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Komova Russian Cup Champion 2012

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By
Viktoria Komova.  Courtesy of the RGF
This afternoon's Russia Cup all around competition at the Burtasy School of Gymnastics, Penza, ended with Youth Olympics Champion, World Vice Champion Viktoria Komova in first place, the first major senior title of her career.   2010 World All Around Champion, Aliya Mustafina, is well on the road to recovery following an ACL tear at last spring's (2011) European Championships, achieving a good finish in second place.  Mustafina has not quite regained her full form as yet, particularly on beam and floor where she suffered a few problems today, but she was strong enough to make a close fight of this.   This was the first time Komova and Mustafina had competed head to head in an all around at senior level and given the ambition of both gymnasts one can expect a thrilling rivallry in London.

World 2011 team member and beam finalist Yulia Inshina finished in third place all around.  While she does not score particularly highly on any one piece, she does generally perform predictably and fairly consistently across all four apparatus, which might make her a good choice for team alternate.

Anastasia Grishina, who missed Wednesday's qualification competition with a sore leg, was back to performing bars here today, although with a low dismount.  At full strength on all four apparatus, Grishina is vital to the Russian team if they are to compete for gold in London.  The remaining team members Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Paseka, Anna Dementieva and Tatiana Nabieva all had problems here, leaving the team coaches with some difficult decisions to make over the coming weeks.  The various control competitions will no doubt be very important for these gymnasts, as well as  this weekend's event finals.

Full results are available here, and I'm reproducing images of the results with some annotations below.

Komova, Mustafina, Inshina, Afanasyeva, Pavlova, Myzdrikova, Belokobylskaya

Sidorova, Dunaeva, Rodionova, Polyan, Bizmurkina, Sidorenko, Bodryagina, Stvetkova

Volkova, Cheong, Nabieva (DTY; note the bars score); Paseka (sat down Amanar but still outscored Nabieva there), Dementyeva (good bars score, fell on her beam dismount), Grishina (low dismount and problems on a handstand)

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Comments

  1. Anonymous15 June 2012 at 16:59

    And as expected girls didn't show full difficulty here : )
    Maybe they do some extra on events finals or keep it for London
    Too bad Masty's floors have problems as usual
    Whats going on with Dementieva?

    ReplyDelete
  2. M15 June 2012 at 19:11

    Nabieva couldn't even get a 15 on bars? She is not looking good right now. As I've said I don't want her in the 5 member team. She could be an alternate if anything.

    Dementyeva is close in bar scores to Nabieva! Dementieyva needs to step up though, if she wants to make the team. A 13 on beam (which is Russia's Achilles heel) is not good.

    Hopefully Aliya can fix her problems with the spins on floor. She can do much better than the scores she had on beam and floor.

    Vika also seems to need to work on floor.

    All in all, an ok start for them. They have a month to perfect things.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth15 June 2012 at 20:41

      Everything depends on whether Grishina can do all around for the team. If she can then I guess Paseka and Afanasyeva are the best final two.
      If she can't I am really not sure at all what the team will look like. Nabieva and Pavlova may even be needed ... but I hope not.

      Delete
    2. M15 June 2012 at 22:39

      I hope not as well, lol. Nabieva has terrible form and that will cost the team. Pavlova, haven't seen much of her, but she has low difficulty in almost everything except maybe Beam.

      They just need to clean up on their routines. I really want Aliya to challenge for AA, it would be nice since she is returning from a big injury.

      Hopefully Grishina will be alright as well.

      Delete
  3. MustyFan15 June 2012 at 20:41

    I am worried for Aliya. She did much better on FX and BB than she did at the Euros and Penza. She should progress not regress :(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. MustyFan16 June 2012 at 12:43

      I mean she did much better at the trio meet with Sui..

      Delete
  4. Julia15 June 2012 at 20:53

    I think Aliya's right where she needs to be. If she can clean up her floor, continue being solid on bars and vault and get a few more BB routines under her belt, she'll be in good shape. If Vika can iron out her wobbles on beam (fingers crossed! she's so gorgeous when she hits!) she's a serious threat for the AA gold.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous15 June 2012 at 21:13

    Can't wait for tomorrow events result

    ReplyDelete

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