USA Wins Team WAG Gold || Nanning 2014

Full Results

1) USA 179.280
2) China 172.587
3) Russia 171.462

I watched live on Chinese feed. It's no surprise the mighty strong USA won. I enjoyed their strong difficult floor routines by Skinner and Biles. Yeah yeah I said Skinner :P. At least she woke me up because she does hard stuff that keeps me watching. I wonder what Ross's beam inquiry was about? Say what you want about Ross but she was the only one from USA that I liked on beam. I honestly do not understand how they scored so close to Chinese beam? My favourite part of team finals was China's beam, especially Huang Huidan's.

Romania qualified 7th but came in 4th. I'm happy for them. They were so close to 3rd with 170.963 for 4th place. I saw Iordache on beam and she was on fire. She scored the highest on beam with 15.5! I'm looking forward to seeing Munteanu's beam. She also scored high with 15.2.

Russia managed to take bronze. I saw Spiridonova and Mustafina on bars and they did good job. I only saw Mustafina on beam and floor she had some mistakes but she handled everything well. They fought to stick their vaults. I only saw Nabieva and Mustafina on vault. They did a really good job. They really needed those scores. They are fighters.

Not everything went well for China, Russia and Romania but they shouldn't be so hard on themselves. They are good teams they just need to hit hit hit their routines and maybe they can put pressure on team USA. They need more difficulty too but it's still mid quad. I think China, Russia and Romania knows what they need to do to improve for Rio. I hope they achieve what they intend to improve on. USA is too strong and of course they know they can't get lazy and expect to think they will always win easily. Congratulations to all the teams.    

Tatiana Nabieva's 2013 Russian Cup BB & Some other Random Rant

Here is part 2 of 2013 Russian Cup EF. This channel has the other part. The Russian stream is getting better but still needs a lot of work. Anyway I'm still grateful for coverage.

Latest news on the Russian front is that the WAG team has been announced. Only three names have been confirmed Mustafina, Afanasyeva and Nabieva. The last spot will be decided between Komova and Paseka. I'm still skeptical of what is going on in Russia but at this point it doesn't matter because it's an individual worlds. I think Nabieva is a good gymnast and I don't want to say anything negative so I hope she proves me wrong. Too bad she doesn't transfer her personality to her gymnastics. She seems very bored. She needs more oomph to her gymnastics. Even some of her boring teammates seem to have more vibrant gymnastics than her. I think Nabieva is coming along good but she is still only competitive on bars IMO. I guess it's good she is on the team because the unpredictable Grishina supposedly axed herself off the team by not wanting to compete at nationals due to back pains. I don't know who to believe, Grishina or Rodionenko. Rodionenko basically said Grishina is no longer in contention because Grishina walked out, hmm. Also I hear Dementyeva is not sure if she'll continue gymnastics, it's a shame honestly. I hope no one was bully to get off the team. I know I'm starting drama but somethings don't seem right IMHO.

To end this post on a somewhat positive note. Nabieva had a rather nice beam routine. I like it because she has potential and I could talk about her bars but we already know she is good there. She has the beam skills she just needs to be less cautious. She's lacking spark and aggressiveness for what could be a very good beam. I hope her AA quest works out for her. I put the whole part 2 up since I can't find a single clip of Nabieva's beam routine. Skip to around 1:06:13

Front Tuck 1/2 (F)
Switch Leap + L-turn (C+C) 0.1
RO + Layout (E) 0.1
Y-turn (C)
Aerial Cartwheel (D)
2/1 Spin (D)
Dbl Tuck (D)

3.2 + 0.2CV= 3.4 + 2.5CR= 5.9 D-scores if she gets everything credit. Not shabby and she won this event.

Some 2013 Russian Cup National Routines

Maria Paseka's and Tatiana Nabieva's new floor routines. Maria debuts new DLO! She got lost a bit but this was a very new routine for her. More videos here Leksy566.

Some 2013 Russian Cup National News - Nabieva 1st AA

Sosnitskaya, Nabieva, Pavlova

It's really hard to keep up with all the gymnastics news right now. USA Nationals and Russian Nationals are all happening at the same time. The problem with Russia is that they don't broadcast or have videos up. I hope we get to see some videos of the Russians. This competition is seriously lacking in star power. No Mustafina, Afanasyeva, Komova and Grishina. Those gymnasts are all most likely to make the 2013 world team. It's very hard to take the Russians serious right now but this is their strategy and they know what they are doing.

It's nice Nabieva won. I hope she can reemerge into becoming one of Russia's top contenders again. This AA podium leaves a lot of questions to be answered. Obviously this is not the desired AA podium for Russia at a world stage.

Thanks to the wonderful rewritingrussiangymnastics for all the detailed information. You guys should all check it out. 

