Surprises, Pleasant and Bitter: Day 1 EF's

It's obvious these Euros have been bittersweet for Russian fans. On the one side, we have the men's team not at all letting up on their achievements since winning team gold at the 2014 Euros and dominating the medal standings at each successive Euros. On the other side, the grass is indeed less green when the women team's potential for greatness is spoiled by outdated training methods and injuries galore. But I have to say, I've found this meet to be exceptional in at least one aspect: the European championships actually feels like a EUROPEAN championships. At the conclusion of Day 1 event finals, golds were awarded to Greece (SR), France (VT), Russia (SR), Belgium (UB) and Romania (FX). Russia's doing well in the medal standings overall but it's not like past Euros where we, and one other country, dominate everything. I'm crying nonstop in WAG but it's sorta nice to see some smaller programs thriving.

Alright fine, I'm miserable. Cuz Russia isn't winning all the medals all the time. But eventually, I'll look back and genuinely be 100% happy for some non-Russian medalists. I just need to grieve right now. It's not other people's fault our girls can't get it together.

The day started with men's floor final. Young star, Dmitrii Lankin, landed his insanely difficult triple back somersault (the liukin) with ease and a tiny step on landing. He suspended in air for a moment before her even started rotating AND he did it from a round off, not back handsprings, such was his confidence. The rest of his passes had awkward landings, especially the 2.5 to forward double twist. First place winner, Marian Dragulescu, had just as many but he had the home advantage and I guess fewer of his landing deductions were as costly as Dmitrii's. Lankin scored a 14.446 for silver. He is one to keep your eye on for the next three years and think of all the tenths to gain just from him cleaning up his landings. He already has a 6.4 and there's more to come based on his IG videos. Molodets Dmitrii, you made us proud! 

Angelina Melnikova headed us off on vault, opening with a very nice dty but unable to follow through with the same quality on the lopez (messy form and way off to one side). In fact, many dty's received a 14.4 (or a tenth less or more), so the second vault- which for most was a lopez- was the determining factor for the podium. Of course none of those second vaults would have made a difference if Paseka was successful with her upgrades. Would she throw the cheng or just an amanar? She decided to go with a lopez, perhaps thinking that she could gauge her second vault based on the score of the lopez. The first vault was her normal sloppy starfish, with a piked down low chest landing, and she knew she needed the amanar to get ahead of Ellie Downie, who was in first at the moment. Unfortunately, the amanar just wasn't any good, with the usual deductions for block and flight form coupled with several paces backward to stand it up. She received 14.533 (5.8, 8.733) for an average that would place her in fourth at the conclusion of the final. If she's trying to mirror her humiliating experience in Moscow four years ago she's done it, but this time I don't think we can blame her for sucking. I can't even believe shes here at all so if last quad was anything to go off of, Paseka will win medals when she's good and ready to. We have to accept that not even she can always snatch a miracle from an ass backward situation. If she's healthy for World's, she's still my number one clinch for gold. Get well Pashya, thanks for trying. 

The men continued to make this day worth our while as we went into the pommel horse final. Belyavskiy qualified to every apparatus final he was assigned to, so he's on the right track for a post-Olympic year. He's taking it easy while cleaning up on what he can do and going for that consistency. Love it! He showed off his elegant style with some very neat combination work (and I love those circles done on one pommel) for a 15.1, a tenth higher than his quals score. The three time World champion on pommels, Kristian Berki, was the essence of neat & tidy but he mounted the apparatus three second overtime and was given a neutral deduction which placed him in second. David was only two tenths behind this legend in quals so i'd say David's never looked better. David, we are proud to see you carry the Russian flag to the top of the standings, and on this event in particular.

Aw yea that's what I like to see. 

Next we had the uneven bars final. Why is it the finals we predict to be the most contested are the most boring and filled with splats? Elena Eremina finally gave Russia a blessing with the first medal for the ladies. We're all familiar with her routine by now: the [always awesome] nabieva to pak, van leeuwen, inbar, inbar 1/2, piked jaeger, toe full to full-in dismount. Everything looked similar to past routines except she was visibly extra late on her last pirouette before the dismount, and just like in AA, could not connect it to the full-in. She went into the lead for a 14.3 but was eventually bumped to second, where she stayed, by Nina Darwael of Belgium who had higher difficulty and showed cleaner execution. The real moment I want to spotlight is not Elena's routine but her reaction to seeing a compatriot get injured on bars. I speak of course of Becky Downie hurting her wrist or elbow in a failed gienger catch. It was touching see how emotional Elena was over Downie's injury and a traumatic experience for her sister, Ellie, to witness I'm sure. Poor thing was in tears. No matter what the mouthpiece of Russian gymnastics (the Rod's) say, the gymnasts are nothing but friendly to their competitors.* Watch the video below and note Lena's plain horror at 1:24. I wish people wouldn't take out their anger on our gymnasts when they cannot control the PR nightmare that is their boss. 

Off of his stunning success on floor, Dmitrii Lankin was up again to represent in the rings final. This is an excellent event for the Russians in team competitions (imagine a Ablyazin, Balandin, Nagorny trio!) so any individuals who are making a rings final are sure to get a bump for team selection no matter if they're EF medal worthy. As it is, rings is very hard to medal in. You can spend your life being a specialist and scoring mid 15's and still never have a significant medal to your name. Lankin had the lowest d-score of the field but his execution was decent. He was a little shaky on his crosses and his front double pike dismount was very deep. It wasn't a costly mistake because the chances of him medalling would depend on five other people falling... and they never fall. It is not the way the rings people do things. Lankin scored a 14.466, three tenths lower than quals but a sufficient end to his day.

We'll see David and Dalolyan again tomorrow, in addition to Nikita Nagorny. The ladies have two more finalists in FX, and whether we'll get two medals, one, or none, there's work to be done on this WAG program regardless. What a day.

*Aliya congratulated Ellie D. on her AA victory on Instagram. It was very sweet (and necessary after the press piece Valentina put out).