The Russian girls have achieved their aim of qualifying for Rio, the main objective of the World Championships this year. I think it is true to say that they performed somewhat better than expected. At present the team leads vault, bars and beam but is in sixth place on floor ... Russia has to begin to address its problems there, but that is a longer term issue and the girls should be pleased with how they performed overall.
Paseka and Tutkhalyan are in first and third places respectively on vault; Spiridonova, Komova and Paseka occupy the first three places on bars; Komova, Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova are in 2nd, 3rd and 4th on beam and on floor Afanasyeva is in 2nd. But to illustrate Russia's lack of depth there, their next gymnast is Paseka, 22nd.
Young Seda Tutkhalyan avoided major errors in her first senior competition and has clearly qualified to the AA final in 2nd. But for Spiridonova a place in the competition is in doubt - 11th place so far with many other teams still to compete both today and tomorrow.
Russia has done well considering their own self doubts and has shown that they can hold a competition together. I do not know what will happen in the highly pressured all-or-nothing finals. It all matters so much less now the team knows they will be in Rio, everything else they can achieve will be a bonus. I think they may well come home with a better overall performance than last year - they have to do their best, for Aliya.
Sadly, it is almost certain that Romania will need to go to the test event to qualify for Rio as a team. If they don't make it, it would be the first time in my memory that an Olympics took place without the birthplace of Nadia Comaneci being represented. Romania really missed the moral boost of Ponor, who is injured, and a late injury to Ocolisan tore the heart out of them. Surely we will see a comeback from these spirited girls soon.
We will have to wait and see now what the final positions are.
I am thoroughly impressed with these girls. Of course it is qualifications and everything can still fall apart, but bravo! With all the roster changes and Afans health in question, I was not feeling too great about these Worlds, but I honestly think these girls are capable of giving the US a run for their money. Martha has made some very strange and border line corrupt decisions and I would love to see it backfire on them. Using top 3 scores, Russia is only 3 points behind the US's winning team in 2014, and they have ample room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteAnd my heart is completely broken for Romania. Last year they looked as if they simply wouldn't have 7 elite girls to compete at this year's world's, they pulled a decent team together, and then injury struck. What a pity. And I feel for Iordache, the floor judges were brutal and again, she will miss out on a possible beam title :(
The best thing for me in these qualifications is seeing Komova getting her Komova back and Russia qualifying for Rio. Alfi
ReplyDeleteAny new thoughts on Vika? She has a floor routine since Baku so she could train that and upgrade beam and vault for Rio IMO.
ReplyDeleteI thought that vault and bars were FABOULAS, however I hope Kseniia will perform the amanar in the team final. Beam was very decent, tho could definetly show improvement.Floor....was pretty much a hot mess. I expected more from Paseka. Kseniia didn't have her top difficulty, but was still very decent. Maria I thoughyt was a little underscored. Seda, needs to show more consistancy. What are we going to do with Daria. When I saw her at Euros, I was very concearned with her AA abilities. However, at the Russian Cup I thought she did pretty well. I think that if Viktoria did the AA, she would currently be leading in the standings.I can't wait to see US and China and then the team finals.
ReplyDeleteRussia really impressed me today specially Komova having beautiful bars and amazing beam set.. If she restores her full program from "2012" next year I'm confident she can win all around gold medal in Rio
ReplyDeleteI was really impressed by komova. After seeing her bars and beam, she still has room a lot room for improvement. I'm slightly dissapointed with kharenkova, now she will not qualify for an individual final, I don't think she will make it to Rio
ReplyDeleteHi.
ReplyDeleteI'm so interested in Rien's comment about Marta's "borderline corrupt" decisions? Would love to hear more about the Rien's logic behind this?
Also - did Afan touch beam but not compete? Is she okay? Or did I just see the moment wrong?
Thanks!