Angelina Simakova Vault Upgrade

Today Angelina Simakova (2002) showed us her brand spanking new RUDI on instagram and it looks lovely. She does the run on a regular surface but the dismount is still on soft mats piled on top of the pit, so this is at about the 3/4 stage of completion (think of completion as 'competition ready'). As to the form, she holds a nice line and there's no leg separation throughout the twists. She does suffer from preflight leg seps but it's not too bad, and i've only ever seen Alicia Sacramone do this vault without any leg separations whatsoever, anyways. The landing is slightly rough and simply needs more time to perfect, as the head and chest are both very low. I can't really see how her feet look on landing but based on her positioning, she absorbs her power very well by bending the knees the right amount. It'll just take more time for her to learn to control that power so that her upper body is better managed. The most profound issue others are commenting on is that the vault is very piked and this code, and possibly the next one, will devalue any vault if it's not 70% laid out (ideally, it should be fully laid out but 70 is the minimum). 

This is a great upgrade for Sims and while I don't know when she plans to add it to her program, even postponing the debut til 2017 could still give her a winning edge over other juniors, and even many seniors. It's really great to see this happening, actually, because Russia always struggles the year or two after the Olympics to build back depth on this apparatus, so this could be a ticket to every competition for Sims when she turns senior. Also, how nice to see a non-amanar vt upgrade.

View the vault here.