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

Head MAG Coach Alfosov on Russian gymnastics prospects in 2026

By
"A Really Good International Level": Alfosov on the Return of Russian Gymnasts, Belyavsky's Videos, and the Games Qualification Alfosov: Belyavsky's presence on the team was a big plus Interview by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya  Google translate Russian gymnasts competing under neutral status will be able to take their first step toward qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympics as early as October, Valery Alfosov, head coach of the Russian men's team, told RT. He believes that qualifying for not only the individual but also the team competition at the World Championships is one of the season's greatest achievements. He also explained the criteria he uses to compare his players with their competitors and described David Belyavsky's decision last year as hard-won. The current season began with good news for the gymnasts: almost all of the leading Russian team members are participating in international competitions. Does this mean the suspension situation is a thing of...
Post a Comment
Read more

Who really won the WAG All Around?

By
You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ...
70 comments
Read more

Artistry versus acrobatics???

By
Watching videos of this weekend's competitions - the qualification and all around rounds of the Russian championships, medal winners from the American Cup - I am struck, more and more, by the huge difference between the American and Russian schools of gymnastics. It led me to ask the question : do artistry and acrobatics have to be mutually exclusive? (I am afraid that I think naming 'American' gymnastics a 'school' is perhaps lending an undeserved dignity to work which has become excessively obsessed with the difficult and the consistent, but I am using the word here so as not to label unfairly those individual gymnasts who are blameless in the direction of their training.) The FIG's vision for gymnastics is said to embrace more artistry; at least the publicity it has put about on the subject of its new Code makes that fairly plain.  So perhaps the Russians, with their inconsistent brilliance and superior body carriage (Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasy...
39 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more