Angelina Melnikova won the 2018 Russian Championships, placing first on both days of competition and leading by more than three points ahead of Angelina Simakova. Melnikova did not have a single fall at this competition and although her second day was a bit worse than the first, keep in mind that she’s been competing non-stop for the past month: she competed at Stuttgart and Birmingham World Cups and then just last weekend she was in Jesolo. Angelina Simakova also flew to Kazan from an international competition – Tokyo World Cup. Both Angelinas were very consistent at Russian Championships and they are going to be an unstoppable force.
Viktoria Komova placed third after two days – she did slightly worse on the second day but it was enough for getting the bronze medal. Aliya Mustafina finished only 0.1 behind Komova after two days having a fall on vault today and problems on beam, but on the other hand, she managed to upgrade on bars compared to her routine in qualification. Will we see more upgrades in the event finals?
Ulyana Perebinosova managed to get into the fifth place having 53+ scores on each day and generally performing quite well. Hopefully this trend will continue and if she stays healthy and keeps cleaning up her execution, she’s going to be a major player on the national team.
Anastasiia Ilyankova was probably tired after Jesolo where she got bronze in the all-around. She had multiple mistakes on both days and only got 6th place. She had problems with her Ezhova both days on bars but still made the bars final and we’ll see tomorrow if she will be able to improve.
WOGA’s Irina Alexeeva didn’t become a medal threat we hoped she would be but she got a respectable 7th place, higher than several girls who are currently on the national team. Hopefully, it will be enough for the coaches to invite her to Round Lake.
Daria Spiridonova was accompanied by Nikita Nagornyy today as one of her coaches. He said that she is still getting back to her former level and expects to progress more in the coming months. She placed 11th overall, 0.12 ahead of Tatiana Nabieva.
The competition will continue tomorrow and on Sunday with event finals:
Saturday, April 21
14:00-17:00, WAG and MAG event finals [live stream]
Sunday, April 22
14:00-17:00, WAG and MAG event finals [live stream]
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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