Scam is just around the corner and it has turned out to be a very interesting competition, quite revealing to tell the truth!
Training videos have surfaced and what we have seen is that Gabi Douglas has some serious improvement to show for herself. Her bars routine is fabulous, the releases are so high I gasped both times. Her form is clean and she did not waver in her beam routine. Her double turn with leg at horizontal was just beautiful.
So, those that have read something in this blog know that I have my reservations about Weiber and Raisman. I think they are powerful and good gymnasts, but the flexed feet, bad turns and ugly choreography just do not sit well with me.
As Douglas is working on her floor routine in the training video, we can see all the players--Geddert, Raisman, Weiber, Brestyan--and they look worried! Well, I would be worried too. Douglas not only appears to have a higher difficulty score than both (25.8 versus 25.6 of the two others), but is looking very clean and confident.
Let's see how it all shakes off. Here are the videos:
P.S.: Mustafina with that lower back brace is not making me feel at ease. She cannot afford more injury related setbacks...
And the Russians are on their way...
The 2012 Moscow Championships showed a great bars team, but a rather inconsistent beam ensemble. As I have already discussed in previous posts, the Russians really have a big problem when it comes to beam. Their mercurial personalities just do not lend themselves well to this nerve wrecking apparatus.
And videos of Demy, Vika and Sidorova's routines from Moscow just did nothing to ease my nerves. It is going to be a nail biting rotation come London.
Their BB routines are just wobbly, inconsistent and I think there is a stamina problem there.
It is really too bad for the Russian Gymnastics Federation that Kristina Goryunova was suspended in 2010 for testing positive for a diuretic as she would have been a great possibility for this team. Her beam routine was strong, confident, difficult and spot on. I would have loved to see her in London. The great arms, the polished feet and the fierceness is just priceless.
On UB the Russian team is the dream team. They have so many strong, difficult routines with great lines and natural swing. It is here where they can win big points over their greatest rival, the USA.
Although she fell in a very difficult transition combination to low bar, I was happy with what I saw from Musty. She has upgraded this routine and gone back to her signature dismount which gives her some nice D points. She has clearly grown since 2010 and although that might complicate things in other events, it really helps her on bars as she looks exquisitely lean and natural.
Anastasia Grishina also put up a nice bar routine with a lot of difficulty and just a outstanding dismount: double double. The landing was not great, but it is the beginning of the season and I am happy to start seeing these upgrades.
Vika also showed her signature clean bars, although I am still not thrilled about this half turn before the dismount that seems to be a compositional error, but she did not get deducted for it in Tokyo, no reason to mess with it.
Tatiana Nabieva showed also a clean UB, but without the star quality of some of her team mates. If she can go back to doing the Amanar this bar routine is just the icing in the cake that will get her into this team, but without the big vault, I just don't think the bars alone are going to get her this spot.
I thought Inshina and Sidorova delivered some good and strong floor exercises with nice difficulty, although not as polished as some of the other Russian routines we know are out there.
The FX World Champion showed a routine with a lot of landing errors, but very nice work on the dancing elements. I have confidence in Afanasyeva since I believe it is the beginning of the season and you could see that she was really focusing on the turns and jumps and just throwing her usual passes. I am however disappointed that they are planning to go with the same routine she used last year. We know Sui Lu is cooking up a brand new Adriana Pop routine as probably is Lauren Mitchell and for Afan to really be a contender for that Olympic title she also needs a new and exciting routine the judges have never seen.
The lack of difficult vaults at this competition is also a bit alarming as Russia will be in some trouble if they fail to come to London with at least two Amanars. The Americans are most likely to bring three, if not something even harder (I do believe if anyone is capable of the TTY it is going to be the Vault Champ Makayla Maroney) and the Russians may not be able to make up ground with their bar routines with a possible Douglas-Liukin-Memmel trio there too so they cannot lose too much on vault.
American Cup is right around the corner as is Pac Rims which might be the first US-Russia showdown of the year giving us the opportunity to make some more predictions.
There were some great routines this year, but I have selected my favorites. Although we did have several unfortunate injuries and a rather polemic AA final in Tokyo, we did nevertheless have a good ride. Let's hope for even more next year.
