A Heady Start...Day 1 of Nationals

Sometimes when a competition is overwhelming I conquer my thoughts by dividing things into categories. I thought I'd go with "the good, the bad & the ugly" for Nationals, getting the depressing stuff out of the way to leave a good taste in your mouth by the end of the article. Fair?

The Bad

Nationals for the women commenced today and the final results sent a chill through me. I wasn't able to watch the livestream so I came home to see Melka leading the rankings with 60.067 and was even more astounded by the breakdown in scores. You can only imagine my excitement as I settled in to watch the routines, optimism and pride surging through me at the 180° turn the team had made since last year; but at about a quarter way through the videos a different reality presented itself and wariness settled over me. And so let me blunt and say what the worst part of this competition is obviously going to be for the rest of the week: the home scoring. I could not believe that Russia had suddenly emerged with so many high 14's on floor especially as two weeks ago in Germany only one of these routines was enough to break 14. I expected excellence and felt duped when all I saw was just ok, maybe good. To overscore their best event- bars- wouldn't cheat Russia of anything because the reality is that they are competitive on that apparatus even factoring in some domestic inflation but to so brazenly overdo it on the team's worst event is counterproductive to engaging in actually fixing the problem. I honestly can't believe some of the e-scores I saw on beam and floor today. That's not to say there weren't things to be proud of (many routines are worthy of praise), but I want us as fans to also see through the smoke and not become...emotionally invested, shall I say... in those rousing numbers. The men were treated with the same type of scoring last week and while it's up to the individual to decide if (s)he can make those scores genuine in the future, all I'm saying is not everyone lived up to the scores they were given at present. 

I started off with the worst news to get it out in the open, for one, but also to speak the obvious upfront so that I wouldn't have to continually bring it up as I talked about each girl's performance. Yes, the girls were very overscored but I don't want this to overshadow my commentary on each routine so I'm saying it this one time. From henceforth, I assess the performance not the scores.

The Ugly

The Olympic team is all but decided with only one more spot up for grabs, so the ugly reality is that some of the potential on display today will not be seen by millions of people in August and that twists my stomach. 

The Good

So.Much.Goodness.Happened. Melnikova is improving on her DTY after two years of scrappy form and landings. Her fantastic rank in the All-Around was the result of error free work, nothing different from what she performed at the DTB Challenge (in terms of difficulty), but all done in an improved manner. She seems to have settled into her new fx difficulty a little more, but there's still work to be done before she can make an Olympic final (assuming she goes); her piked full in- still with form issues- was landed chest down yet didn't seem under rotated, and the turns are still not up to scruff. Aside from that and her leaps, which have suffered since her hamstring injury, I was pleased with an overall solid effort and think she has enough time to make it something spectacular by the Russian Cup. Her bars and beam were standard fare, the only major error being a wobble on her wolf turn that almost undid her and mediocre handstand positions on bars.

Seda Tutkhalyan resurged in our minds after being awarded 15's on her best events, beam and floor. On the former, she stuck her two acro series passes with newfound ease, breezed through the rest of the routine with less tension, and then debuted a new piked full in dismount landed very well (almost stuck). The only noticeable error might be that her switch ring wasn't fully extended but who cares, Seda hit!!! On floor, I thought she might've upgraded as well when I saw her 15.0 score but I believe she's been hovering around the 5.8- 6.0 for some time (here she given 6.0), and I didn't understand what the judges saw to fall so in love with. Her DLO was splayed, the stag jump connection looked like an afterthought to prevent running oob, and she fell out of her turns. But I think what the judges like about Seda is her aggression; she goes into everything (tumble, leap, even choreo) with the same energy and in the past that's been her undoing (for what is power without control?) but today it all came together in a dynamic assembly. Perhaps she was awarded for the occurrence being such a rarity. 

Are you the one handing out all these 14's on FX, Ksenia?

