Russian Championships started today in Penza, with the all around/individual qualification stage. It will be followed by the team competition on Friday and the event finals on Saturday and Sunday respectively.
Maria Kharenkova won the all around title with 58.033 points. She was followed by Alla Sosnitskaya (56.600) and Seda Tutkhalyan (56.334). Maria is last year’s European balance beam gold medalist and a silver medalist in the all around at Junior Euros in 2012. Sosnitskaya is a 2014 European and World team member and vault/floor specialist. This was the debut in a senior competition for Seda Tutkhalyan. Her most notable result as a junior was all around gold at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.
Kharenkova’s win today, together with good performances for the rest of the week on beam, her favorite apparatus, will probably secure her place in the team for 2015 Euros. In Mustafina’s absence, the all around medal hopes for this year’s Euros are now dependent on a similarly consistent performance from Kharenkova.
The coaches and team coordinators will also aim to spot the most promising routines for each event. They have already stated that the focus will be on the routine’s prospective and difficulty even if mistakes could still happen at this stage.
But today each event specialist delivered on their favorite piece: on vault both Sosnitskaya and Paseka scored in the mid-15s, Spiridonova “won” bars first qualifying position with a 15.367, Kharenkova was the best on beam (15.367) followed by Komova (15.00), while Afanasyeva delivered on floor (14.700).
Komova will hope to improve on the 14.700 on bars. She was said to have intended to compete all around but had a minor set-back in training. She recently “pulled” her back so it was decided for her to compete on only two events in Penza. About her, Andrei Rodionenko said in a recent interview “Komova trains, but also not yet in full force. We try to minimize the risks so that she could recover completely. We have to sacrifice something. “
Here are the top eight in the all around ranks:
M Kharenkova 14.100/5.0 14.433/6 15.367/6.8 14.133/5.6 58.033
Alla Sosnitskaya 15.333/6.4 13.367/5.8 14.333/5.5 13.567/5.7 56.600
Seda Tutkhalyan 15.067/5.8 13.433/5.8 14.267/6.6 13.567/5.5 56.334
Darya Spiridonova 13.867/5.0 15.367/6.6 13.400/5.9 13.233/5.3 55.867
Evgenia Shelgunova 14.367/5.8 14.000/6.2 13.333/6.0 14.133/ 55833
Ekaterina Kramarenko 14.367/5.8 13.867/5.9 13.067/5.5 14.167/5.7 55.201
Anastasia Dimitrieva 14.400/5.8 13.167/5.4 13.333/5.9 14.200/5.6 55.100
Maria Bondareva 13.933/5.0 14.500/6.1 12.867/5.1 13.700/5.2 55.000
….
Maria Paseka VT 15467/6.4 14.933/5.9 14.200/5.5
Victoria Komova UB 14.700/6.1 BB 15.00/5.8
Ksenia Afanasieva VT 14.933/5.8 FX 14.700/6.1
Watch: Seda Tutkhalyan’s floor exercise
Article by: Bea Gheorghisor
Photo cover: Nadia Boyce