1. Aliya Mustafina UB American Cup 2011
2. Maryia Livchikova FX Ghent Cup 2011
3. Knesia Afanasyeva EF FX World Championships 2011
4. Vanessa Ferrari FX AA World Championships 2011
5. Ana Porgras BB AA World Championships 2011
5. Viktoria Komova TQ UB World Championships 2011
6. Viktoria Komova FX EF Mikhail Voronin Cup 2011
7. Katelyn Ohashi BB Visa Championships Day 1 2001
8. Chellsie Memmel BB Day 2 Visa Championships 2011
9. Sui Lu EF BB World Championships 2011
10. Anna Dementyeva Gym Gala 2011 Ghent Cup FX
11. Ana Estefania Lago Pan American Games EF FX 2011
12. Wu Liufang BB EF Ghent Challeger Cup 2011
13. Jessica Lopez TQ UB World Championships 2011
14. Sui Lu EF FX World Championships 2011
15. Sandra Izbasa FX EF European Championships 2011
At this year's World Championships the scoring controversy ended up overshadowing some fantastic performances so like I did with Ana Porgras I would like to acknowledge Sui Lu and how amazing she really was.
I was happy that Afanasyeva won the EF FX because of all that I think she brings to the sport on this event, but if it had gone the other way I feel I would have been equally satisfied since I believe Sui Lu delivered great routines in this championship. Her floor routine is really fabulous and I am especially in love with her quad turn, I mean in the sea of ugly turns that was this championship, seeing Sui Lu calmly turn four times with the leg high and cleanly at her knee and walk out to continue her choreo just warmed my heart!
Her beam is equally fabulous and seeing her win the gold made me super happy.
Mustafina is back! She did her thing at this year's Voronin Cup in Moscow and delivered great bars and descent performances elsewhere. I am still concerned about her beam, and beam for the Russian team as a whole, but for Musty, returning from an injury and with the eyes of the world all on her, it was a great job.
Komova continues to improve her stamina. Her floor this time around was better, although, I think she still needs to be stronger on those landings, put her feet down and the chest up without hesitation. In the FX finals she showed she can do that, but still is falling out of her turns a little earlier for my taste.
Pavlova showed we should not count her out, with some consistent performances and I, for one, was impressed by her and hope she can consistently improve and make a run for this team because I just appreciate all she brings to the table. Nabieva is out with back pain and Afanasyeva was just back from Acapulco where she won the AA at the Abierto de Mexico.
The queen of the Abierto de Mexico
These were the results in Moscow:
AA:
1-Viktoria Komova RUS - 59.650
2-Yulia Belokobylskya RUS- 56.550
3-Valeria Maksyuta ISR - 54.300
4-Yulia Inshina RUS - 56.150
5-Anna Pavlova RUS - 56.000
6-Aliya Mustafina RUS - 55.850
7-Anastasia Sidorova RUS - 54.550
8-Kristina Sankova UKR - 54.100
UB:
1-Viktoria Komova RUS - 15.850
2-Alia Mustafina RUS - 15.475
3-Irina Shankova UKR - 13.625
BB:
1-Viktoria Komova RUS - 14.700
2-Valeria Maksyuta ISR - 13.700
3-Anna Pavlova RUS - 13.525
FX:
1-Viktoria Komova RUS - 14.800
2-Anastasia Sidorova RUS - 14.225
3-Valeria Maksyuta ISR - 13.750
In a rather uneven Russian beam team if Pavlova can up her difficulty just a tad and nail this routine, she could quickly become a asset:
Komova's beam was just shaky and lacked confidence. I don't know what needs to be done, but Rodionenko has to figure this out because beam is going to be this girl's undoing.
Mustafina's beam was unstable and she buckled the dismount which clearly did not make her happy. The fall on the aerial I thought happened because she chose not to fight for it since she was twisted on her bad knee and I believe she is wise to do so. This beam needs a lot of work, but for her first time out it was not too bad.
On bars the Russians are really on fire. Komova and Musty together can do some serious damage on this event and Musty is not even at full speed, she still needs to get her dismount back. I think Musty has better handstands in this event than Komova, but Komova has great swing and amplitude on her releases and dismount. If they fine tune their routines they might break 16.000 which would be amazing and hurt weaker UB teams like the US considerably in next year's head to head at the Olympics.
Floor routines:
I am not loving this floor routine by Musty, she seems scattered, and maybe it is just because she is worried about the tumbling and bending her knees on the landings, which is super important for her at this point. But, nevertheless she needs to be expressive and I don't think this music is that great or helping her to give an overall performance.
This is the type of routine Vika needs to deliver every single time out. She was confident and put her feet down and refused to move. The turns need a tad more time up on the toe, but considering how bad her close competition (aka Weiber) is at them I am inclined to be lenient on this matter.
Right now as it is shaping up Russia looks like, aside from beam that is persistent problem, their focus should be on vault: they need those Amanars back. I am not a fan of the Amanar. I find it a dangerous skill, but if the US plans to bring to London, and I am sure they do, 2 or 3 6.0s vaults, Russia is going to need to be doing this vault to challenge them. With two Amanars in their line-up, the Russians become a tough nut to crack since their bars are so strong and their floors quite good with Afanasyeva leading the offensive. Let's hope for some upgrades and healthy gymnasts!
