Russian Championships – qualifications

Russian Championships has started yesterday with the individual qualifications and team finals for both MAG and WAG.

While we’re used to not getting proper videos from the qualifications, this year was especially bad since the federation, apparently, has prohibited gymnasts and coaches from doing live Instagram streams even when in the stands. Several gymnasts mentioned that they were threatened with monetary fines and, thus, could not do a live stream. However, the federation representatives only did their own live stream on Instagram during one men’s subdivision and completely ignored the rest.

Thus, this recap is mostly based on the results, glimpses of routines in Instagram stories and a few spotty live streams. However, today, for the WAG all-around final, we will be graced with a real multi-camera stream commentated by Emin Garibov and Viktoria Komova. The stream link is apparently still a secret and will be revealed later, so, stay tuned and follow us on Twitter for live updates.

The gymnasts are normally divided into teams according to the federal districts they represent. Most national team member usually rotate together in the last subdivision but their results still count towards their district team. Some national team members represent several districts. While for the casual fans from abroad the team competition seems a bit pointless, it actually matters for the gymnasts as good team placement affects their funding and potentially the funding of their home gyms. Turns out that the reason Nikolai Kuksenkov scratched last moment was actually related to the team competition. Kuksenkov officially represents the Vladimir region and the Central Federal District. This means that he gets a salary from his region and district and bonuses for international medals. However, the benefits are mutual as his regional federation gets to claim that they have an Olympic, World and European medalist on the roster and, in turn, this positively affects the funding they get from the local government. Kuksenkov has been representing the same region and district since he started competing for Russia and never added another region (some national team gymnasts get funding from two regions). He wrote on his VK page that he expected to compete for his district’s team again this time but, due to some health issues, could only compete on pommel horse. As the team consists of 6 people with only four scores counted on each event, this could work well. His pommel horse score, if he hits, would be very valuable for the team which counted two scores in low 14s and two in low 13s. The team still won by a point (it included Stretovich, Poliashov, Rostov, Kibartas, and Prokopev) but a high PH score could give them some safety cushion in case things went wrong somewhere else. Kuksenkov says he was not warned in advance that he would not be a part of the team (although he heard rumors he didn’t pay attention to) and only learned about it a day before the competition. He could still compete as an individual but his results would not count towards the team score. As his main motivation for participating in the nationals was helping his team, he decided to withdraw and go back to Moscow. He is considering switching the district now.

Another big drama of the day was the performance of Artur Dalaloyan. The reigning World AA champion had multiple falls on different events and finished 17th with 76.798. He made the all-around and vault finals, so he will get another chance. It is hard to say at the moment, what exactly happened, but his prolonged rest after the Worlds (he skipped the November and December training camps) and the public attention that resulted in multiple interviews and other events could have affected his performance. We’ll see if this was a fluke or he indeed needs more time to rest and recover after the last season and if this will affect his chances at making the Euros team.

Nikita Nagornyy, meanwhile, is finally healthy and looked very ready for Euros. He comfortabl won the qualification by almost three points with 86.931 and counted only one score under 14 after making a mistake on high bar. He also made every single event final. Nikita Ignatyev was second with 84.432. He spent the last year recovering from injuries and missed both the nationals and the Russian Cup (and, consequently, Euros and Worlds) but looked quite good yesterday. Dmitrii Lankin was third with 84.364, firmly on his way to being one of the Russian top all-arounders in the hopes of making the Tokyo team.

Notably, Oleg Stepko was 8th in the all-around qualification, placing higher than quite a few national team members. He also made the finals on parallel bars and vault and is the first reserve on pommel horse. Stepko still hopes to make the Russian national team and, perhaps, this competition will finally get him that coveted Round Lake invitation. Unfortunately, his main strength – parallel bars – is where Russia doesn’t need any help and Alfosov seemed to be unwilling to give him a chance last year.

Denis Abliazin also made his comeback here. Abliazin was supposed to start his Tokyo qualification route already in Cottbus but scratched due to an injury. He then also decided to miss the Melbourne World Cup but is on the roster for Baku and Doha. He only competed on rings and vault here, scratching floor due to a nagging leg injury. It probably was a good decision, considering that floor has not been working out for him last year and his best chance in getting an individual Olympic spot is likely on rings. He got 14.633 on rings (the highest rings score of the day) and 13.533 on vault and is currently the first reserve for the vault final.

WAG qualification was a bit more exciting due to multiple comebacks but the results ended up quite underwhelming. On one hand, Russian nationals are pretty much always like that and last year was an exception. On the other hand, the Euros are only in a month and it seems that many of the gymnasts will not be ready in time.

Angelina Simakova was first in the all-around qualification with 54.499. She showed her new floor routine and the choreography was nice (goodbye to the doll choreo) but had problems and a fall which led to the score of only 12.200. Generally, the whole Russian national team had problems on floor and scored mostly in low 13s or high 12s. Melnikova also had a difficult day, lacking endurance on floor and got second with 54.332. Aliya Mustafina came back to the all-around and placed third with 53.865. Belousova, a new senior, was able to get into the fourth place with 53.833.

Aleksandra Shchekoldina and Elena Eremina both competed for the first time after back surgeries last year. Both are still getting back to their normal difficulty and ended up 15th and 16th respectively. Maria Paseka, another fellow back surgery patient, competed only on vault and bars. She made the vault final in second place with 14.033 and got 13.000 on bars after not competing them for several years. Anastasia Iliankova who missed Euros and Worlds due to an injury competed only on bars and got 14.533, the highest bars score of the day.

Maria Kharenkova continues having a rough time. She competed only on beam and floor, so it seems that her shoulder injury still hasn’t healed. She got 12.066 on beam and 11.100 on floor. Tatiana Nabieva who only started regularly training again a few months ago (she took a long break after the Russian Cup when she did not make the national team despite good results) finished 8th in the all-around and qualified to the vault final in the third place. She actually managed to improve her scores from last year by more than a point but if last year’s fifth AA place and vault gold at Russian Cup didn’t land her a national team spot, I’m not sure this year will be any different.

Seda Tutkhalian is finally back to AA and got 9th in the AA qualification plus qualified to bars and beam finals. Tutkhalian has been battling an ankle injury since 2017 and only did three events at the last year’s nationals and skipped the Russian Cup.

The WAG all-around final will start today at 17:00 local time (9am ET). Stay tuned for the live stream link.

The results of the all-around will be the sum of two days (qualifications and final).

Full results (In Russian)

Full schedule and preview

Live stream of the Russian Championships

Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Gymnastics Federation

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