Skip to main content

Komova Russian Cup Champion 2012

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)

Comments

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

      Delete
  4. 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. Can't wait for tomorrow events result

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...

Aliya Mustafina - 'I'm just trying to stay healthy'

A brief interview with the World and Olympic Champion from All Sport is summarised below. Russian national gymnastics continues to prepare for the World Championships, which will be held October 3-12 in Nanning (China). Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina told Mary Staroverova about her health and about preparations for the competition. - In June, I went to Germany to solve the problem with my ankle.  I had a small operation to clean the joints of a build-up of bone particles.  Nothing serious was evident, and the operation went well.  Now I have to tumble.  But there is still some discomfort, a slight pain at full load, and I can not tumble at full force.  For the time being, I try to go easy on my legs.  After the Russia Cup I will have to fully prepare for Worlds. That is just one month.   Even if I'm not tumbling, I will keep myself in good shape, and that should suffice (smiles). - I can't say if it is a different pain to before Europeans, because at...

'Mustafina is no longer in pain' - Valentina Rodionenko

Picture of Aliya Mustafina, courtesy of RGF Valentina Rodionenko has provided some updates on the Russian teams and how their preparation for Worlds (Nanning, China, 3 to 12 October) is progressing, via Allsports (http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=84328) - The teams are now at camp in Italy, in two small towns close to Milan, by the sea, where the girls travelled on 29th June and the men on 1 July.  The athletes aren't only training, they can also relax. - Komova is working out at Round Lake, she didn't go to Italy.  We will see how she does at the Russia Cup, which will be held late August in Penza. Tatiana Nabiyeva is looking good in training and the other girls are also working.  Ksenia Afanasyeva won't have time to prepare for Worlds, and Anastasia Grishina's participation is also in doubt, we just don't know if she will qualify for the team.   We have hopes for Aliya Mustafina.  As always, she is our number one.  It would be great if there were t...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more