Anna Pavlova, now competing under the Azerbaijani flag after leaving her home nation of Russia due to a lack of international opportunities, nearly swept the gold medals at the 26th annual Bosphorus Tournament in Istanbul, Turkey this weekend.

Pavlova won the all-around in addition to all event titles but floor, the one event final she didn’t compete. Her teammates were equally successful, as the girls from Azerbaijan (including fellow Russian expat Yuliya Inshina) placed in the top four all-around spots while grabbing four more event medals – Marina Nekrasova with vault silver and floor bronze, and Inshina with beam bronze and floor silver.

While this newly-revived Azerbaijani won’t fulfill everyone’s fantasy by showing up to World Championships and defeating the big gun gymnastics nations, it’s great to see that gymnasts who no longer have opportunities in their own nations have found a spot to call home and keep competing internationally. Pavlova may never again be the gymnast she was during her glory days in the early to mid-2000s and likely won’t make any finals in Nanning, but if she wants to keep competing no matter what the outcome, this is the perfect situation.

On vault, the bronze went to Tangsholpan Kenzhakyn of Kazakhstan. On bars, Ece Ayan of Sweden (who will replace Ida Gustafsson on their nation’s World Championship team after Gustafsson was injured) earned silver while Aida Bauyrzhanova of Kazakhstan took bronze. Bauyrzhanova also won the floor gold, while on beam, her teammate Zhanerke Duisek of Kazakhstan won silver.

In the junior competition, we saw a few familiar faces from last month’s Youth Olympic Games, including Rahma Al Dulaimi of Qatar and Arailym Khanseiitova of Kazakhstan. Al Dulaimi won bronze in the all-around and on vault while Khanseiitova earned bars gold and silver on beam and floor in addition to placing 4th in the all-around.

Turkey’s Cansu Altin won the all-around with a 50.000, showing promise on all four events but especially on vault, where she won gold with a 13.6 combined score. She also won bars silver and floor bronze.

Her teammates also had great success, with Ekin Ülvan winning all-around silver and bars bronze, Beyza Türkmen winning vault silver, Cagla Altundemir winning beam gold, and Iclal Özbay winning floor gold.

Senior All-Around Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	AA
1	Anna Pavlova	Azerbaijan	13.650	12.400	13.100	12.550	51.700
2	Marina Nekrasova	Azerbaijan	13.500	12.150	11.200	13.450	50.300
3	Yuliya Inshina	Azerbaijan	12.550	10.850	12.350	13.200	48.950
4	Mariia Smirnova	Azerbaijan	13.200	11.500	10.000	12.400	47.100
5	Aida Bauyrzhanova	Kazakhstan	13.100	11.750	9.200	12.350	46.400
6	Tangsholpan Kenzhakyn	Kazakhstan	12.800	9.700	11.150	12.250	45.900
7	Ece Ayan	Sweden	13.200	7.600	10.500	12.650	43.950
8	Lahna Salem	Algeria	13.400	8.600	8.950	10.500	41.450
9	Yelena Goloveskiva	Turkmenistan	11.700	6.900	9.600	9.350	37.550
10	Dilyara Bufti	Turkmenistan	11.150	0.250	6.250	9.250	26.900
11	Demet Mutlu	Turkey	13.700	——	10.100	——	23.800
12	Zhanerke Duisek	Kazakhstan	——	——	10.300	——	10.300
13	Farah Mahmoud	Qatar	——	10.250	——	——	10.250
14	Busra Canatan	Turkey	——	9.650	——	——	9.650

Senior Vault Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total	Average
1	Anna Pavlova	Azerbaijan	4.7	9.000		13.700	13.625
			5.0	8.550		13.550
2	Marina Nekrasova	Azerbaijan	4.6	8.900		13.500	13.525
			4.6	8.950		13.550
3	Tangsholpan Kenzhakyn	Kazakhstan	4.4	8.900		13.300	12.950
			4.2	8.400		12.600
4	Ece Ayan	Sweden	4.4	8.400		12.800	12.925
			4.4	8.650		13.050

Senior Bars Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Anna Pavlova	Azerbaijan	4.5	8.050		12.550
2	Ece Ayan	Sweden	5.2	6.800		12.000
3	Aida Bauyrzhanova	Kazakhstan	5.0	6.150		11.150
4	Busra Canatan	Turkey	1.5	8.400		9.900
5	Zhanerke Duisek	Kazakhstan	3.4	6.300		9.700
6	Marina Nekrasova	Azerbaijan	3.6	5.100		8.700
7	Farah Mahmoud	Qatar	4.1	5.500	1.0	8.600

Senior Beam Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Anna Pavlova	Azerbaijan	5.0	8.650		13.650
2	Zhanerke Duisek	Kazakhstan	5.1	8.250		13.350
3	Yuliya Inshina	Azerbaijan	4.4	8.150	-0.1	12.450
4	Tangsholpan Kenzhakyn	Kazakhstan	4.5	7.900		12.400
5	Demet Mutlu	Turkey	4.2	7.350		11.550
6	Ece Ayan	Sweden	3.4	6.800		10.200
7	Yelena Goloveskiva	Turkmenistan	4.0	5.900		9.900

