15 year old Angelina Melnikova will make her major senior international debut in a few weeks' time
MAG has been previously announced - Denis Ablyazin, Nikita Nagorny, David Belyavski, Nikita Ignatyev and Nikolai Kuksenkov. Emin Garibov will be the reserve.
WAG - Aliya Mustafina, Angelina Melnikova, Maria Paseka, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Daria Spiridonova. Seda Tutkhakyan, who is competing on beam and floor today at the Osijek Challenge Cup, will be the travelling reserve.
Viktoria Komova is continuing her rehab after a period in hospital in her home town of Voronezh with back pain. She returns to Round Lake on the 3rd May where she will continue to prepare for the Olympic Games under the watchful eyes of her coaches.
Although I will be excited to see how young Angelika fares, I'm overall a little disappointed with the WAG selection. It is rather conservative and will be relatively weak on beam and floor (remember, Andrei Rodionenko has said that Mustafina will not have the stamina to do floor in Berne; even if she does pull out a defiant showing she is unlikely to have top difficulty). I had hoped to see Russia try out its new talent - Seda Tutkhalyan and/or Maria Kharenkova in particular. The team will meet some stiff competition in Switzerland, however, and I think that the coaches have opted for reliability rather than risk flair. But Spiridonova's inclusion limits the potential on beam, and weakens the team on floor. An on-song Tutkhalyan adds potential on both these pieces, even if her reliability may be at question, while Paseka could keep up the average on bars in finals.
This probably won't be the last word on the team - there is always the possibility of a last minute substitution.
As things stand, line-ups might go something like this. Euros is a team competition with EF this year, no all around competition.
Qualifications
Vault - Mustafina, Melnikova, Afanasyeva, Paseka
UB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Paseka, Spiridonova
BB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Spiridonova, Afanasyeva
FX - Melnikova, Afanasyeva, Paseka, Spiridonova
Finals
Vault - Mustafina, Afanasyeva, Paseka
UB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Spiridonova
BB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Afanasyeva
FX - Melnikova, Afanasyeva, Spiridonova
The source of the team announcement is - http://vpsfund.org/114-7/
You can follow live scores of Seda, Natalia, Maria, Nikita and Emin at the Osijek Challenge Cup at http://osijekgym.com/live/ now (Friday pm).
Note - looking at the start lists for Osijek I note that Seda has competed beam and bars only (she did well on bars yesterday with a 14.7 score). I read somewhere that she was sick recently, or the omission of leg events from this comp also raises the possibility of a slight injury. There are still four weeks to go till Berne, so much may change.
ReplyDeleteI prefer Kharenkova... I don´t know why Seda have been so inconsistent. I would be afraid to put her in the team too. However you are right about floor and bb. And despite 2015 Worlds, I will not pick up Komova. Gelya Melnikova is the new queen of Russia´s team. I hope it chanlleges Mustafina and she shines again. xoxo.
ReplyDeleteDo you know if Mustafina will do her DTY and if Afansyeva will do her Amanar?
ReplyDeleteI doubt that even the girls will know that at this stage if preparations.
DeleteI wonder if readers would like to comment on the question - do Russia have to win in Berne? As long as they finish the competition healthy, do the results matter? How important is this competition as the teams prepare for Rio?
If Mustafina can pull off a double twister AND if no falls occur, they can win Berne. Their Uneven bars and vault will be strong with both averaging low 15's. Their balance beam does have the potential to be great as well but it depends on Afan and Mustafina. Floor will be their weak piece as usual but I still feel they can win. The Brits will probably have a bit more difficulty but remember they can be inconsistent as well.
DeleteI don't think the results will matter much as long as they can show that they are in a good place with regards to form and difficulty. I mean look at the 2012 Euros, Romania beat them and even with monster errors at the olympics, they still got silver and beat out Romania
I hope at least they can use this opportunity to see if they can set down some routines and start to polish them. I guess this is why the American girls can be so consistent. They rehearse and rehearse, but the Russian girls (especially Mustafina) keep changing routines and trying effects until the last minutes, thus the nerves come in and their performances become unpredictable.
DeleteHonestly, I think in Berne only team GB is likely to challenge these Russian girls, and I want to see this Russian team shine. These girls have been a bit short of competitions this year, and they need to have chances to get used to perform before large audiences at their very best. After all, gymnasts need to use real competitions to get used to the audience and pressures (not the Russian Championship in a nearly empty hall without roaring, shouting and loud music --- which they will be likely need to deal with in Rio).
