ICYMI
A rundown on everything that touched Team Russia in July. Brace yourselves:
The most important news is good news: Mama Afan delivered a baby boy on the 18th of July and he is healthy and already quite active. So two champions have delivered healthy beautiful children this summer. Congrats to Ksenia and Roma on a safe delivery and I hope their desire for an athletic dynasty can be achieved through this lil young'un lol.
In other family news, Anastasia Grishina seems content to move on with her life as the trial against her parents continues to be hashed out in court. Nastia just returned from the turquoise coast of Turkey where she and husband, Viktor, took a much deserved vacation. She also posted several beautiful photos of her happy family and told fans on VK that she has not reached a compromise with her parents, and there can be no reconciliation until her earnings are returned. For a long time she seemed distraught with bringing the public into her personal affairs but she's opening up now. She told her supporters, "for such deeds, each get's what they deserve." You go, Nastia! I keep forgetting that they threatened to harm her son and husband in addition to stealing her money. If I could talk to her I would tell her that we are all born into a family but as we grow up we choose our family. It's unfortunate but it guarantees that only the best people surround us and are supporting us. I hope things are resolved in her favor.
Alla Sosnitskaya now competes for the country of Georgia. It's a shocking but unsurprising move seeing as she wasn't added to Russia's NT (and the general decline in her gymnastics). Her AA total at the 2017 R. Sikharulidze Cup was 49.599, just .067 behind the winner, Anastasia Kuznetsova, while Russian junior Vladislava Urazova scored 55.165 for the junior AA title. I know she had her issues but a part of me will always mourn what could've been for Sosnitskaya. She was injured right before 2015 Euros and Paseka was reborn from the ashes.
Kuznetsova, Vladislava Urazova, and Olga Astafyeva won the team gold at the same competition with a combined total of 109.030. I would love some videos to verify the 14's on beam! Oh, and Komova attended the event (in a non competitive capacity) and took pictures with fans. Full results for this competition here.
Speaking of Komova, her FIG license was renewed. I don't care how many times I've passed this tree in the forest, my initial reaction will always be, "It's happening people!!!"
Team Russia for 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF): Valeria Saifulina, Ksenia Klimenko, Varvara Zubova, and Angelina Simakova. Sims is the alternate to this three member team. Personally, I'm over Zub Zubs (we have enough of messy and inconsistent) but Sims is recovering and not completely prepared. Our men will be represented by Sergei Naidin, Aleksandr Kartsev, Iurii Busse. They're led by Naidin who is the junior AA champion and a European champion on pommels. (x) (x)
To follow EYOF, you can track the live scoring here and watch the live stream here. Competition starts on the 25th with men's quals (dually functioning as a TF). 7/26 is women's quals and TF. 7/27 is AA for both groups. 7/28-7/29 feature the individual finals.
Here's the official gear our team will be wearing in Hungary for EYOF. All photos here. Hmmm...
Behold, our first glimpses of Princess Alisa.
A tour of Round Lake led by Lena and featuring Valeria and Nastia. Very cozy accommodations indeed.
Although originally selected for the Universiade team, Tatiana Nabieva will not be able to compete because of an injury. She is recovering and plans to compete by December. A Univeriade without Nabs? I don't like that. I don't like that one bit. (x)
In RG, the FIG introduced a computerized monitoring system to oversee the activity of the judging panels. The system detects and blocks wildly differing (0.5 points or more difference in the evaluation of difficulty, or 0.2 points or more in execution) scores from being tallied. If there is a block by the control system, the score must be re-adjusted by the panel and might lead to an on the spot independent panel to assess the field judges. It's game changing for rhythmic gymnastics. We're already seeing lower scoring in Wroclaw because of this new initiative (the Averina's only scored 19 on clubs, all other apparatus were significantly lower than at Euros and the GP circuit; some gymnasts had scores drop by as much as two points for similar work done earlier this year). It's not the only thing we need to do to blanch the corruption but it would take the collusion of an entire panel to overscore a gymnast now. Expect scoring at World's to be very slow which might affect how much gets shown on TV in country's like Russia, Italy, and Spain.
Alexandra Soldatova is recovering from an injury and she names it as the reason she won't be in Pesaro for the World Championships. Of course we already know Viner made that decision long before her untimely injury.
Arina Averina left the world games in Wroclaw as the most decorated gymnast, catching three golds and one bronze. Dina Averina won one gold and three silvers. I think they need a break before autumn.
This happened while I wasn't looking #thebeautifultrio
And finally, RG Barbie has arrived. It's gonna be my bday gift to Princess Alisa...
That's the wrap up and as I speak the EYOF Games have commenced and our boys won the team final. Very proud of them and will include their competition with the WAG team final article. Good luck children, pride of Russia. To my readers have a great day and stay tuned.
The most important news is good news: Mama Afan delivered a baby boy on the 18th of July and he is healthy and already quite active. So two champions have delivered healthy beautiful children this summer. Congrats to Ksenia and Roma on a safe delivery and I hope their desire for an athletic dynasty can be achieved through this lil young'un lol.
