27 thoughts on “2016 Russian Cup Results”

1. SEDA!!! I think she hit beam… Atleast she didn’t fall!! But what happened with Aliya on bars?!

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   • I heard Seda fell on her dismount and still managed to get a score in the 14s. So that doesn`t look bad. Aliya had two very uncharacteristic falls on ub. You can`t really tell what the problem was from the video… maybe something with her grips or her hand? It looked like she didn`t really care, but thats just my impression. Bet she will be back for AA finals. If she hit that routine with her usual scoring potential, she would have outscored Melnikova in the AA, I think.

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     • There were a few falls where routines got overscored…Seda’s hit beams internationally this year can reach around 14.6-14.8 realistically. 15.1 is a bit of a stretch. Another example of overscoring = Melnikova’s bars (she fell and still got a 14.6).

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2. The fact that a semi-retired Nabieva qualified in 4th to the AA is unsettling. Might as well throw her into the mix for Rio.

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3. What the hell happened?

   Does Russia have a reasonable team in the mix for Rio podium?

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   • Its not a selection comp just a bi annual meet. The Olympic training group will go to Round Lake soon & then we’ll see from there. The rest can finish their summer holidays.

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     • I’m sure the coaches and fans would have preferred for them to look a little crisper, better conditioned, and more ready mentally than the results of this meet seem to indicate.

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4. I wonder if the fact that Valentina indicated that she had her team selected back at the beginning of the year caused some of the athletes to relax in their training because why knock yourself out and risk injury if you have no chance? And then meanwhile, the chosen few have gotten sick or injured and now they are in this situation. Only two beam scores over 14.0 and one of those is from your “headcase” gymnast? Wow. Vault still looks good, but beam and bars were shockingly bad. Floor is sort of where I thought it would be, but I was hoping Paseka would be back to competing that event. Suda actually did very well here. I hope she makes the team. I enjoy her gymnastics.

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   • I don’t understand Russia’s practice of naming teams so far in advance. I think it contributes to the lack of depth in their teams. If you were a Polina Federova, would you push yourself when the team has already been named in January (and doesn’t include you)? It’s even more demoralizing when injured athletes still have their spots reserved.

     Basically, teams gain depth when girls really believe their hard work will pay off. The Rodionenkos are creating a system that is far from a meritocracy. They have only themselves to blame for having so few options for the team. The US model is not perfect, but everyone knows they have a chance if they produce the goods, and therefore the girls work really hard. This creates the incredible depth on the US team.

     Also, this insane practice of picking the Olympic team in January doesn’t do the veterans any favors. Aliya did not look good at this Russian Cup (that is a polite understatement). Maria Paseka had a good looking Amanar…and didn’t look great anywhere else. Daria has a good bar routine and should be kept off beam at all costs. Ksenia is probably still in a cast.

     Yeah, I’m worried for them.

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     • I don’t understand it either. It isn’t like the golden days of Soviet dominance when you had the best of the best from multiple countries under one roof and you be more ruthless with gymnasts who under performed at a major competition. Why wouldn’t you get a sports psychologist for Suda or Grishina? Why wouldn’t you send other gymnasts to less important competitions to give them experience and exposure instead of sending the same, already injured veterans? Why can’t they do something about their conditioning which could possibly reduce injuries and certainly improve execution scores?

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     • The Rodienkos are idiots. They sit around making delusional comments like “we’re going to fight The US for the gold medal” and then get pissed off when they get crushed for the 30th time in a row and start saying that USA dopes, whichever country got silver bought their medal and blame the FIG for irresponsible judging of their girls and don’t even look at themselves when they burn out their veterans, have no alternates because they swept their good gymnasts aside, give half ass routines with multiple falls and careless errors and ignore the burgeoning talents they have on their hands. If the Olympics were in February, Russia would be pretty great at the Olympics,
       with Komova still at full strength at that point (she wasn’t dealing with back pains until early March), Ksenia as healthy as she gets, which is bad but workable, Paseka still doing alright and Melnikova has been fine all year. Shelgunova nailed everything at the beginning of the year and Mustafina was probably the only one who wasn’t full strength at the start of the year. But the Rodienkos don’t know what pacing is, and therefore burned out all their top options. So instead of Paseka being able to upgrade both her vaults, she will go in with a good Amanar and scrapped Cheng, Komova, who was according to team articles looking like she was going to fight for an all around medal is already out, Ksenia will most likely follow in the coming weeks. Seda, Aliya and Melnikova are saved from the state of the rest of their team. The US, correct, isn’t perfect. I feel like Marta has robbed great gymnasts of opportunity, with several times since she took over in 2002-2003 having kept really good gymnasts at home for worlds/olympics because “they don’t have enough international experience” when she only gives 1-2 international assignments for anyone a year. Not overworking or burdening gymnasts with a ton of meets is good, but at least send first, second year seniors to a World Cup event every once in a while. But they don’t talk about how great they are, they get work done, and aren’t as blunt about any given select three gymnasts so it at least seems the spots are up for grabs, even if Marta does have clear favorites, and actually pace everyone accordingly. If Laurie or Maggie were at Round Lake they’d probably be out for the count by now.

