Gymnastics News: Ekaterina Tyunina Beam Winner and Larisa Wins Swiss Friendly

A few weeks ago the Russian meet Spartakiade took place and a relative unknown gymnast won the title. Ekaterina Tyunina was the winner and yet we haven't heard much about her nor have we seen her at major Russian competitions. I'm not sure how old she is but I would dare to say that she is new to the senior field or might even be a junior.

I like her style of movement on the beam, she does need to extend her split leaps and improve little things here and there. The best thing about her is her nice connections and some very hardly seen skills. The skill that I found most interesting was her full twisting wolf jump. The move has been done before but none of the elite gymnasts perform it regularly.

Check her out!

Larisa Iordache has continued with her impressive all around streak by winning a small friendly meet in Switzerland. The Swiss meet is an annual tournament that gathers three national teams and includes an all around competition. The Romanian team lost the team competition to the Germans and aren't looking good for the Worlds. 

On the bright side Larisa easily won but can she win a model with those routines and those scores? I don't really know what to think about Larisa, she impresses me sometimes and then I see her give mediocre and inconsistent routines with misses elements. Only time will tell what the Worlds has in store for her. 

Breaking Down: Nabieva Release on Uneven Bars

I decided to do a breaking down of the Nabieva release upon recent news that young and promising Brazilian gymnast, Rebeca Andrade, was training said skill. The Nabieva shares the honor of being the most highly rated element on uneven bars and is considered one of, if not, the most difficult releases in the women's field.

The Nabieva release was introduced by Russian gymnast Tatiana Nabieva back in 2010. Nabieva was performing that skill very well that year but did not keep it in her program the following years. She is said to be working on the release and a video of her emerged not too long ago showing her training it. She is close to being able to do the skill but that skill is never a sure bet even when it's fully prepared. 

The Nabieva is defined as pike sole circle backward with counter stretched hecht (layout position over HB) to hang - assuming on the high bar. The skill has a G letter value and is 7 tenths. Below is the diagram provided by the FIG in the CoP. 

Nabieva's attempt,

 

Andrade's attempt,

It is safe to say that both gymnasts have better than not form on entry but misjudge the the distance. I don't think either is close to having the skill down as competition ready but they are working on it. 

- videos via Alyssia Spaan and Gymnastics Coaching. 

Svetlana Khorkina 2000 All-Around Champion(?), If...

Svetlana Khorkina lost the 2000 All Around title but not many know that she didn't lose it on the vault. Svetlana was a blatant victim of the stupidity of the Olympic organizers wrongfully placing the vaulting horse a few centimeters below the required height for women's competition. Svetlana did fall on her first vault and she did score a very low score but was still alive in the competition with that mistake.

Svetlana began her rotation on floor, she performed one of those classic Sveta floor performances - heavy on expression and light on tumbling. The music really suited her artistic abilities and she took advantage of that. She was rewarded with a 9.812 for her effort and appeared to be well underway towards an All Around title or medal at least.

Then everything changed, she moved on to the vault and it all changed from there. The commentator makes a remark that she has fallen on her two warm-up vaults and is on edge. That's when the classic yell/shout is heard. I had never known who she was yelling at but it was her personal coach, Boris Pilkin. His hearing probably wasn't the best and maybe she wasn't yelling that much but she was upset. She wanted everything to be perfect so that she could put her vault to her feet. 

As everyone knows she didn't but was able stick her second vault. I'll explain why I think she didn't lose the title on vault after the video. Her averaged score for vault was 9.343.

Svetlana then moved over to her best apparatus the uneven bars. She started off really well hitting her handstands and being her usual sell until she fell on her Tkatchev release and with that lost the All Around title. Sveta scored 9.012, counting a miss on one's highest scoring event is a fatal blow that can not be fixed no matter how great one is in the other pieces. 

Then she was off to perform on her final apparatus the balance beam - knowing that she would not be the champion. They mentioned that she had a fall in the warm up and looked like she wouldn't be holding up. That's when she delivered a confident performance with almost no noticeable bobbles or wobbles for a 9.762 routine. A very good score considering that she didn't even qualify for beam final - the only apparatus she didn't qualify to. 

Her final score, after all four apparatus scores were added together, was 37.929. That score landed her all the way down in 10th place. If we count her fall on vault but go with the scenario that she had not fallen on her Tkatchev release then things would change dramatically. Sveta scored 9.012 in the All Around but had scored 9.850 during qualifications which would mean a good routine would have gotten her a good 8 tenths higher. Adding 8 tenths to her final score of 37.929 would gives us 38.729.