Thoughts on WAG Russian TF Universiade 2013

I've only watched the Russian team because only subdivision 4 had live feed and there wasn't really much to comment about the other teams. The Russian gymnasts won with a comfortable lead of 175.5. Japan 2nd and Germany 3rd. The live feed wasn't great but at least I got to see some gymnastics. The audio for the commentators was hard to hear as the background crowd noise drowned the commentary. I did my best to hear what they said.

Please note these are unofficial results and I will post the official results soon. I also didn't edit this post so some things might not make sense.

The floor rotation started out good enough. There were some mistakes but some beautiful stuff.

-Tatiana Nabieva started on floor. It's been a while since she has competed and it's nice to see her. She had lovely new floor rouitne and I like her music choice. She opened up with 3/1 twists, second pass 5/2 twists + 1/2 twist. All her spins were single L-turn and Y-turn. The only major error was her huge out of bounds on the double pike dismount. Good start for her.

-Aliya Mustafina did the the same tumblings as usual but no stag on the double arabian and only a layout front on the 5/2 twists. She changed her third pass to 3/1 twists and her dismount to double tuck. I like it that way. She did a new spin combo single L-turn + Memmel, very nice. I saw on the screen she got a score of 13.75.

-Ksenia Afanasyeva debuted her new floor rouitne. I'll be honest maybe she wasn't fully committed to the routine and the music was soft which I didn't really like the new routine but the bias in me will wait to see it more to see if I like it. I have to say that her composition steps on the floor is always the same. What I mean is she always uses the same areas of the floor to move from place to place (I hope that made sense). I didn't really see any great moment of choreography. I think it is true that artistry is being sacrifice for difficulty, sad. But she still has an elegant way of moving around and  I do like the dramatic low floor choreography after her stuck double pike. In terms of the skills and tumbles she did the same things, nothing new and she had some errors a hop on DLO and a very nerve wreaking front layout, she almost fell. I saw she got 14.750 at first it seems high but she has high difficulty and I will have to see the routine again to understand the 14.750.

The broadcast did not show Anna Dementyeva

On vault there was limited showing of the Russians. Mustafina had a stuck DTY for 14.950. They only showed Nabieva's 2nd vault RO 1/2 on front pike 1/2. Afanasyeva did 2 vaults but they only showed her 15.000 DTY with a step back. The broadcast completely skipped Maria Paseka's vaults.

UB:

-They skipped Dementyeva's routine

- Nabieva did a lovely routine. She is considered a bars specialists. I love her work and she seems so happy to be competing again. She did toe 1/1 + shap + pak, stalder 1/1 + VLW, toe 1/2 + jaeger, and Tsuk dismount. Good score for 14.400.

-Mustafina did her same 6.3 routine. She looked good enough. She does seems a little tired on this event now and I hope she can upgrade her routine but I think she will because 6.3 might not be good enough for world championships. She scores 15.000 so that's means she got 8.7 execution.

- No Afanasyeva broadcast view but heard the commentators saying she fell, ouch. I heard she got a low score of 12.55 eek.

Then when it came to beam they completely missed everyone but Dementyeva and half of Tatiana's routine. Tatiana did okay for a low difficult beam routine. She waited a bit long going into her dismount but she landed it to her feet.

Aliya got a nice score of 15.200 but no live coverage of her routine :( boo.

The highlight for me was Dementyeva's beam. She looked fierce up there. She debuted a nice double pike worth E and even though it's lower in difficulty to her 3/1 twists dismount the pike works better. She got a score of 15.300. Her beam set was, roll on mount, switch ring, onodi + front aerial + sheep jump (very beautiful connection), Aerial cartwheel + leap series, RO + layout, full turn, split ring, dbl pike dismount. Nice work from Dementyeva.

- Afanasyeva's routine was not showed but I heard she had a solid routine for a 14.200.

Overall I think the Russians did good and it was nice to see Nabieva back with her expressive attitude :D. It wasn't tough competition for the Russians but I'm happy they won on home soil.

Tomas Gonzalez's 3/1 Yurchenko (kind of)

It's cool that he is trying to go for it but it was not even close. I wouldn't even consider that an attempt. I might sound like a hater but I think it was funny how he did this vault. It's not that it was bad bad but reminds me of that time when Tatiana Nabieva almost did a 3/1 and then there was another time when Afanasyeva mocked it at Tokyo worlds podium training. Good times.

Team Russia's 2013 Universiade Teams Announced

The team members will be Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Dementyeva and Maria Paseka. Source 

I read somewhere that the eligible age is 17 so technically some of the competitors don't have to be in University/College. I'm not 100% sure about this though.

It's nice to see Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementyeva on the team. Here is another article where Valentina Rodionenko talks about the MAG & WAG team.

This is just my fun speculation of how the team will be used. The format will be like the Olympics 5-4-3 but if I'm not mistaken the qualifying round will also be the team finals. So 4 gymnasts up and 3 scores count for team finals. The first gymnast I name will be the score that they will most likely want to discard.