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5. Well, they are still fighting for silver, I don’t know the state of the Chinese team but Russia just beat the UK recently at Euros, although it must be said that if the UK hadn’t had so many falls the picture could be different.

   Even with all the injuries, they can still cover 4 events fairly
   I would personally sit Spiridonova, if Afanasyeva gets cleared to compete it’s been said she will do only floor so the line up could be:

   VT – Paseka, Aliya, Angelina
   UB – Aliya, Angelina, Seda
   BB – Aliya, Angelina, Seda
   FX – Afanasyeva, Seda, Angelina

   Like the US, 3 all-arounders and 2 specialists.
   Yes Spiri could bring a medal in EF but she just placed 3rd in UB EF, Kapitonova was 1st. Spiri can’t be used anywhere else for that matter, she scored a 12 on beam.

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   • If they’re going to bring in a one event specialist Spiridonova would be the smartest option of the two. Spiridonova could score 7-8 tenth a higher than Tutkhalyan would (assuming a non-Afanasyeva team would have Paseka and Tutkhalyan in it) and has a much better chance of getting a medal on bars than Afanasyeva does on floor. Afanasyeva on the team would probably only get 3-5 tenths more than whoever they discard whether it be Aliya, Seda, Angelina, etc. which is less than they would gain from Daria. Personally, I think a team of Paseka, Tutkhalyan, Angelina, Aliya and Spridonova makes the most sense at the moment. Last year, the team qualified 2nd even with Spridonovas beam set, and are going to qualify no matter what, so somehow being in an awful situation where they would end up counting Spiridonovas beam score in qualifying, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. The team is pretty solid on vault, on bars they could play around with Paseka/Angelina, if Paseka is able to upgrade. If not, Aliya, Daria and Angelina still make for a killer bar line up. On beam, Aliya and Angelina can easily score high 14s. Tutkhalyan would then have to be their 3rd beam worker, which is high risk if she falls and high reward if she doesn’t. Although the next best beam workers at home only score low 14s so maybe it wouldn’t be that huge a game changer if Tutkhalyan were to fall in team competition. On floor, it would be super weak either way, with all 3 probably only scoring low 14s at best, though Aliya has impressed and surprised us in London, going from getting high 13s to low 14s to a peak of 14.9 , so she can impress again and if Melnikova is able to polish her floor she can score well. I just don’t see Afnasyeva being a better option than Spiridonova. If Afanasyeva did vault too I might agre, but she’s not.

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6. The Rodionenko-bashing on this site is really getting tiresome. It’s fine to have opinions but some of this is just insulting.

   I grew up in Saint Petersburg and I speak fluent Russian. Neither the Rodionenkos, nor anyone else that I’ve read have ever named the Russian Olympic team for Rio. They named a group of gymnasts after the Glasgow Worlds who would commence Olympic training at two levels. The core group of Mustafina, Afanasyeva, Komova, Paseka and Spiridonova would be on intensive Olympic training. They would compete only in Russian competitions. The secondary group contained young athletes and they would be touring the International scene and be judged on their merits under competition conditions. This group consists of Shelgunova, Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Kharenkova, Kapitonova, Dmitrieva and Skrypnik. Injuries have hurt the program but the youngsters have never stopped touring. The final team will probably not be named until the last few days before the deadline.

   I will point out here that this situation was largely forced upon the Russian coaching hierarchy by retirements (Dementieva/Rodionova etc) ,and the inability of gymnasts in the current 18-22yr age group to reach Olympic standard. No disrespect meant here, Olympic standard is rediculously difficult to attain, other priorities come into play (study etc) and every country has good and bad years. Only Komova, Paseka, Shelgunova and Sosnitskaya remain from that age group as realistic Olympic chances and the coaches named the best team available as the Olympic training group. Russia only have a few dozen elite-level gymnasts and their budget is not large.