In other family news, Anastasia Grishina seems content to move on with her life as the trial against her parents continues to be hashed out in court. Nastia just returned from the turquoise coast of Turkey where she and husband, Viktor, took a much deserved vacation. She also posted several beautiful photos of her happy family and told fans on VK that she has not reached a compromise with her parents, and there can be no reconciliation until her earnings are returned. For a long time she seemed distraught with bringing the public into her personal affairs but she's opening up now. She told her supporters, "for such deeds, each get's what they deserve." You go, Nastia! I keep forgetting that they threatened to harm her son and husband in addition to stealing her money. If I could talk to her I would tell her that we are all born into a family but as we grow up we choose our family. It's unfortunate but it guarantees that only the best people surround us and are supporting us. I hope things are resolved in her favor.
Alla Sosnitskaya now competes for the country of Georgia. It's a shocking but unsurprising move seeing as she wasn't added to Russia's NT (and the general decline in her gymnastics). Her AA total at the 2017 R. Sikharulidze Cup was 49.599, just .067 behind the winner, Anastasia Kuznetsova, while Russian junior Vladislava Urazova scored 55.165 for the junior AA title. I know she had her issues but a part of me will always mourn what could've been for Sosnitskaya. She was injured right before 2015 Euros and Paseka was reborn from the ashes.
Kuznetsova, Vladislava Urazova, and Olga Astafyeva won the team gold at the same competition with a combined total of 109.030. I would love some videos to verify the 14's on beam! Oh, and Komova attended the event (in a non competitive capacity) and took pictures with fans. Full results for this competition here.
Speaking of Komova, her FIG license was renewed. I don't care how many times I've passed this tree in the forest, my initial reaction will always be, "It's happening people!!!"
Team Russia for 2017 European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF): Valeria Saifulina, Ksenia Klimenko, Varvara Zubova, and Angelina Simakova. Sims is the alternate to this three member team. Personally, I'm over Zub Zubs (we have enough of messy and inconsistent) but Sims is recovering and not completely prepared. Our men will be represented by Sergei Naidin, Aleksandr Kartsev, Iurii Busse. They're led by Naidin who is the junior AA champion and a European champion on pommels. (x) (x)
To follow EYOF, you can track the live scoring here and watch the live stream here. Competition starts on the 25th with men's quals (dually functioning as a TF). 7/26 is women's quals and TF. 7/27 is AA for both groups. 7/28-7/29 feature the individual finals.
Here's the official gear our team will be wearing in Hungary for EYOF. All photos here. Hmmm...
Behold, our first glimpses of Princess Alisa.
A tour of Round Lake led by Lena and featuring Valeria and Nastia. Very cozy accommodations indeed.
Although originally selected for the Universiade team, Tatiana Nabieva will not be able to compete because of an injury. She is recovering and plans to compete by December. A Univeriade without Nabs? I don't like that. I don't like that one bit. (x)
Remember the first half of last quad and how we all despaired for the men's team? I particularly ranted that the women were always being scrutinized while our men delivered little to no results (beyond Ablyazin). And then they improved from a team standpoint and both our men and women wore matching team medals in Rio. I used to feel so depressed about the state of our MAG and now I find the situation quite reversed; after Japan, I believe we have the second strongest team in the world. However, Nikita Nagorny is here to remind us not to exclude their EF potential either. He's playing around with upgrades so here he is attempting a tsuk double double! The most difficult vaults in MAG are all coming in around 6.4 and if he were ever to land this it would be much higher in difficulty. In the meantime he'll content himself with lesser vault upgrades...like a Ri Se Gwang. Crazy.
In RG, the FIG introduced a computerized monitoring system to oversee the activity of the judging panels. The system detects and blocks wildly differing (0.5 points or more difference in the evaluation of difficulty, or 0.2 points or more in execution) scores from being tallied. If there is a block by the control system, the score must be re-adjusted by the panel and might lead to an on the spot independent panel to assess the field judges. It's game changing for rhythmic gymnastics. We're already seeing lower scoring in Wroclaw because of this new initiative (the Averina's only scored 19 on clubs, all other apparatus were significantly lower than at Euros and the GP circuit; some gymnasts had scores drop by as much as two points for similar work done earlier this year). It's not the only thing we need to do to blanch the corruption but it would take the collusion of an entire panel to overscore a gymnast now. Expect scoring at World's to be very slow which might affect how much gets shown on TV in country's like Russia, Italy, and Spain.
Alexandra Soldatova is recovering from an injury and she names it as the reason she won't be in Pesaro for the World Championships. Of course we already know Viner made that decision long before her untimely injury.
Arina Averina left the world games in Wroclaw as the most decorated gymnast, catching three golds and one bronze. Dina Averina won one gold and three silvers. I think they need a break before autumn.
And finally, RG Barbie has arrived. It's gonna be my bday gift to Princess Alisa...
That's the wrap up and as I speak the EYOF Games have commenced and our boys won the team final. Very proud of them and will include their competition with the WAG team final article. Good luck children, pride of Russia. To my readers have a great day and stay tuned.
How about zubova?
ReplyDeleteSorry for the late reply. Please see my newest post on EYOF.
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