Here's my line up, just for fun speculation :)

VT: Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Aliya Mustafina, Maria Paseka
UB: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Paseka, Tatiana Nabieva, Aliya Mustafina
BB: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Dementyeva, Aliya Mustafina (this one was tricky because Paseka and Nabieva are pretty useless on beam and floor so all these three gymnasts scores must count)
FX: Anna Dementyeva, Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva

It is interesting to note that Valentina did say Nabieva restored AA but doesn't have a second vault so she could contribute on beam and floor in qualification.

Part 2: Favourite Things From This Quad

Aliya Mustafina in 2010! Oh the memories. She was a BAMF, destined to be a world champion. She lead her teammates to a team gold at the 2010 WC. She was the leader. One of my favourite routines from her was her '10 FX prelim. She stuck pretty much every single tumble and her 3/1 spin was perfect. She immediately became a star in 2010. I even remember making a thread poll titled something like "gymnast of the year" on the IG forum and Mustafina won! LOL 2010 memories, sadly I'm now banned from that board, boo. She's basically my second favourite gymnast of all time. She knows how to compete and doesn't give up easily. I'm happy that she was able to win UB gold at the Olympics after being seriously injured for a year.

Aliya MUSTAFINA UB from javier collados on Vimeo.

Favourite Nabieva Moments

The first time I saw Tatiana Nabieva was at the 2010 Japan Cup. I believe this was the competition where she first did the toe-on straight Tkatchev. It is now named the "Nabieva". The whole competition used to be on youtube but the user closed its channel. Luckily another youtuber uploaded single clips from that competition. I remember seeing Nabieva doing the "Nabieva" and being in awe. She is full of personality. I personally only enjoyed watching her on bars.

The title on this youtube clip says BB EX, lol. Should be UB. Oh well. Edit (video got deleted, booo).

 

Another personal favourite. Nabieva doing an Amanar or was she trying to attempt a triple Yurchenko? She is one of the moodiest gymnast I have ever seen. She cries and laughs a lot.

 

She didn't make it to the Olympics. If she was able to do the Amanar (even with bad form, IMO) she would have made the team over Maria Paseka. Too bad she couldn't do it. She is currently injured in the knee/leg (?) and I bet it was because she attempted the Amanar. I hope she will still be around in the next quad to keep us all entertained.

This uneven bars routine was by far one of her best performances. It had an 6.8 D-score! She'll never be forgotten for her innovated bar routines.

Russian Team Announced

Google translated source: CLICK HERE

WAG: Aliya  Mustafina, Viktoria Komova, Anastasia Grishina, KSENIA AFANASYEVA & Maria Paseka. Alternates are Tatiana Nabieva and Yulia Inshina.

MAG: Garibov Emin, David Belyavsky, Denis Ablyazin, Alexander Balandin and Igor Pakhomenko. Alternates: Sergei Khorokhordin  & Nikita Ignatyev.

The Russian team will leave on July 21st. My birthday is on July 21st, what great news to hear that my favourite gymnast, Afanasyeva will be a two-time Olympian and traveling to London on my birthday.

Yulia Inshina, The Dark Horse? (My Final Russian Team Prediction)

Can Inshina make the team and be the dark horse? I’m predicting yes. If Inshina does make the team, Russia would be a bit weak but there is still hope for Russia.

The team will be announced around the 8th of July. My ideal team would be Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva and Dementyeva. Realistically I can’t see them winning team gold but they can challenge USA if they have Amanars. Russia is full of secrets and surprises.

Sidorova is out of contention. Dementyeva has not been confirmed to be back on the team so my real objective team is Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva and Paseka. I think Mustafina, Komova and Grishina are all official locks. The fourth member should be Afanasyeva but her injury is questionable. The only reason she’ll be off the team is because of not recovering in time. I would be disappointed if she’s left off the team but I must remain positive, I’m bracing myself for whatever happens. I hope she makes the team and will peak well enough for the games. Paseka could make the team because she did land an Amanar at the Russian Cup but she wasn’t consistent enough. She could be able to do it in London, who knows. Nabieva could also make the team. Basically what I’m saying is that there are three locks and two spots left. The last two spots are up for grabs between Afanasyeva, Paseka, Nabieva and Inshina. Any of them can make up the final two spots.

My biggest prediction is that YULIA INSHINA will make the team (even though I didn't include her in my objective team prediction).  I know it sounds crazy but I have a feeling she’s going to be in London as an actual member, not an alternate (she could be an alternate though). I realize I’m talking crazy (contradicting myself) but anything is possible. Awhile ago I did a post on Inshina CLICK HERE and for some reason she must be a popular gymnast because that post is my 4th most viewed post.

