2017 Jesolo Finals: Analysis

I spent three days trying to make gifs of the EF's, for those of you who didn't have coverage, but I couldn't find a quality screen capture software (that wasn't a virus) so I've given up. I have found a software that might work in the future but it seems unnecessarily complicated and will take time for me to learn. The hope is one day I'll be able to provide visuals of things that are locked behind a paywall (while respecting FloGym's disclaimer to not gif whole routines). Sorry I couldn't get it done peeps, but here's the much delayed recap of the event finals in Jesolo. 

Vault
Valeriia Saifulina had a surprisingly nice dty, much better than what she showed in the team final. She landed it right down the center of the mat and with a ton of distance and lift in the air. She doesn’t stand out on any other event but for that vault alone she could be one of those B team seniors who keep making major comps because she supplies the best score on the highest scoring apparatus. Alas, the theme of Jesolo was that Russian fans can’t have nice things and sure enough Valeriia fell on her 1.5 yurchenko. Again, she had good leg form but was slightly underrotated, and while I think she could have stood it up, the blind landing seemed to throw her off guard. Everyone in the final had a dty in their arsenal except Ana Padurariu (CAN), but it was the Russian- who had the highest combined difficulty- who did not make the podium. My only comfort is that I genuinely believe there are no obstacles to her performing these vaults satisfactorily in the future. I hope Valeriia will try for a legitimate second vault so at least when she turns senior I can appreciate her as a specialist. I would hate to see her make teams just for a desperately needed dty.

Jesolo indicated that the state of women’s vault is in serious trouble. Some years it’s been the case that only two vaulters qualify in Jesolo, and for this upcoming Euros I can’t think of eight girls doing two different vaults! The juniors were able to perform vaults from the same family hence they qualified eight finalists but the seniors had five finalists and two of them had lower difficulty than the juniors. Angelina Melnikova rests somewhere smack in the middle of this pack. Her second vault (lopez) had the second lowest start value but she balanced things out with her dty and good execution. Melka has been gradually regaining her fitness and so her vaulting has improved since we saw her in February. The dty is packing power and the lopez is...safe enough. Not gonna lie the lopez is ugly- it’s mostly her entry- but it wasn’t terrible in the finals, just flat. Take a look at the image below and check out the distance Melks is getting on her dty now (I mean, it’s a bit deceiving because she took a bounce back but that reinforces the fact that she’s got power)). Holy cow!



Uneven Bars
Damn, it hurts to look at the junior results and see Russia always in last place :( Both juniors had what I consider to be worthy d-scores (5.6) but then I realized four girls had higher start values. Are we losing ground on our best event? Hmm, maybe it’s naive to believe so faithfully in Russia but I can’t help but be indifferent to the numbers. I think the first year of a quad is not “telling,” as in, it doesn’t determine the rate of development for the next two pivotal years. And when you think about it, a lot of Russian juniors are- for whatever reason- more known for their beam/floor work and then they gracefully age into being the belles of the bars in their first and second year of seniority.

Well, neither Klimenko or Saifulina deserved to be on this podium. Saifulina fell on her straddled jaeger and lost the difficulty of the skill since it wasn’t caught. She also lost momentum on a stalder full and peeled off again. Klimenko fell on her piked jaeger and also lost the value of that skill. Ya know, she’s going to be a beautiful bar worker when she gets a routine that works for her. Her stalder variations are deep and she’s got lovely leg form, even her double front half out dismount is done with pointed toes. Yes, she just needs more experience to make an impression on people.

Elena won the bars final ahead of both Americans. I still don’t agree with the e-scores they’re giving her (mainly because of the messy transitions) but it seems the tactic to keep the nabieva is paying off. I can’t imagine it’ll ever be super consistent but I think over these last three months she’s performed it more than Nabieva has her whole career? The nabieva was a close catch but otherwise I’m feeling less anxiety about her on bars than on beam so that’s a new feeling. Daria had a repeat of her Rio routine and has left most fans in serious disbelief/doubt that she’s on the Euros team. I think between Lena, Melka and Kapi we’re covered on bars.

Beam
Klimenko came in fourth, and after a terrible team effort on Day 1, couldn't help being a little tentative with this apparatus. But she didn’t make any mistakes. Her big error was the deep double tuck dismount but, go figure, others scored higher in execution despite balance checks and doing this:

Varvara Zubova disappointed me throughout the weekend. She possesses neither the pretty gymnastics that makes all blunders forgivable, or the equanimity of mind that marks a dependable player. I don’t understand how anyone could think of giving her an onodi as a mount; it’s the worst skill in her repertoire and her technique is so atrocious I don't believe it's actually credited as intended. Plus she falls on it All.The.Time. so why did they think this was a good idea? She fell on her mount, hit the front handspring front tuck combo and the RO+layout, then came off on the cool front aerial to illusion turn combination. She works very quickly and it's the sign of an aggressive beam worker- which I like- but she doesn't plant her feet like Iordache or Ponor does. The one Russian technique that seems to have imparted itself on her gymnastics is that she's light on her toes and comes off if the audience exhales too hard.

Zub Zubs leaning right on her "onodi"

Melka fell on her layout; she landed it on both feet then re-positioned her front foot (to get better traction I guess) and stumbled off. Not much to say about her beam, it was standard for her. I knew she would fall before she started... she already used her hit card in the team final lol. I'm curious whether she'll add back her upgrades for Euros or aim for having it consistent by World's.

Floor

If there was one routine I wish everyone could see it'd probably be Klimenko's fx. She changed her music since the WOGA Classic to a virtuous piano melody and I love her choreography, which features components of Grishina's 2010 routine. She doesn't interpret music the way Grishy did but the benefit of Russian choreographers is that they work with the sensibilities of each gymnast, so Ksenia doesn't look overwhelmed. I complained a lot about where Russian choreography was headed last season and while there's still plenty of mediocrity parading as art, at least some of the best prospects (i.e. the one's we'll be seeing over and over again) have personal touches in their routines.

Elena performed about where she always does. A fall on an overrotated double tuck ended her day in sixth place. It's interesting that the judges felt she earned a 13.550 without the fall which is exactly what she got in TF's with a much better routine. Here, she didn't complete her turns or stick any of her passes as she did on Day 1, further proof of the irresponsible scoring. I often think how much Angelina Melnikova is a godsend to the team- she has a dty, a 6.0 on beam, and three tumble lines rated E or higher, bless. She's steadily making her way back to shape and the 13.8 she posted is a huge step in the right direction. I was actually fine with this fx podium, though I felt Rebecca Andrade (BRA) was a better performer than her 8.350 e-score indicates. 

This completes my observations of the Jesolo finals. The only other concern I wanted to raise was the abominable junior performances on Day 1. I admit I'm no technical expert but can't the gymnasts tell when they don't have enough power to complete a rebounding pass? I think sometimes the momentum carries them forward before they're conscious of it but sometimes I blame it on a lack of judgement. God was I mortified watching all those girls fall on floor! We're moving on to the London World Cup and Junior Nationals, but was there anything else you guys wanted to say about Jesolo? I personally feel that this was not a sufficient competition to test our team strength.