This week, Russian gymnasts are competing at the Russian Cup in Novosibirsk. The competition is a part of the selection process for the Olympics, although the teams will not be named until July and several internal selections will follow.
The coaching staff put all the top contenders for the Olympic teams in the same rotation, so we were able to learn who are currently the frontrunners. On the women’s side, the main team contenders appear to be Angelina Melnikova, Vladislava Urazova, Viktoria Listunova, and Lilia Akhaimova. These were also the top four all-arounders of the day. Angelina Melnikova had four steady routines although she lost some floor difficulty and made mistakes on both beam and floor. She finished the competition with 56.831 and had the top scores on bars and floor.
Vladislava Urazova finished second with 56.333. Viktoria Listunova, the reigning Russian and European champion, had falls on both beam and floor and placed third with 55.733. Lilia Akhaimova was fourth with 54.832 and the top score on vault. Akhaimova also made all four finals together with Melnikova (Listunova and Urazova did not compete two vaults but made finals on the other three events). The top contenders started the day on beam as an additional challenge from the coaches.
Elena Gerasimova, Yana Vorona, and Anastasia Ilyankova rotated as the second group on the same event. Ilyankova is in the running for the specialist spot together with Irina Komnova but Komnova is still struggling to stay consistent on the event. Ilyankova got 14.866 on bars, the same score as Melnikova. Gerasimova and Vorona are both in contention for the fourth team spot, together with Akhaimova, and for the second individual spot. Both have strong beam sets but are relatively weak on other events. Gerasimova got the highest beam score of the day, 13.966, and placed fifth in the all-around with 54.298. Vorona, though, fell twice on beam and finished 9th overall with 51.365.
On the men’s side, the challenge was to start on pommel horse and it did not go so well – most gymnasts in the top group fell on the event. The top contenders for the team, unsurprisingly, appear to be Nikita Nagorny, David Belyavskiy, Artur Dalaloyan, and Aleksandr Kartsev. Dalaloyan who tore his Achilles only two months ago competed on four events. He managed to make event finals on three of the events – pommel horse, rings, and parallel bars, even though he did his routines without dismounts. He had a fall on high bar. Dalaloyan was visibly limping between events, so it’s not clear how wise it was to allow him to compete in Novosibirsk.
Nikita Nagorny, the reigning World and European all-around champion, predictably placed first in the all-around and scored 87.332, over four points higher than the second place. He also qualified to all six event finals and had the top score on high bar.
Aleksandr Kartsev who won the all-around at the Russian Championships in March was second with 83.165. Kartsev competed first on every event because the coaches plan on putting him first on all events at the Olympics. He looked uncharacteristically nervous and fell on the very first routine. However, on the last event of the day, floor, he ended up scoring higher than Nagorny and qualified to the floor final in first place. He will also compete in PB and HB finals.
Kirill Prokopev who replaced injured Dalaloyan at the last minute at the European Championships struggled through the competition and scored only 81.365. He had a fall on pommel horse, one of his best events, but qualified to the floor final. Sergei Naidin was fourth with 81.233. Interestingly, Naidin wasn’t rotating with the top group but placed higher than Nikita Ignatyev who was. David Belyavskiy didn’t do the all-around here and only competed on four events. He scored 15.3 on parallel bars, the highest score of the day on any event. He also had the top score on pommel horse and qualified to rings and high bar finals as well.
The two other gymnasts in the group of main Olympic contenders were Denis Abliazin and Vladislav Poliashov. Both are contending for individual spots. Poliashov has 90 points from the Apparatus World Cup Series and might win a nominative spot through it. However, Russia also has a possibility to get an extra spot through European Championships, so they will have two individual spots in Tokyo in any case. Emin Garibov said on the broadcast that the federation is leaning towards skipping the last event of the series because of it. Poliashov is still the most likely contender for one of the individual spots, whether it will be a nominative spot or the federation’s spot from Euros. However, he did not have a good day on parallel bars, his best event, and did not qualify to the final. He got 14.800 on pommel horse, the same score as Belyavskiy.
Denis Abliazin finished in the first place on both rings and floor. He broke both his legs in Stuttgart in 2019 and had to have surgeries after Worlds. The recovery took a long time and he was still not allowed to compete on vault at the Russian Championships and did not get onto the Euros team. However, right now he appears to be the strongest contender for the second individual spot.
Ivan Stretovich who missed the Russian Championships this year due to injury was able to return to competition on three events. He placed second on high bar and also made the floor final.
You can watch the archived stream of the men’s competition on the federation’s Youtube channel. They will likely add the women’s qualification later as well.
The all-around finals are on June 10 and will be streamed on the federation’s website. Fans outside of Russia will need to pay to access the stream (it is free for those in Russia). The cost of access to one final is $2.99 and the package for all finals costs $8.99. The streams will be archived.
MAG AA Final – 2 pm local time (GMT +7), 3 am ET, 12 pm PT
WAG AA Final – 5 pm local time (GMT +7), 6 am ET, 3 am PT
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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Urazova did not fall off Beam, just a large wobble after her Onodi.