The first junior all-around World champion Viktoriia Listunova proved today that she is capable of winning at the senior level as well. She won gold after two days of competition with a significant margin despite falling off the beam today. Vladislava Urazova finished second, going head to head with Listunova until the last event. Both she and Angelina Melnikova who finished third had falls on beam on both days of the competition. Yana Vorona who was third in the qualification struggled on vault and floor today and ended up sixth.
Seven of the top ten competitors were new seniors – born either in 2004 or 2005 (we’ll count them as new seniors since the 2004-born gymnasts didn’t really have a chance to compete last year). The only veterans in the top were Angelina Melnikova, Lilia Akhaimova, and Elena Eremina. Akhaimova made multiple mistakes on both days of the competition and had an especially difficult time in the final, scoring three points lower than the qualification and finishing 7th. Elena Eremina was left off the national team this year due to her continuing health issues. However, a solid performance, especially on beam and floor, meant that she finished 9th, ahead of multiple current national team members. It is not likely she’ll get invited to Round Lake, though, so don’t get your hopes up. She said earlier this year that the training load at Round Lake aggravates her back injury and it is better for her health to stick to a lighter training schedule.
The competition will continue tomorrow with event finals at 12:00 local time (5am ET, 1am PT).
It will be streamed live on the federation’s website.
Full schedule of the competition can be found here.
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Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