   As for the pacing argument, Russia is no different to any other country in it’s training mentality, slowly introducing their athletes to increased difficulties in the months leading up to a major competition to reduce injury risks. But they cannot cover the rediculous number of injuries the scoring system causes, they simply don’t have enough athletes at elite level. And they are not alone in that. Romania, Australia, Hungary… all Olympic programs wrecked by injuries and every country has it’s problems. Injuries are endemic in women’s gymnastics like no other sport.

   Russia will put up the best team available and fight for a medal. Whoever gets to Rio gets there though hard work, guts and determination and they deserve their spots. Disrespect the way Russia does things if you like, but they are an elite program putting up elite gymnasts and have been doing it successfully for a very long time. They cannot win medals in every competition, no team can, but no matter where they finish the athletes and their program deserve our respect.

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   • Dave, the whole gymternet need someone like you:-)
     If you have time and interest translate some of the coming interviews, or give an accurate recap.

     Ps. I dont see that this site is bashing etc. but maybe single individuals commenting here have had some strong opinions based on inaccurate facts.

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7. Kapitanova is just as good as Spiridonova on UB so why not bring her, at least she can do all events if needed..

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8. Who won the beam final?

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   • Angelina Melnikova

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   • Melnikova. I think she got a 15.4, inflated obviously but her best beam of the week. The rest I think were in the 13’s. Seda fell on her layout full but hit her piked full in dismount and everything else pretty well. That’s all I know…

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9. Pingback: Who Makes the 2016 Olympics? – Russian Edition 2 | Extra Twist

10. Tbh, I disagree with their team in that Spiridonova is on it. A team of
    Paseka, Mustafina, Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, and Kapitonova. Would be the most successful,
    in TF:
    VT: Mustafina, Melnikova, Paseka
    BR: Paseka (if healthy)/Melnikova, Mustafina, Kapitonova
    BM: Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Mustafina
    FX: Kapitonova/Mustafina, Melnikova, Tutkhalyan
    Roughly… However these depend on if Paseka has a good bar set when compared to Melnikova’s. Now in Qualifications, add Seda to vault and use both Paseka and Melka on bars, add Kapitonova on beam and use both Mustafina and Kapitonova on floor and you have a team. If Spiridonova was on it, there would only be three usable beam routines, and three floor routines (Unless Paseka decides to bring back floor.) So bring Kapitonova is a much better deal especially if you need back up.

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    • I’d agree. Kapitonova beat Spirinova & has a beautiful floor . Her leaps are those of a 15 year old but the dance & tumbling & musicality is fine.. She has improved by ‘leaps & bounds’ since Mustafina came to Penza .
      BTW Seda’s bars are now fantastic .

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11. Andrei Rodionenko named a provisional team for Rio on July 3rd, based on results of from the Russian Championship, European Games and Cup of Russia and the health of the squad

    Aliya Mustafina
    Angelina Melnikova
    Daria Spiridonova
    Seda Tutkhalyan
    Maria Paseka

    Afanasyeva, Kapitonova and Akhaimova reserves

    Final decision made 19-20 July

    Source TASS, P-Sport

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12. How Akhaimova can be a reserve for Rio without a valid FIG license -a requirement- and without time left to process one is beyond me. Can anyone explain?

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    • nope, not even the russians…. don´t understand the choice either, Shegulnova is a better option in my opinion….

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13. FIG Licence Rules

    4. LICENCE CHECK

    Paragraph 4:-

    If a gymnast does not have an FIG Licence but the application was already submitted to the FIG
    before the nominative entry deadline and the FIG is in possession of all the required information, the
    gymnast may be allowed by the Organising Committee to participate in the event if s/he presents
    his/her FIG Licence at the accreditation.

    9. APPLICATION PROCEDURE AND FEE

    Paragraph 2:-

    Applications forms must be submitted at least one (1) month prior to the deadline for nominative
    registration of the related event.

    Click to access 20160426_FIG%20Licence%20Rules%20and%20appendices_E_V.1.0.pdf

    I do not know how this nomination system works. As I understand it, as long as a licence application is received 30 days before the nomination date, then the FIG/Organising Committee have until the date of accreditation to process it. I’m not sure what the nominative registration date or accreditation date for Rio are as they are not yet listed on the FIG site and I do not know how long this process would take. Perhaps somebody can fill in those details for us

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