Booms and Busts Coalesce To Win Gold in Taipei

Day 2 of the 2017 Universiade completed with the Russian women defending their title and securing a team gold with a two point victory over Canada who managed to keep bronze medalist, Japan, at bay by a little over a point. It's pretty typical for the Russian delegation to send a B-team to this meet but it's also normal to see that team headlined by a big name. This year is a little different: for a B-team they sure are packing some high profile VIP's- three of them were in Rio!

Caption from Paseka: "Thanks for all your support. Thanks to our trainers and specialist.
But mostly, thanks to our doctor." Omg.

A healthy summer has done wonders on Maria Paseka. The reigning World Champion looked brilliant on her pet event. She usually tries to over rotate her vaults to guarantee it'll get around (the difference between her and vaulters with better technique) but at Euros she couldn't depend on faster spinning when she was barely fit to do an fty. Now, she looks like a proper specialist and floated her amanar with amazing height, despite the usual pre flight mess (the first intl 15.0). The lopez is still whippy and slapdash, and I'm just sitting here happy judges don't get the front view that we do in replay mode (14.25). Masha also tried to get back to competing bars but her effort was in vain. She came off on the toe-on circle 1/1 and the rest of the routine was hasty with an ugly cowboyed dismount to boot. But the upside is she regained her UB- we all know she can actually perform a beautiful bar routine- so the most important steps have already been set in motion. I expect this blog'll be one of the few places to ever respect her so I'm proud of Masha for what she's managed to regain after the fallout with the Rodionenkos over Euros. She still has VT finals to get through but Paseka has shown us why she's on the Worlds team, and are they really not gonna send her depending on how she performs here? See you in Montreal girl.

Lilia Akhaimova also qualified for the vault finals in fourth and her BRAND SPANKIN NEW dty was absolutely stunning (14.450). Alright fine, she's got foot issues and her landing wasn't very controlled, but I really love that she allows her block to take her to her highest ascent before she starts twisting. Makes it seem she's suspended in the air and looks gravity defying. On floor, Lilia qualified just behind Iordache for the floor final, in third, but I'm frustrated that she's always either under rotating or over rotating her big skills (13.6). She was given a very generous score for so many issues, but then again, Elizarova has weak leaps too so I can't objectively say her routine deserved a wider gap in e-score over Lilia's.

It's okay Shelgie. Guys, Paseka was the mom of this team.
Did you catch her taking care of everybody?  

Shelgunova wasn't happy to cap off her AA with a fall on floor, leaving her in a bummer of a mood. But I am super surprised she managed to get herself three scores in the 13's. She tends to fluctuate with what she can do but, FX aside, she managed to have a well balanced day. She doesn't have any standout events so her AA total (52.85) suffered from more than that fall but on the positive side plenty of her scores counted for the TF and she qualified for the AA, UB and BB final! Go Shelgie go Shelgi GO.

There were two Daria's sent to Universiade and one is on my good side and the other better not be anywhere by me lest I reach out and swat her. In truth, both girls had mixed results; from Elizarova downgrading on beam since Spring (12.6 without a fall) and incurring extra swing deductions on bars (12.850) to Spiridonova simply failing to impress on any apparatus whether she fell or not. Spiri's made the effort to survive this CoP- adding a new beam mount, learning a double arabian, etc.- but she hasn't made the effort to survive on the A team. I have to say, I'm learning to like her more on beam (when she hits) than on bars. She's still got gorgeous extension, great inbars, and a lovely stretched pike jaeger but her handstands are horizontal and her difficulty remains firmly watered down when we know she can and has done more. Her sigh after her dismount just symbolized how washed up she's become. I just can't believe its happening to her on bars of all places! You are better than this bby.

Now don't let me be a debbie downer because she did qualify behind Iordache into the bars final (isn't that sad?) with a 13.9. I heard her boyfriend, Nikita Nagorny, advised her to break with her former coach because he's the boy wonder of MAG and she was on her way to the B team. In other words, he's not impressed. I guess Daria is over 2017 and will probably care at some point in this quad and make a resurgence and we'll love her for it. But we're not there now so I'm stuck being grumpy with her. Her beam was pretty nice though (13.25) and I dig "the Spiridonova" (accidental full twisting onodi's ftw).

Daria Elizarova made me smile on FX. You can really hear how much respect the commentators have for this vet. Big tumbling and big personality were on display, and while I've enjoyed past choreography better, she's still a sunbeam  so wooohoo for 13.85. How can you not root for her? She competes for the joy of it.

I can hear the late great Mitch Fenner saying 'Absolutely mesmerizing'
after a routine like this. 

List of EF qualifiers can be found here.

List of TF breakdown can be found here.

Good luck to Spiri and Shelgie competing today in the AA.