2017 Russian Nationals: In Review

The 2017 Russian National Championships concluded on March 5th for the artistic squadron, and according to statements drawn from the head coaches, the winners of the All-Around will have automatic berth to the upcoming European Championships. If they still stand by that conviction, Natalia Kapitonova and Artur Dalolyan are on the team.

It’s been really hard to watch the artistic season unfold because I know how sluggish everyone will look in comparison to rhythmic gymnastics, but at the same time I’m dying to see the programs and assess the new senior teams for both the men and women. Unfortunately, no one impressed me and I was discouraged after viewing the videos, but I think there were a lot of cool upgrades and enough pleasant surprises to keep me motivated. I can’t say that it’s the Russians alone who are looking sluggish- it’s a new quad thing- but I do feel that skittishness is becoming ever more prevalent among this team and I wonder if even the right D-scores could place us at the top of a World podium. Here’s a breakdown of how the key players did:

Summing up Nationals nicely

Kapitonova snagged her first major title by holding steady when the frontrunners struggled. There’s not a lot of quality of movement in her work (too rigid imo) but she’s dependable, tidy where it matters, and throws unexpected skills just when you think it’s another generic routine. She had a good qualifications (minusing a beam fall) and an even better AA finals; her combined total took Eremina out of gold. As I said, this wasn’t a spectacular meet by even the most generous stretch of imagination, so none of Kapi’s scores stood out, although she did very well to equal Daria’s UB difficulty and earn a 14.333 in the AA. Beam emerged as the highlight of her potential; she added a surprisingly stable double Y turn, an awesome split leap to punch front combo, and continued to not fall on her her acro series, two back handsprings to layout. In the event finals, she tied for gold on bars but came in 5th on floor following low chest landings and a lower d-score. It’s hard to gauge just how competitive she’ll be at Euro’s with other teammates hoping to redeem themselves, but then, I’ve been saying since last year how fast she improves and of all her teammates she seems to have the best stamina across 4 events. So I think I need to stop being so short sighted and recognize her legitimate threat might not be in four weeks at Euros but in seven months at World’s. The alternate for the Olympic Rio team, it’s both surprising and assuring that she is our National champion.

The silver medal went to Eremina who was trying to balance between an upgraded program and restraining herself to pace properly. She went for an 1.5 instead of the double (wise move) and was collected and composed on floor with no double layout in sight. Things fell apart, literally, on beam and bars. I’m in love with the loso mount (done so confidently in AA) and just as I was sighing at her pretty acro series her knee sort of caved in and she lost the momentum needed to land comfortably. So she came off, but otherwise maneuvered confidently through the elements and capped it off with a new triple twist dismount. Her routine changed since last year but I am pleased with what she has now and I love the walkover to scale. Clever use of the code and it’s a beautiful piece of choreography unto itself. Bars had everyone talking as she’s sticking with the nabieva and is connecting it to a pak. She has form issues...well, everywhere. But UB was never her best event so I’m still trying to figure out how the she got stuck with the G skill while the best bar workers play it safe (except you, Ilainkova). It speaks to her potential that she can fall twice and still take silver but then again she had a great qualifications, which did count, and very real upgrades which definitely counts. My greatest wish for Elena is that she grows stronger because she seems confident and energetic but I worry about her ability to finish difficult skills, be it any apparatus. She took silver on floor for a very mediocre performance and tied for 5th on beam for a likewise routine. One final thing I want to say about her is that I don’t like her new floor routine. She’s without doubt a beauty but the choreography relies completely on her ability to pull it off and I would classify the music as sultry and a bit feisty and I don’t think Lena has that particular charisma to bring it to life.

Melnikova and Tutkhalyan were heartbreakers in the AA: Tut wasn’t surprising but I was gassed when I had to keep scrolling to find Melka’s ranking. You know, some people have wondered if the overall Olympic experience doused her ambition or irreparably shook her confidence. I would say neither of those things happened. After Rio, she was doing really well, much better than Seda. But the holidays came and went and obviously she’s not where she needs to be in order to justify sending her to three competitions and a European Championships. I’m worried for her precarious health- muscle injuries are easier to become chronic- and honestly, to name her to any team spits in the face of other girls who did better at Nationals and are also physically ready to compete. Maybe they can whip her into shape - she’s our best All-Arounder - but pressuring her with back to back meets is only going to tire her more and could set off a negative chain effect if she starts bombing internationally. She’s been humble about the catastrophic meet so there’s nothing I want to dwell further on regarding her scores. Her upgrades are another matter.

I did not expect Melka to add a grigoras on beam! I guess I never pegged her as the sort who goes for singularly difficult skills- I thought she was all about the connections. It’s nicely done too, very high and with the late turn exactly as is intended. Her grigoras gives her the most difficult beam among the Russians (6.0, but who are we kidding, her layouts getting downgraded, so 5.9). On vault she’s even expanded her repertoire to include a lopez. So in Rodionenko-land that means Melka will be learning an amanar and a cheng thirteen minutes before the Olympics, right? Like everything else she did, her vaults were scary and posed more risk than reward (even after a medal). Her EF floor was about the saddest thing I’ve ever witnessed and that includes her tearful Rio qualifications. Guys, I can’t even say that she performed badly... to perform badly suggests she had the capacity to perform it well when the truth was she simply wasn’t fit to be out there at all. Not that she sees things that way. She tried to land a new double arabian all week, and she was vested in interpreting her choreography well, so I knew she wanted to do a good job and was battling anger and despair when it didn’t work out. When you judge the whole of her Nationals experience there were several times the choice should have been made to pull her, especially since they signed her up for meets where she could prove herself on another occasion. She’s young but in time must learn she can’t afford to put her pride over health like that.

Seda had mixed results with everything tinged in disappointment, what else is new? Like Melka, she’s taken time off and is out of shape but we all know that’s got nothing to do with her inconsistency. I earnestly wanted her to step into a leadership role but the only thing she’s acquired from the veterans is their air of disenchantment with the sport. I’m chuckling wondering how a girl who won three EF medals doesn’t have me convinced she should be sent to Euros! The fact is she won medals because at Russian Nationals the victor is typically the one who manages to implode least. That maxim applied to everyone this year but I can’t keep lying to myself about Seda. I don’t wanna cling to the concept that she’s still developing her potential when, at this point, it either should be flourishing or is dead. For now I’m not drawing conclusions. It’s the first competition back and she’s out of shape, but if she can’t impress me by this year’s end it’ll be time to accept that her talent wasn't fostered correctly and she’s not the one to advance Russia’s standing. I have less faith that she can recover by Euros than with Melka and since her experience buys her nothing, might as well send someone else who has the same probability of blundering. But they won’t.

I’m very proud of Lilia Akhaimova. Even though she was never trained at Round Lake, she made steady upgrades until it became the running joke that she was the only dependable one we could trust among a bevy of distinguished European and World champions. Her story is like something out of a fable: The Turtle and The Rabbit (slow and steady wins the race) or The Little Red Hen (hard work has no substitute). She has a lot of cleaning up to do if we’re ever going to have a serious discussion about putting her on an an important international assignment. But success is often a measurement not a final destination, and for where she started it must be gratifying to now train among the best at RL and hear your capabilities talked about in earnest amongst fans. She won the floor final and was very steady throughout the entire week of competition. I’m ecstatic with how much she’s improved on other events now that she’s getting professional coaching. Makes you wonder what she could be RIGHT NOW if we had brought her to RL two years ago when she started getting some minor attention, no? Her and Daria Elizarova are my favorite people on earth for always trying their best and caring about their results.

Other people worth mentioning are Ilyankova and Spiridonova. The latter we’d seen a few weeks prior at the Reykjavik International Championships where she averaged a 54.6 (on track with last quad’s AA considering the two point deficit lost in CR). Dasha added a double arabian on floor to fulfill the new requirement for front tumbling and I think she has room to expand her turns so hopefully something can manifest itself there. It’s kinda funny/ kinda sad but her scores on fx no longer look so bad now that a good routine is scoring high 13. In fact I find myself less angry with Daria’s shenanigans in general since all the scores now look depressing in WAG. Ilyankova is mending from injury which is why she’s not in the running for Euros, such a shame. She had the best bars score after quals,14.633, but was edged out of bronze in the final by Skrypnik over a third of a tenth. Anastasia and Kapi are my preferred "bars girls" over Spiri because they are not confined to their pet event for good scores. Who knows if any of them can last a whole quad, but in relation to this year, either girl can and should eclipse Spiri for that UB spot. At the moment, the Rod’s are content with justifying Daria’s place on the Euro’s team by naming Kapi as an All- Arounder and they’ll probably do the same for Anastasia once she’s back. I think if you have two AAer’s who are bar specialists you don’t need a one-event bar specialist unless she’s significantly better than the field. That’s not the current case. The Rod’s are depending on Daria’s reputation to enchant the judges but that only gets you so far in the face of others promoting better execution and originality.

That concludes my thoughts on the individual players. Other thoughts: 

• The venue change was refreshing. Kazan really came through and filled the arena with wonderful supporters. I haven't seen Nationals this well attended ever, especially the weekend finals! 
• I really hate the part of the CoP that got rid of one CR on each event. I hate not knowing immediately what a good score is and even when I come to this understanding I hate that it's in the 13's!
• I loved the mannequin challenge at the end of the comp. It capped off a good week wherein everyone looked very relaxed and good feelings seemed prevalent. Not even Valentina could muster up something mean about Seda or Melka...
• Aliya!!! Her and Emin as official commentators and adjusting to life outside the gym made me happy. 
• I so badly want Lena to "save Russia" that I'm beside myself with grief when she doesn't win. I see her as her own person, and not a shadow of others, but the gaps left by Aliya and other veterans make tiny shortcomings more noticeable. I have to commit myself to giving the new seniors time and respect and patience...and realize that they strive for progress not perfection. 
• Additionally, I want Elena Eremina to go to World's so that by the end of this year google images will have her image up instead of adorable hamsters involved in mischief. 
• Best of luck to Daria, Elena, Evgenia, Lilia, and Natalia at Stuttgart this weekend!

The full results for 2017 Nationals can be found here. 

So that's how the seniors looked at home. Now I review the juniors sent abroad...next up, the 2017 International Gymnix!