and Colombia.

Without too many major errors the team looked well prepared and confident.  Their overall score of 224.85 would have placed them fourth in qualifying at the 2014 World Championships, ahead of Britain but just behind their own senior team.  Sokova's superb beam routine, which earned a 14.8 thanks to strong execution, would have been Russia's highest beam score at that stage of the competition.  Tutkhalyan's 57.4 AA score would have placed her 7th in qualifying, or more significantly Russia's second all arounder.  

Melnikova and Tutkhalyan both performed steadily to make a case for themselves as up and coming all arounders, with Tutkhalyan surely sealing her place on the team for the upcoming European Games.  She showed courage as well as consistency in nailing her full twisting layout on beam and only needs to clean up a little more all around to add those precious tenths that will make her competitive at world level.  

You can find complete scores here - http://dati.federginnastica.it/articoli/allegato_8680.pdf

and more videos here, including podium training and some routines not covered by live streaming - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8T4sSh0bcAs

Molodyets, girls!  Keep working!!


Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous31 May 2015 at 18:32

    I don't see the allure of Seda gymnastics. Like why everyone is so hyper with her. To me she is disappointing, she is not on competitive level and is beyond time she raises to the occasion. Reminds me os Nastia Grishna that everyone said would be so much better at O12, and turned up just a disappointment. And even to Russian nowadays standards Seda is on the average level. I see more olympic future on Angelina, with the right upgrades she could definitely make AA and on Sokova, good beam and floor definitely could help Russia.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous1 June 2015 at 14:35

    Angelina Melnikova really seems to have Olympic-caliber polish and potential. What do you think of her gymnastics, Queen Elizabeth? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth1 June 2015 at 16:12

      I really like this generation of Russian gymnasts for their serious attitude and because they seem to be very fit. Tutkhalyan has a lot of potential if she can only contain her tendency to rush through her skills.
      Of this group, I think Dmitrieva has the best gymnastics, but her difficulty level will probably drop her out of contention.
      If we divide gymnasts into two categories - performers and competitors - I think Melnikova is more of the competitive type. I can see her doing well. Her performances here were less polished than we have seen before, but I understand she has a slight hamstring injury that is affecting her range of movement at present.
      The Code of Points limits these gymnasts in presenting their true full potential as polished performers because it rewards difficulty over execution and does not recognise performance quality.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Russian gymnasts to apply for neutral status

By
Gymnastics has lost some of its appeal over the past few years, whilst Russian athletes have been out of competition.  This might be an unpopular opinion, but it reflects the reality of international gymnastics without around a quarter of its leading protagonists.  The international competitive field has not raised its performance in the absence of Russia's leadership; gymnasts from the top ten or fifteen have floated upwards in the ranks to fill gaps in the medal placements, and we see mediocre performances gaining gold, silver and bronze medals.  Gymnastics has lost some of its imagination and vision without Russian athletes. This doesn't detract from the efforts of the world's best gymnasts.  Gymnastics quite simply needs the special abilities of Russian athletes to provide competition for our international contenders and drive the sport to ever greater things.  In particular, artistry has been almost entirely lost without Russian athletes to provide a good e...
Post a Comment
Read more

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

By
Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...
12 comments
Read more

UPDATE 23/9 - Russian WAG team for Nanning confirmed

By
Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn.  Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova.  Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team.  In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova.  Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!).  The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall.   Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but the...
57 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more