I expected Maria Kharenkova might have a good day and still be ignored, and I was right. People have raised their eyebrows at her 14.9 on fx but other than that she's been neglected in favor of oohing and ahhing over Melka, Tut, and Kapi. Of course, this doesn't signify so long as the coaches notice her. I admit the first thing I looked for when I saw her name was to see if she got rid of that full twist on vault -damnation, she hasn't. But she impressed me nonetheless because she's effectively regained her former level. Her floor routine deserves to be the most talked about after quals and even though I still side eye the judges I do see why they credited her an 8.9 e-score. She had one very lousy pass (the 1.5 thru to double tuck) but the other three were superb, and her leaps are so beautiful and her turns are so controlled and she is so lithe and agile and this routine was just so accomplished. Ugh. On BB, she had form breaks after her opening front tuck and her bhs+bhs+layout but she hit her stride mid-routine growing in confidence as she maneuvered through the most complex parts of her set. Maria showed lovey form on bars with her swing humorously half labored & half graceful; if she can return to her inbars then she'll really put the pressure on Melka and Seda to step their level up. I've never been a huge fan of Maria before but something about this hardworking, quiet, serious young woman stood out to me today. For some reason, I fell in love with her and I can't explain it! Maybe it's because I admire the way she approached the competition: her work everywhere was clean, beautiful and unfussy. Nothing she did was followed by fanfare but the fact that she is returning to a level Seda & co. are trying to reach made me realize that I took her talent for granted last year. I hope she can continue to improve at the rate she is and make it hard on the coaches to deny her a spot on the Euros team. She has unfinished business there.

Two other girls performing in AA, with singular performances of note were Kapitonova and Skrypnik. They're both amazing bar workers but we already know that and I felt what we needed to see was their competency on other events. I guess Kapi made a better show for herself in that regard. Her beautiful choreography was complimented by clean tumbling passes done with tight form and stuckish landings. She shouldn't have been credited her full difficulty seeing as her mustafina was more a 2.25 but that's the least on my problems with these judges lol. Kapi fell on her best beam combo, the wolf jump to punch front, but I can't tell you where she lost four tenths of difficulty because I've only seen an incomplete recording of her routine. The international judges have long deemed her UB execution as equal to the best seniors in the world so I don't know why I'm so surprised that she stands atop the rankings with a 15.567. Skrypnik had a moderately good day; she's still a one eventer and while her overall program wasn't a disaster I was disappointed to see her still scoring in the 13's on BB when she showed so much promise there as a junior. 

Mentioning juniors reminds me of another group. How did our veterans do, those pillars who keep this temple standing tall? Ironically, the girls who have assured spots for Rio made a worse showing than those fighting for the scrappy last spot (and that's why you don't name your team in November, folks). Aliya did well, actually. Her UB was "simple" and divine but beam was problematic as she's still trying for the most insane connections and is still in denial over her unreasonable acro series. She was credited a 5.4 but was attempting a 6.1. So yeah, no big deal that she's spent three years getting downgraded over the same stuff. *Sighs* Her performances for her Moscow team were careful, composed, and elegantly done so I can't complain. Truth is, she looks fantastic. Ahem, the other girls. Oh boy. Well Paseka did ok on bars but couldn't connect her pak to the van leeuwen and took a huge step on the landing with her chest down. It was good routine for her if I'm honest but I've seen her do better with more stamina, which brings me to the next problem. She crashed both her vaults. The cheng was sloppy (sloppier than usual, I mean), had directional problems, and before she knew it she was on her knees. I haven't seen a video of her amanar but I'm not surprised she fell on it as well seeing as she seemed to lack energy in everything. Ksenia scratched a second vault and had a 4.9 on floor because she had ankle problems for the first six weeks of the new year, eventually going to Germany for treatment. Again, why is someone like her here? Do we need to see Afan do a 4.9 set just to rack up participation points? I pray daily for wisdom for the Rodionenkos. The skeleton of her World's routine is there and that's a positive sign we shouldn't lose sight of. So that's our Olympic team: a vaulter who's currently indisposed to vaulting, a floor worker who can't work floor, Vika somewhere on Earth, and Aliya saving the day with solid but simple performances. Lol, it's a good thing I'm used to this team's shenanigans. I'm seriously not even worried, but it's just so...Russia.

I said I'd leave a good taste in your mouth by the end of this and I wasn't lying. Honestly guys, the good news- the best news- about this competition is that everyone is trying their damndest. Maybe that's why Aliya and Ksenia are even here at all, because they're proud of the effort they are making privately and want us to see that. Everywhere there are upgrades, everywhere I see a consistency taking shape across each apparatus, everywhere fine-tuning is happening and depth is eminent. It's too early in the season to be the epitome of perfection but every girl who came away from qualifications could say she had at least one hit routine and one thing to be proud of. It's a start. We go from there.