Ksenia Afanasyeva 2013 Universiade AA Floor

It's sad that Afanasyeva will miss 2013 worlds. She had one of the best floor routines of the year and could challenged for floor gold in Antwerp. I will be missing her this year. She won't be able to defend her world title that she won in 2011. I read that she should be recovered by December. Hopefully the next time we see her she will be doing double layouts with full twists :D Get well Afan.

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.

Quick Thoughts on P&G Championships Day 2 WAG (USA Nationals)

- Things started off  well with my favourite Maroney doing a wonderful floor routine. She scored a nice score of 15.250 with difficulty of 6.1. Her leaps are iffy but I enjoyed this routine. She was so close to that OOB on her double pike. I think I have posted way too many Marney floor on my blog but here is another one from tonight.

-Ross's uneven bars as Al put it, "You don't need to know anything about gymnastics, but that was gorgeous." I couldn't agree more. I'm one of those few fans who think Ross has a chance at medalling on bars in Antwerp. I know she will have to face 2 Russians and 2 Chinese but she could pull it off and who knows she could surprisingly win gold.

-During the end things got really dramatic when Biles messed up her toe-on skill. Ross needed a 15.45 to win over Biles but it wasn't enough. I was actually surprised at Ross's 15.25 beam score but I can see where the judges didn't deduct. It's crazy to think that Kyla could have gotten 15.45 for the win. She did win the second day of AA but the combined scores of day 1 & 2 had her in 2nd overall. The results.

Overall I think Biles is the one to beat for AA worlds but this does not mean she is my favourite to win.

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.