One thing that is bothering me though: where is Demy?!?!
Blythe at the Gymnastics Examiner provided some pieces of a interview by Viktoria Komova at the Italian Grand Prix.
This is part of what Komova said:
"Every defeat in the sport gives me a new purpose for the next competition, and so the anger I had makes me think I can do it. At the Olympics, first place will only be mine."
Blythe seemed rather shocked: "First place will only be mine? Did she really say that? I asked, thinking how most gymnasts content themselves with something like "I just want to do my best and see what happens" before big meets." See the full piece here.
But I honestly really appreciate the blunt sincerity. This "I just want to hit 4 for 4" and "I just love all my teammates and we are one big happy family" etc BS kind of makes me sick. The truth is gymnasts want to win, their teammates are sometimes their biggest rivals and the fact that they want to be on top of the podium does not mean that they are spoiled brats, but that they want their hard work to pay off, just like any other athlete.
I like Komova and Mustafina, I appreciate the way she wears her emotions on her sleeve.
The Abierto del Mexico has continued and these have been the results:
1-Ksenia Afanasyeva RUS - 58.150
2-Pen-Peng Lee CAN - 55.500
3-Mai Yamagishi JPN - 55.000
4-Emily Little AUS - 54.900
5-Yessenia Estrada MEX - 52.600
6-Mikaela Gerber CAN - 52.150
7-Catalina Escobar COL - 51.200
Afanaseyva looked much stronger in this bar routine, her back is not as soft as it was in Tokyo and she is hitting her handstands well, also her release was sky high. With this 58.150 AA total she shows that she is a real asset to team Russia.
Afanasyeva is just cute:
Peng Peng Lee was also looking good:
Also Larissa Iordache's UB routine from the Italian Grand Prix:
Aside from some leg form problems here and there, this is a good routine that Romania will treasure, particularly in their weakest apparatus: the Uneven Bars.
The Mikhail Voronin Cup will be held in Moscow between 14-18th of this month and the roster is impressive:
The Russians:
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Aliya Mustafina
Anna Myzdrikova
Anna Marchuk
Taiana Nabieva
Yulia Inshina
Yulia Belokobylskaya
Anastasia Sidorova
Kristina Sidorova
Anna Rodionova
Alyona Polyan
Sofia Bramman
Ekaterina Kramerenko
Anna Pavlova
Maria Stepanova
Maria Chibiskova
Other countries:
Irina Romanchuk, Ukraine
Valeria Maksyuta, Israel
Anastasia Marouchskaya, Belarus
Lara Svilpaite, Lithuania
Mariana Sanchez, Costa Rica
Nancy Taman, Egypt
I am really hoping we get to see some videos particularly of the Russians. Lets wait and keep our fingers crossed.
There are several meets happening these days. Videos from the Italian Grand Prix have thankfully already reach us. The results:
UB
1-Viktoria Komova RUS - 15.700
2-Larisa Iordache ROU - 14.150
3-Giorgia Campana ITA - 13.600
4-Carlotta Ferlito ITA - 13.450
5-Elisabetta Preziosa ITA - 11.100
BB
1-Viktoria Komova RUS - 14.850
2-Catalina Ponor ROU - 14.700
3-Elisabetta Preziosa ITA - 14.300
4-Francesca Deagostini ITA - 14.250
5-Carlotta Ferlito ITA - 13.150
Komova not only took the two female titles up for grabs, but also had the highest score of the whole competition--men or women. And the videos say more: that Komova is getting stronger and more determined. In a previous post I complained that Komova was just not looking like she wanted this. She looked demoralized and not fighting for every tenth, particularly on beam. This competition showed a different Komova, she was stronger physically and mentally, and although she wobbled a little on beam, she kept it together and stayed on top of her difficulty.
This added to Knesia Afanaseyva's first place in the first day at the Abierto del Mexico after getting through beam shows that the Russians are getting their stuff together on this event.
Results after day 1:
1. Ksenia Afanasyeva 28.850
2. Christine (Peng Peng) Lee 27.95
3. Mai Yamagishi 27.35
While the USA women stay home and hide their upgrades and training from the world, the other top gymnasts are out there getting some valuable experience and improving their routines. I have commented on previous posts that I am very much against this USA gymnastics system, and particularly how Martha does not give gymnasts opportunities to participate in international competitions that are not Worlds, Olympics, Pan Ams, and Pacific Rims... thus the American gymnasts rarely getting a space on the sun and it is just really sad.
The Russians and Romanians, as well as the Italiansare putting their gymnasts through as much competition as they can and I really think this will pay up later.
