ICYMI

Yana Kudryavtseva showed us her new hoop leotard: beautiful!

Margarita Mamun will skip WC Lisbon due to fatigue. She recently had foot pain which prevented her competing after GP Moscow and, furthermore, she feels she needs better preparation with her new routines. She is replaced by Alexandra Soldatova and Arina Averina. 

Maria Kharenkova (WAG) has also been removed from the start list of the Glasgow World Cup. The silver All-Around European champion had a lot to prove after ending last year on a decline in consequence of a prolonged back injury. She will not be attending because there was an error processing her visa (David Belyavskiy is fine). The competition will be streamed by the Italian federation for free here. 

FIG sanctions two RG judges. No one is surprised Azerbaijan is yet again one of them. (x)

The fight for the remaining berth on the WAG Olympic team is on! Skrypnik, Spiridonova, Melnikova, Kapitonova, and Dmitrieva (!) are the team headed to Germany for the DTB Team Challenge Cup (March 18-20). I had no idea Anastasia Dmitrieva had risen so much in the administration's esteem; she's definitely talented but her potential seems below the other four girls. But then, who knows what winter training might have produced in her...

L-R: Dmitrieva, Kapitonova, Tutkhalyan, Skrypnik, Melnikova
Source: Melka VK

Evgenia Shelgunova (WAG) is on an All-Around roll, winning the Koshel Meet with a 57.350, the Vihrov Cup with a 58.66, and the Volga Federal Districts Championships with a 58.650. I'm almost done writing a separate post on this so I won't elaborate any more than to say, "woah." Could it be a game changer?

Denis Ablyazin has set the date with his fiancee, Ksenia Semenova, for an August wedding. No matter what happens in Rio, then, August will be a good month for both. Here's the man looking dapper at a fitting.

Yulia Sinitsina is a participant on "Dancing With the Stars: Russia." Both her parents are dancers and a lot of RG fans feel it's long overdue for her to pursue this path over rhythmic. I'm not one of them as I liked her immensely. Of course she's not officially retired, but girls come and go in Vinerstan and with her scheduled to be away from Novogorsk for months, I see the inevitable.

LOL why did they even put her on the show with her formal dance background?
She's the winner for sure!

Eleonora with UKR head coach

Eleonora Romanova (RG), formerly of Ukraine, has followed her parents to Russia, is changing her citizenship, and hopes to compete for RUS in competition one day. She is currently without a coach and has a stress fracture so she's at Novogorsk but on the sidelines watching others train. She was Ukraine's second best all arounder and was supposed to take over the throne on the retirement of Anna Rizatdinova so now that hope's been shot to hell. It is not prudent to say anymore until Romanova says something official but the UKR federation has already publicly slammed her for her betrayal (they accuse her of going to Russia on the pretense of vacation and never coming back, not even telling her coaches she was leaving permanently). According to Ukraine, Romanova cannot compete for Russia until her FIG license with UKR runs out in 2018 and they've hinted that they will take it to the courts if Russia tries to get her on the competition floor sooner. Tbh, most fans are pessimistic about Eleonora ever seeing major competition again because of the depth on the Russian team. She's good...but plenty of girls in Russia are higher scoring.  The drama isn't passed, and I'm not sure where her reputation will stand in the sport after her former federation (and some former fans) are done tearing her image to shreds all over the message boards and social media. I advise patience, support, and loyalty to Eleonora. I'm sure this choice was difficult, and as I said with WAG's Irina Alexeeva, children shouldn't be judged for following their parents across borders. Romanova and Rizatdinova pictured below: 

                  The heir                                                     The queen

The provisional 2017- 2020 CoP for RG is out. Routines will continue to be capped at 10.0 in difficulty and two routines are allowed with lyrics. (x)