Senior Floor Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Aida Bauryzhanova	Kazakhstan	4.9	8.300		13.200
2	Yuliya Inshina	Azerbaijan	4.3	8.600		12.900
3	Marina Nekrasova	Azerbaijan	4.8	8.350	-0.3	12.850
4	Tangsholpan Kenzhakyn	Kazakhstan	4.5	8.350		12.850
5	Ece Ayan	Sweden	4.8	7.600		12.400
6	Lahna Salem	Algeria	4.1	6.800	-0.3	10.600
7	Dilyara Bufti	Turkmenistan	2.9	6.100	-0.1	8.900
8	Yelena Goloveskiva	Turkmenistan	2.2	6.350		8.550

Junior All-Around Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	VT	UB	BB	FX	AA
1	Cansu Altin	Turkey	13.600	11.300	11.600	13.500	50.000
2	Ekin Ülvan	Turkey	13.100	11.550	12.000	12.750	49.400
3	Rahma Al Dulaimi	Qatar	13.750	10.950	11.000	13.550	49.250
4	Arailym Khanseiitova	Kazakhstan	12.450	11.650	11.800	13.100	49.000
5	Iclal Özbay	Turkey	12.550	10.000	11.900	14.000	48.450
6	Doga Özgöcmez	Turkey	12.600	10.200	11.900	13.400	48.100
7	Beyza Türkmen	Turkey	13.650	11.150	11.750	11.300	47.850
8	Seher Atalay	Turkey	12.550	10.700	10.850	13.400	47.500
9	Cagla Altundemir	Turkey	11.600	10.200	12.150	13.200	47.150
10	Doga Ketenci	Turkey	11.800	9.950	10.800	13.400	45.950
11	Anastasiya Bolshova	Azerbaijan	12.200	11.200	10.700	11.650	45.750
12	Zarina Shametko	Kazakhstan	13.000	8.950	12.400	11.050	45.400
13	Maysa Kuliyewa	Turkmenistan	11.400	2.250	7.550	10.400	31.600
14	Lyubov Sarkova	Turkmenistan	10.400	0.000	5.550	7.850	23.800

Junior Vault Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total	Average
1	Cansu Altin	Turkey	4.8	9.000		13.800	13.600
			4.6	8.800		13.400
2	Beyza Türkmen	Turkey	4.8	8.750		13.550	13.275
			4.2	8.800		13.000
3	Rahma Al Dulaimi	Qatar	5.0	8.800		13.800	13.150
			4.4	8.100		12.500
4	Zarina Shametko	Kazakhstan	4.6	8.500		13.100	13.150
			4.6	8.600		13.200
5	Anastasiya Bolshova	Azerbaijan	4.4	7.450		11.850	12.050
			4.0	8.250		12.250

Junior Bars Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Arailym Khanseiitova	Kazakhstan	4.9	7.900		12.800
2	Cansu Altin	Turkey	4.0	7.800		11.800
3	Ekin Ülvan	Turkey	4.0	7.150		11.150
4	Anastasiya Bolshova	Azerbaijan	3.4	7.500		10.900
5	Zarina Shametko	Kazakhstan	3.5	6.900		10.400
6	Rahma Al Dulaimi	Qatar	3.1	6.650		9.750
7	Maysa Kuliyewa	Turkmenistan	0.7	6.800	-4.0	3.500
8	Lyubov Sarkova	Turkmenistan	0.4	6.950	-6.0	1.350

Junior Beam Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Cagla Altundemir	Turkey	4.3	8.500		12.800
2	Arailym Khanseiitova	Kazakhstan	5.3	7.450		12.750
3	Zarina Shametko	Kazakhstan	4.7	7.700		12.400
4	Ekin Ülvan	Turkey	4.2	7.500		11.700
5	Rahma al Dulaimi	Qatar	4.2	7.400		11.600
6	Anastasiya Bolshova	Azerbaijan	3.3	7.400		10.700
7	Maysa Kuliyewa	Turkmenistan	3.1	5.600		8.700
8	Lyubov Sarkova	Turkmenistan	2.3	2.950		5.250

Junior Floor Final Results

Rank	Athlete	Nation	D	E	ND	Total
1	Iclal Özbay	Turkey	5.4	7.850		13.250
2	Arailym Khanseiitova	Kazakhstan	4.7	8.150		12.850
3	Cansu Altin	Turkey	4.6	8.200		12.800
4	Rahma Al Dulaimi	Qatar	4.7	8.100		12.800
5	Zarina Shametko	Kazakhstan	4.8	7.850		12.650
6	Anastasiya Bolshova	Azerbaijan	4.4	8.050		12.450
7	Maysa Kuliyewa	Turkmenistan	3.1	6.700		9.800
8	Lyubov Sarkova	Turkmenistan	1.4	6.500	-0.2	7.700

Article by Lauren Hopkins