Queen Aliya Mustafina - Russian Champion once more

Russian gymnastics fans the world over have been feverishly hitting their refresh buttons and praying that the live link will work.  It didn't always, largely because the weight of our collective enthusiasm overwhelmed the world wide web.  But I'm pleased to say, at the end of the day, our Queen Mustafina is back. 

Clearly, the gymnastics presented today is work in progress.  We might never make true conclusions thanks to the grainy nature of the videos.  I'm risking putting the cart before the horse when I say that the USA and Russia are complete opposites when it comes to PR, the one (USA) all bluster and hype, the other (Russia) all mystery and understatement.  I'm sure that my friend, Mr Zaglada, will tell me that it's the results and the results alone that matter.    The only thing that will really count this year are those few days at the end of July.

The absence of two of the leading contenders for this title, Viktoria Komova and Anna Dementieva, means there is still reasonable doubt about the state of technical leadership in the Russian team, although you might argue that they are all leaders in different ways.  Mustafina is a gymnast of extraordinary presence.  Afanasyeva, as the mother figure of the team, arguably plays the caring role, but our Queen Mustafina is the flame in the box of fireworks.  The Russians need her to be able to do their best, and she is best when leading a fierce fight.  She has an almost mystical significance.

Mustafina performed a double twisting Yurchenko today, and a great bars routine concluding with a full twisting double back somersault dismount.  Her beam routine ended in a rather low double tuck dismount but looked strong and well balanced otherwise.  She looks light, confident and clean on the floor; far more her old self than she was at the Voronin Cup. There is more difficulty to come, but to show everything at this stage of the year would be premature anyway.  The height, line and fluidity is back; even without the music track her floor routine oozes expression and brightness.

There are some online who are arguing that Afanasyeva may have deserved to win overall.  Difficult to tell without better quality video and video of all four routines of both contestants.  Suffice it to say that Afanasyeva certainly appears to have maintained her good physical condition from last year's worlds, and feels like a different gymnast to me in terms of her mentality.  Maturity sits well on her shoulders and I think we should expect a great deal of her this year. At 21, Afanasyeva has her best years ahead of her, I'm pleased to say.

Third placed Anastasia Grishina landed a double twisting Yurchenko.  She completed her floor routine without error.  She felt altogether more confident today than she did at the January Olympic Test Event.  Yulia Inshina gave a good account of herself, performing evenly all around, while my favourite Yulia Belokobylskaya had a perhaps rather disappointing outing, managing to do her best on beam and floor only.

Hidden amongst the all around results, we see that Maria Paseka made the third highest score on vault with 14.9.  She did not compete beam but her performance on floor and bars mark her out as a rapidly developing talent.   Sadly, no sign of Tatiana Nabieva yet in the results I have seen; but I'm sure her story isn't over yet. 

I wanted to share the results with you as soon as possible and also to give you links to some of the emerging videos on Youtube, which DanyZ2012 has been collecting from the live feed and posting on his channel.  Thank you to the people who have posted links and results on the comments.

You'll find here a transcription of the top six results of the all around final from the Russian Gymnastics Federation website, linked above.  I've also listed the top ten scorers by apparatus, and you will find below some of the key highlights in video.

1    Aliya Mustafina                  15.167; 15.233; 14.8;      14.333;      59.533
2    Ksenia Afanasyeva            15.1;      13.667; 14.887; 14.733;      58.387
3    Anastasia Grishina             14.833;   13.8;     14.233; 14.833;     57.699
4    Yulia Inshina                      13.3;      14.367;  14.4;     14.267;    56.344
5    Anna Pavlova                    14.8;       13.133   14.367; 13.367;   55.667
6    Kristina Goryunova            13.6;       14.1;      14.933; 12.667    55.300


Vault (based on one vault score)

Aliya Mustafina
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Maria Paseka
Anastasia Grishina
Anna Pavlova
Maria Chibiskova
Anastasia Cheong
Anna Myzdrikova
Anna Rodionova
Krystina Goryunova

Uneven Bars

Aliya Mustafina
Yulia Inshina
Anna Rodionova
Krystina Goryunova
Anastasia Grishina
Maria Stepanova
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Anna Pavlova
Maria Paseka
Olga Byzmurzina

Beam

Krystina Goryunova
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Aliya Mustafina
Yulia Belokobylskaya
Yulia Inshina
Anna Pavlova
Maria Stepanova
Anna Rodionova
Anastasia Grishina
Kristina Kruglikova

Floor

Anastasia Grishina
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Aliya Mustafina
Yulia Inshina
Maria Stepanova
Yulia Belokobylskaya
Maria Chibiskova
Maria Paseka
Anna Pavlova
Anastasia Cheong

Aliya Mustafina - floor



Aliya Mustafina - bars



Anastasia Grishina - floor



Ksenia Afanasyeva - floor



Ksenia Afanasyeva - bars

http://youtu.be/jSHwk50SSCE



The championships continue tomorrow at 4 pm local time with the team competition.