Angelina Melnikova ... Top scorer in the Russia Cup AA competition today. Daria Spiridonova in second place was the leading senior in the field, followed by Maria Kharenkova. Seda Tutkhakyan in 4th had a fall on floor but would otherwise have finished top. As Melnikova is junior, this probably means that Spiridonova is Russia Cup AA champion! An unexpected but well deserved title for this distinctive and well prepared gymnast. Well done Dasha! congratulations to all the girls - will publish results as soon as they are available.
Aliya Mustafina and team candidate Seda Tutkhalyan - both from Moscow Five days left before the MAG European Championships open in Switzerland, and Russian gymnast Nikita Nagorny is posting videos of himself practicing a full twisting Roche vault - I wonder if he will compete it in Berne? The men's team seems fairly well prepared and ready to travel as announced some weeks ago - Kuksenkov, Belyavski, Ignatyev, Nagorny, Ablyazin. But the composition of the women's team, who will travel to their first major competition of 2016 next week, seems somewhat undecided. Will Natalia Kapitonova make her major senior debut in June, or will Seda Tutkhalyan, her dynamic yet unpredictable rival, grace Russia's team? Or will other gymnasts be brought into play; will further, unexpected, changes be made? If head coach Valentina Rodionenko's recent announcement is to be believed, it is a simple case of replacing the injured Maria Paseka (a vault specialist) with Natalia ...

I do believe that Melnikova, Skrypnik will diminish the chances of some of these seniors in the next Olympics year ...
ReplyDeleteJohn
I do believe that Melnikova and Skrypinik should go to Rio.
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