I wish all the Russian gymnasts the best of luck and I hope the Russian coaches makes the best choices. The suspense is killing me.

Russian Preliminary Olympic Team Announced

The top 8 male and female members that are in running for the Russian Olympic team are:

Men: Dennis Ablyazin, Alexander Balandin, David Belyavsky, Emin Garibov, Konstantin Pluzhnikov, Nikita Ignatyev, Sergey Khorokhordina, Igor Pakhomenko.

Women: Ksenia Afanasyeva, Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina, Tatiana Nabieva, Maria Paseka, Anastasia Sidorova and Yulia Inshina.

The official 5 men team and 5 women team will be named no later then July 7th. Source: CLICK HERE

My Thoughts on The Women's Team

No Anna Dementyeva? Are they crazy? Anna Dementyeva is more capable of competing better than Yulia Inshina, in my humble opinion. I'm thinking Anna Dementyeva is not fully healthy and that they have no faith in her. I'm also getting scared that Afanasyeva's injury might be worse than expected but I try to remain optimistic. If the team really is going to be named around the 7th of July Afanasyeva has a lot of healing and work to do. Russia hasn't been healthy lately. The status of Sidorova's injuries aren't really well known also. I think the clear locks are Komova, Mustafina and Grishina. The last two spots will be a battle between the remaining girls. I don't see Yulia Inshina making the team so I would cut her off first for my team prediction. Inshina could prove useful as alternate though. The next two girls I would cut off is Paseka or Nabieva. Paseka's chances of making the team is getting the Amanar, if she can't get it consistently I wouldn't risk having her on the team. Nabieva could fill in but she can only do VT & UB, sadly for her bars is covered and vault is also covered to a lesser extent. I will make a team prediction later on.

2012 Russian Cup EF Vault & Bars

Vault
Ha, I knew Pavlova would win vault finals. So sad she has been blacklisted off Russia's Olympic team. Tatiana Nabieva got 2nd, good for her and Anna Myzdrikova is still around and medals 3rd. Maria Paseka couldn't get her Amanar. She can still possibly make the team but she has to get the Amanar consistent or she won't make the team. Russia really needs Amanars.


1) Anna Pavlova 14.390 (5.8/5.6)
2) Tatiana Nabieva 14.150 (5.2/5.8)
3) Anna Myzdrikova 13.800 (5.0/5.6)
Full results : Click Here

Nabieva, Pavlova, Myzdrikova

Uneven Bars
The beautiful Mustafina did an monstrous bar routine and scored huge. I'm really starting to favour Mustafina for the UB gold in London. It's good to see Grishina back she got 2nd place but it was only an exhibition routine. Komova did full difficulty but fell. Nabieva technically won 3rd because Grishina's routine was only an exhibition routine.

1) Aliya Mustafina 16.150 (7.0)
2) Anastasiya Grishina 15.450 (6.5) (Exhibition)
3) Viktoria Komova 15.150 (7.0)
4) Tatiana Nabieva  14.900 (6.1)
Full results: Click Here 
* Please note the full results gave incorrect last name to Anastasia Grishina as Anastasia Sidorova. It is a major error as Anastasia Sidorova bars difficulty is nowhere near past 6.0 and bars is her weakest event.

Komova, Mustafina, Nabieva

The Russians Are Coming

This week the Russian Cup (Nationals) will be taking place from June 12-17. It's not clear if we will see some upgrades but some things are known.

Tatiana Nabieva is back in the house. She was seen training in a new video and Alexandrov had said that she has almost resolved her weight issues.

Ksenia Afanasyeva is worried about her minor ankle injury. In a news clip she is considered one of the locks for the Olympic team. Alexandrov said that she will not show her full program at the Russian Cup. She is now doing acrobatics again. Afanasyeva will unveil her new choreographed floor routine. I'm excited for this. I'm glad the Russians are taking it easy on her. She is an older gymnast so she needs to rest more so that she can be in optimum form in London.

Viktoria Komova & Aliya Mustafina are training normal now and are doing all four apparatuses. Mustafina and Komova are training the Amanar into the pit. I hope this will be the first time we get to see Komova and Mustafina compete against each other for the AA title. They both need to have a friendly competitive rivalry.

Anastasia Grishina is also starting to feel sore in the legs according to Alexandrov. Hopefully it does not develop into something serious.

The google translated article can be read here: CLICK HERE

Anastasia Sidorova has been battling some injuries. I hope she will have a good showing. Her chances of making the team is not secure anymore.

Maria Paseka has to show us why she is useful to team Russia. She is unusable on beam and floor. Her only hope of making the team is to have the Amanar. Now would be the time to show it. Paseka is no Maroney. 

New Training Video - Dementyeva is looking fit. I wish her the best. She has been an important gymnast for Russia this quad. Tatiana Nabieva training on bars. Don't forget to read the descriptions for the video: