ICYMI

Natalia Kapitonova and Artur Dalaloyan snagged their first major titles and are the 2017 National AA champions. Separate in-depth posts will be written on the competition held in Kazan which should be up shortly. (x x)

Andrei Rodionenko was not surprised by anything that happened at Nationals and pretty much expected there to be the inevitable ups and downs for most gymnasts since it's early in the season. The Euros team will be based on who can improve the most in the next four weeks, although the AA winners seem to be unofficially selected. Valentina has given her opinion on who the team might be: Kapitonova, Eremina, Melnikova, Tutkhalyan, Nagorny (MAG), Belyavskiy (MAG), Dalolyan (MAG), and Polyashov (MAG). (x)

According to Valentina Rodionenko, Tatiana Nabieva is not retired. Tanya has been competing domestically since 2015 Universiade- casually training and refuting that she's retired- so I'm relieved Valentina's picked up on the subtle hints. We should see her at this year's Universiade in Taipei. (x)


A delightful interview with Aliya Mustafina which sheds some light on a potential comeback. I would say her words were very...responsible. My interpretation of things is that she'll at least attempt to train but if it's not what she wants, or it grows too difficult, then she won't commit to something that's not worthy of her past results. (x) 

The 2017 International Gymnix takes place this weekend and Russia is sending a junior team: Komnova (2004), Strukova (2004), Gerasimova (2004), and Belousova (2003). In disturbing news, Angelina Melnikova is still on the roster for the DTB Cup, Jesolo, and now the London World Cup, despite having terrible performances at Nationals and clearly still recovering from winter ailments. I am highly concerned with their determination to condemn her to chronic injuries, shattered confidence, and burnout before we reach the halfway mark of the quad. When healthy, she is our best All-Arounder.  (x x)

Elena Eremina's latest vlog entry disclosed that Seda fractured her finger (that's her opinion, not a medical one) but will fight through the pain, and Kapi is also having finger pain (one of them went black!) after "nearly dying on vault."(x)


RG: The Russia-Italy competition concluded with Dina Averina once again beating Arina, but this time by a very narrow margin. Too many people judged Arina based on a sloppy GP Moscow meet without considering that she's trying to recover from a wrist and hip injury. The performances this weekend show how incredibly close things can get between them, and it will only narrow further as both refine their routines for Euros. The podium was: Dina (76.000), Arina (75.550), and Veronica Bertolini (69.250). As I suspected in my last post, the Averina's are performing routines over 10.0 so that any downgradable mistakes will still have them at a maximum 10 in difficulty. The new CoP allows this to occur. 

But guys, seriously, the Averina's need stage presence. How can a routine this difficult (vid below) fail to grasp my attention or get a reaction from the audience? 

That's all for now. The artistic season has started so my next posts will deal with the winners and losers of Russian Nationals. Have a great day, readers.