The women’s competition at the Russian Championships was much more anticipated than the men’s simply because it was the first senior competition of the much promising Viktoriia Listunova and Vladislava Urazova. Last time we saw either of them compete was in 2019. Listunova, Urazova, and Gerasimova were on the gold-winning team at the first junior World Championships and Listunova and Urazova won all-around gold and silver there. Urazova was expected to be in contention for the 2020 Olympics but Listunova was too young. The postponement of the Olympics made her eligible, so we’ve been eagerly waiting for her senior debut.
In the past, star Russian juniors often had trouble staying successful as seniors, especially after going through puberty. That curse seems to have escaped the new seniors, perhaps, due to the extended break from competitions, or because the senior team has a new coach – Olga Bulgakova, who was the head coach of the junior team before.
Listunova had a great competition day today and is leading the qualification by over a point from the second place with 57.566. She also made finals on all four events and is leading on floor with 14.433.
Vladislava Urazova grew much taller in the past year but has been able to adjust to her new height. She had some issues on beam today and finished the day with 56.299. We will see her in the event finals on bars where she finished second with 14.9 and floor where she’s third with 14.066.
Yana Vorona who placed third with 55.199 is coached by Gennady Elfimov, Viktoria Komova’s coach. She didn’t make the Jr Worlds team back in 2019 but was on the gold-winning European Youth Olympic Festival team a month later. Vorona also had a chance to compete as a senior last year – at World Cup in the beginning of the year and at the Friendship and Solidarity Competition in November. Vorona made the final on beam where she finished third with 14.133.
Angelina Melnikova started the day strong and looked sharp and prepared on all her events except for a random fall on beam and some wobbles in the second half of the routine. She placed fourth with 55.198, just 0.001 behind Vorona. She unveiled her new floor with interesting choreography and made finals on vault, bars, and floor. She is actually leading vault with 14.199 and placed second on floor with 14.266.
Lilia Akhaimova was fifth with 54.365. She also got a new floor routine but had a bit of trouble on her landings on both floor and vault today. She made finals on vault, beam, and floor.
Liubov Akhaimova, Lilia’s younger sister, turned senior this year and for the first time, the sisters competed at a senior competition together today. Liubov looks almost like Lilia’s twin even though she’s seven years younger. She’s not quite at the national team level right now but let’s not forget that Lilia only made the national team at 18 and was not even on the federation’s radar as a junior.
Elena Gerasimova who was also on the gold-winning junior Worlds team finished sixth in the all-around today and topped the beam qualification with 14.266. She will also be in the floor final.
Anastasia Iliankova competed only on bars and beam here and she’s clearly trying to make her case for an individual Olympic spot for her bars routine. She leads the qualification on bars with 14.9.
Maria Kharenkova competes for Georgia nowadays but is still eligible for the Russian Championships as she is a Russian citizen. She was using this competition to prepare for the upcoming European Championships and was looking quite good. However, she got injured on her first pass on floor and likely suffered an Achilles tear.
The all-around WAG final will take place tomorrow at 5pm local time (9am ET, 6am PT). It will be streamed live on the federation’s website.
Full schedule of the competition can be found here.
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