I understand you want to protect the girls, but I would support Khorkina's opinion. If you compare the Russian team with their main opponents, those English girls have had English Team, English Championship, British Champion already. On The US team have had City of Jeloso, and Pacific Rim already, and they will have Classics and National Championship AND Olympic Trial before Rio. Those girls didn't play safe or perform tentatively in those occasions, because they need to prove themselves: even Biles was trying a Cheng-Fei and debuted it eventually when actually she doesn't need to prove anything, and when she didn't need it to walk away with an AA title she won last year already.
These Russian girls are professional athletes led by professional coaches, and stand for the country (I believe) with the best tradition: if they go out, I hope we can expect to see the best, and see them win. It truly annoys me to see them compete without the old fires and polish (I will never forget the poor beam prelim at Nanning 2014, and beam final at Glasgow in 2015).
I completely agree with this statement. They are young, but these gymnasts are professional athletes. Russia needs to train how they compete--changing routines and 'resting' too much doesn't breed confidence or consistency. They are beautiful gymnasts, but beauty counts for little if performances consistently fall short. I know they can do it...but will they?
DeleteThe Russians do not have to win in Berne, but they do have to hit their routines. If they have a meltdown akin to Worlds 2015, then it will be very, very bad psychologically. First priority, stay healthy. Second (and only other priority), hit routines. I would rather see them hit watered down routines than fall on hard routines. The results don't matter.
DeleteI think only 3 people compete in Euros qualifications. At least that has been the case for the last two team finals (2012, 2014). So maybe Daria won't do anything besides bars.
ReplyDeleteAah yes ... My mistake. So I wonder how that will affect the line ups overall? Who would go on floor besides Spiridonova? Might make sense to drop Paseka for Tutkhalyan meaning Seda would replace go on vault instead of Paseka, on beam instead of Afanasyeva or Mustafina and on floor in place of Spiri, would that make things any better overall?
DeleteI think Spiridonova is such a risky proposition she is essentially a one event gymnast. Do we even know if Afanasyeva is training beam? I think they could of gone with Kapitonova she is capable on bars and can is more serviceable elsewhere as compared to Spiridonova. Also I thought the World Cup challenge this weekend was to be used as the final step to decide the Euros team. It cant help with motivation for Kharenkova that she came 3rd in the AA and second on beam that she cant even manage an alternate spot.
DeleteI would not discount GB they beat Russia at Worlds and if Russia have another meltdown Romania may also factor.
DeleteIf Russia doesn't win, who else will? Romania? lol
ReplyDelete:-). Well there would be a turn up for the books.
DeleteStranger things have happened
Team GB is looking pretty strong and they already beat Russia at last year's worlds so I would count them out.
DeleteQueen Elizabeth, according to 2 articles from today evening travelling reserve will be Kapitanova, not Seda... and they cherish Komova to Rio team http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20160429/917679947.html http://tass.ru/sport/3251468 PS To me russian line up on FX on TF at ECh will be beg beg problem, because Spiridonova is awful as hell on FX :/
ReplyDeleteLol. Well I'll believe the team line up when I see it. I can see why Kapitanova technically
DeleteCont'd but it's a risk on such a young girl and she doesn't have Melnikova's experience. Well, I feel sorry for Seda if this is true but at the end of the day we will know the team when they walk out into the arena!
DeleteGive Tutkhalyan a chance. Take out Afanasyeva and let some new girls shine.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that Seda falls more thenn not, that is not a good idea.The coaches have given her chances twice,at European games and at worlds. She fell three times between those two competitions on beam, hit two beam sets, had all mediocre floor rutines and a few ok bar routines. However, there are multiple first yeat seniors, such as Kapitonova, who are more consistant and have yet to have a chance at a major international competition. I think that Kapitonova should replace Spiridonova, as she is at about the same level on bars and is usable on beam and floor.My first instinct for a reserve would be Kharenkova because she is great on beam, ok on floor and ok on bars.
DeleteKapitonova did not help her cause this weekend by being beaten by Seda on bars.
DeleteTeam GB is RU main challenger, but I wouldn't care as much about beating them. RU is still above them significantly in term of D score. It took 4 falls for GB to beat them. You cure inconsistency by being at more competitions and development and training. If you look at RU 2015 worlds qualification score which would be of a good day, it is very evident that they can't be touched by GB without having multiple falls.
ReplyDelete