Mustafina Dominates 1st Day

2014-08-27

5 min read

Competitions

In a very recent conversation with a fellow gym-fan, I remember saying it wouldn’t surprise me if Aliya Mustafina decided to quietly take a step back from all-around competition, becoming a bar and beam specialist exclusively (at least for now). That was before her solid all-around performance today and “easy” capture of the Russian Cup title. No doubt in body-preserving mode (and with a realistic view of her closest rivals), she didn’t pull out all the stops; her floor routine included three relatively uncomplicated passes and her bars routine was the one typically used for domestic meets (if she begins with an inbar stalder full, that’s usually an indication that the rest of the routine will be lower difficulty; she always keeps the Van Leeuwen, the piked Jaeger, the toe-on full to dismount, but in contrast to her routines for major international competitions, she doesn’t use the Chow, much less right out of her pak, and the Mustafina dismount is replaced with a full-twisting double.)

Her non-watered down routines came on vault (DTY, 14.833) and balance beam, where despite a fall she proved that the drills in practice were worthwhile. The fall came on her free cartwheel at the end of a switch-leap to Onodi sequence, that I believe she’s been attempting to connect to the next sequence: two front aerials to a BHS step-out. Not to suggest any of those combinations are easy, but it almost looked as though she relaxed too much after a beautiful double turn and solid standing Arabian (to wolf jump). In any case, she has clearly been emboldened by that beam gold at the 2013 World Championships and plans to prove its merit to any naysayers.

In general, it appears that she’s very much on track to be Russia’s all-around hope again this year. The difference in her training emphasis and performances seems to reflect the coaching transition; it was unclear to me who, if anyone, was attending to her tumbling and vaulting during practice, but her new personal coach (Raisa Ganina) was very attentive to her choreography and beam routines, while Head Coach Evgeny Grebyonkin continued to guide her through bars, as he did before the London Olympics. The approach appears to be working for now as the veteran confidently swept another meet.

There are others who should be celebrating today, notably first-year senior Daria Spiridonova and 2012 Olympian Maria Paseka. The former made a very good case for herself in terms of World Championship qualification: she qualified second on bars, her pet event, delivering a cleaner routine than Viktoria Komova (whose routine no doubt inspired Spiridonova’s), and showed she could be a fighter on the balance beam, saving an off-line BHS step-out to BHS step-out to layout step-out. She qualified fourth and I imagine she’s hoping to improve on that later this week.

Her bronze medal in the All-Around won’t hurt either; the delicacy that makes her so delightful on bars and beam doesn’t translate very well to the vault, but she gives the impression of possible improvement on floor exercise, and that bodes well for the team.

The latter, Maria Paseka, stood up an Amanar vault and layed-out Podkapoyeva today to take the lead in vault qualification. She has a lot of momentum, leaving room for improvement in the landings, but they are less nerve-racking than Alla Sosnitskaya’s, whom she is also chasing (and caught) on floor exercise. I imagine she’ll try adding another pass before Worlds (if selected) but the fact that she outscored her closest competition with a cleanly landed whip-whip-BHS to triple twist, 2.5 to full, and double tuck says something. She’s been trying to climb out of the vault-exclusive club for a while, and she may have accomplished it today. You could certainly sense the air of anticipation when she performed on both events; coaches and teammates alike stopped what they were doing to root for her.

First-year senior Maria Kharenkova is likely having a more sober celebration tonight, no doubt basking in the light of a stellar beam routine (the competition high, a 16.200) and second-place all-around finish, but also regretting some missed opportunities to capitalize—putting her hands down on her last floor pass, a double tuck, and going soft in the back on bars, fighting through the second half of her routine. Confirmation, for sure, that her balance beam routine is that good. And it was: she was steadier than I’ve ever seen her and her BHS step-out to BHS to layout stepout was rock solid. Front tuck, aerial to sheep jump, switch-ring: it was all world class.

Those feeling a little heavier today and probably itching for improved performances later this week include Polina Fyodorova, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, and Tatiana Nabieva. The former and the latter can make good cases for themselves on two events, but both finished right outside the top three on those events today (Polina on beam and floor, and Tatiana on bars and vault). Ekaterina and Alla are in the unenviable position of having presented pretty solid routines everywhere, placing fourth and fifth all-around, but lacking some difficulty (more so for Ekaterina) and going a bit soft (more so for Alla).

Viktoria Komova also makes this list, having presented a reputable bar routine (also a routine that drew a lot of encouragement from everyone in the arena) but finishing third in qualifications with a 14.700. She’ll want to improve her E score (an 8.3) in the Event Final, starting with that inbar-full to Tkatchev.

Competition for the women resumes Friday where the regional teams will square off, followed by the finals for vault and uneven bars on Saturday, and the beam and floor on Sunday.

Stay tuned!

All Around Results

Here are a few routines:

Maria Paseka on floor:

Link: http://youtu.be/Rn2anAwNDZI

Viktoria Komova on bars:

Link: http://youtu.be/PEkVeWwDBQQ Polina Fydorova on beam:

Link: http://youtu.be/nY-soi9dnuc

Mustafina on bars:

Link: http://youtu.be/uLXhhxNTfLE

Mustafina on beam:

Link: http://youtu.be/Vp0UT8p49-I