MAG Qualification Results and WAG Lineups
The men's qualifications are complete, and boy does Russia have reason to cry. The men's team only qualified for ONE event final and that glorious spot goes to none other than...Denis Ablyazin, rock [of gibraltar] of the team. Denis will get a chance to fight for a medal only on VT after a meltdown floor routine and an average performance on rings (by his standard) booted him from the EF today. This will be the second year in a row that Denis is the only medal prospect for Russia at Worlds, but hey, at least he has a good chance for gold if he goes clean on vault. Ironically, USA is sitting behind Russia in team quals but, unlike Russia, their specialists actually did what they were capable of, and subsequently qualified for seven EF spots.
Full Qualifications Results
For Vault click here
For Floor click here
For Rings click here
For H.Bars click here
For P.Bars click here
For P.Horse click here
For Vault click here
For Floor click here
For Rings click here
For H.Bars click here
For P.Bars click here
For P.Horse click here
I think the CBC commentators explained it best when they once described Team Russia (MAG & WAG) saying, "The thing about the Russian team is that [their results] are based on momentum. If everything is going well and the sun is shining in the right direction then they're fine and can carry the momentum. But if they see their competition doing well and the pressure is on them to hit-and they don't- then the team falls apart. [They look defeated right now]." And this one: "I think they are more comfortable to be top seed going in and have it easy, where all they have to do is perform to win. I don't think this generation of Russians likes to actually COMPETE for the prize" - mashup of their comments stated during the 2012 OG in MAG & WAG TF. I'm sorry I don't know who the CBC commentators were for 2012 but there were two men and a woman. Googling didn't help me (but if you know their names I'd love to give credit so please comment).
The thing that upsets me the most about the MAG/WAG comparisons is how unfairly fans treat the two teams when they have disappointing results. Take the 2015 Japan Junior for example; when Elena Eremina came third in the all-around, people on VK were complaining about how the American juniors could beat Russian seniors, questioning why Lena was sent, and if she couldn't have done more, etc. All this vicious harping over a junior who doesn't turn senior til 2017 and still held her own against older more seasoned Americans. Do you know where the Russian men finished that competition? 13th and 14th, before the two per country rule bumped them up two spots. Another example of how unfairly the women get ragged on is the response I've seen to Denis Ablyazin's FX meltdown. He missed one diagonal when he lost momentum going into his tumbling run, and fell, and was OOB. Yet everyone on VK, spurred on by his fiancee Ksenia Semenova, is saying that they should just be happy because he's safe and healthy. Yes, we should be happy for that but we should give thanks for that everyday and not get distracted from the fact that Denis hasn't done a good job on floor this entire year, barring one routine in EF's at the Cup. How easily we can forgive the men! I know that women's gymnastics is more popular in the mainstream, and the cases where blogs only post WAG results aren't included in my rant. But admit there are times when full results for MAG and WAG will get posted somewhere and all people fixate on is how "terrible" the women seem to be doing. Heh, at least the women's program is getting good results at present and have great juniors prepared to take over the reigns once the veterans retire. The same cannot be said for MAG.
On the subject of WAG, the team lineups have been released and can be found here. Looks like Ksenia might bring the amanar out and Vika is anchoring two events; commence prayer circle! After World's, the women must condition more if they are to ever leave the 13's on floor behind. It holds them back from giving USA any real challenge, and allows teams like GBR and CHN to have a shot at beating Russia if the latter should count falls in previous rotations. I also think we need to increase the UB difficulty (I uphold the idea of excelling on your strengths) because the Americans have paid attention since last quad and have raised their difficulty substantially here. To think they used two 6.0 UB's at the Olympics and that couldn't even make their Worlds team this time around! What this means is that Alexandrov's old strategy of using bars to equalize with the Americans after vault isn't going to work unless the difficulty is enhanced.
Well, the next time I post it will be on the results of TF and I'm so nervous! Will RUS hold their silver position, or will the outcome be lower? Forward, girls! Good luck.
The thing that upsets me the most about the MAG/WAG comparisons is how unfairly fans treat the two teams when they have disappointing results. Take the 2015 Japan Junior for example; when Elena Eremina came third in the all-around, people on VK were complaining about how the American juniors could beat Russian seniors, questioning why Lena was sent, and if she couldn't have done more, etc. All this vicious harping over a junior who doesn't turn senior til 2017 and still held her own against older more seasoned Americans. Do you know where the Russian men finished that competition? 13th and 14th, before the two per country rule bumped them up two spots. Another example of how unfairly the women get ragged on is the response I've seen to Denis Ablyazin's FX meltdown. He missed one diagonal when he lost momentum going into his tumbling run, and fell, and was OOB. Yet everyone on VK, spurred on by his fiancee Ksenia Semenova, is saying that they should just be happy because he's safe and healthy. Yes, we should be happy for that but we should give thanks for that everyday and not get distracted from the fact that Denis hasn't done a good job on floor this entire year, barring one routine in EF's at the Cup. How easily we can forgive the men! I know that women's gymnastics is more popular in the mainstream, and the cases where blogs only post WAG results aren't included in my rant. But admit there are times when full results for MAG and WAG will get posted somewhere and all people fixate on is how "terrible" the women seem to be doing. Heh, at least the women's program is getting good results at present and have great juniors prepared to take over the reigns once the veterans retire. The same cannot be said for MAG.
On the subject of WAG, the team lineups have been released and can be found here. Looks like Ksenia might bring the amanar out and Vika is anchoring two events; commence prayer circle! After World's, the women must condition more if they are to ever leave the 13's on floor behind. It holds them back from giving USA any real challenge, and allows teams like GBR and CHN to have a shot at beating Russia if the latter should count falls in previous rotations. I also think we need to increase the UB difficulty (I uphold the idea of excelling on your strengths) because the Americans have paid attention since last quad and have raised their difficulty substantially here. To think they used two 6.0 UB's at the Olympics and that couldn't even make their Worlds team this time around! What this means is that Alexandrov's old strategy of using bars to equalize with the Americans after vault isn't going to work unless the difficulty is enhanced.
Well, the next time I post it will be on the results of TF and I'm so nervous! Will RUS hold their silver position, or will the outcome be lower? Forward, girls! Good luck.
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