If that score is compared to Simona Amanar's, the All Around champion, score of 38.642 then Svetlana would come out on top. Svetlana would have been the champion counting a fall! She would not have been the winner on that night though as Andrea Raducan won that night with a score of 38.893 but was later stripped of her title after testing positive for some banned substance. 

If that scenario would have taken place Svetlana would have won the Silver medal that night but then would have been given the Gold medal. I don't surmise Svetlana being happy either way as she found the whole process a travesty and a title stolen. She would later compete at the 2004 Olympics with the feeling that something was stolen from her and she was there to get what was rightfully hers. 

Gymnastics News: Afanasyeva at 2014 Worlds?

In a telephone interview with R-Sport Valentina Rodionenko has revealed that Ksenia Afanasyeva is on the short list of potential gymnasts for the 2014 World Championships. In the interview she goes on to state that Ksenia has been training 'quietly' since her ankle operation. She goes on to say that Ksenia doesn't need to learn any new moves because she is an experienced gymnast.

There is something wrong with the way Valentina speaks about Ksenia without confirming with Ksenia beforehand. Valentina did the same thing early on in the year and was surely a factor in pushing Ksenia to perform at the Russian National's earlier this year. I don't think that she has anything against Ksenia but this is just the way she is with a gymnast that she becomes frustrated with. She really likes calling the gymnasts fat if they are out of shape or if she has a falling out with them.

My opinion is that if Ksenia is seriously training then she would be very appreciated on the team but will probably not be ready for Worlds. I have a lot of faith in Ksenia but hopes of her coming back so soon are not a good thing at this moment. Ksenia herself has said that her recovery is forecasted to take a year which would mean she'll likely be back for Russian Nationals next year.

Do you guys think that Ksenia will make to the Worlds?

Relive Russian Cup Event Finals

If you missed the Russian Cup stream because you were asleep or didn't know it was streaming then you can watch it below! The Cup shed light on the continuous bad luck the Russian national team has been experiencing over the last couple of years. The team is not as injured as before but with the possibility of Denis Ablyazin and Aleksandr Balandin both being out of Worlds is something and Nikolai Kuksenkov possibly coping with an injury. It could be worse as was seen at last year's competition.

The winners on the women's side were Sosnitskaya, Komova, Mustafina, Mustafina. Vault was by far the weakest piece shown at the Cup but respectable. Komova proved that she still has that beautiful form that made her World Champion on bars. Mustafina showed that even coming off of an injury she was still commanding on beam and floor.

The closest finals were bars and beam, Mustafina came in second on bars and first on beam. Maria Kharenkova performed a good routine but was unable to perform the same routine that she performed on day one. It was not filled with major errors but rather with one bobble on her layout and the missed connection out of it. Couple that error with Aliya connecting the bulk of her elements propelling her to first place.

The even final winners on the Men's side were Belyavski, Kuksenkov, Ablyazin, Britan, Kuksenkov, Ignatyev. Kuksenkov impressed by performing quite well with an injury to his back.

Live Blog of Russian Cup

I am live blogging from watching the live feed of the Russian Cup. The feeds are very bad, they don't show all of the scores and the names of the vaults. The commentators are speaking in Russian and I know very limited words in that language.

FTY=Full Twisting Yurchenko (5.0) DTY= Double (5.8)

OOB=out of bounce.

Floor

Maria Kharenkova on floor mount double arabian, memmel turn, one and a half twist to double piked, whip+whip triple twist, double turn with leg at horizontal, double back tuck dismount - hand down. D-score 6.0.

Vault

Ekaterina Kramarenko performs a clean full twisting yurchenko. Score 14.0.

Maria Kharenkova full twisting yurchenko much cleaner than Kramarenko, for a 14.1.

Aliya Mustafina does a double twisting yurchenko sticks it then takes a step back.

Alla Sosnitskaya looks off on her vault, DTY. Performs a second vault.

Maria Paseka appears to do an Amanar vault or a one and a half twisting yurchenko with a low landing and a step to the side - definitely out of bounce on the step. Does a second vault with a large step back and out of bounce.

Daria Spiridonova does a clean FTY with a very slight step.

Bars

Tatiana Nabieva is seen landing a full in double back dismount with a slight step. Her form looks improved.

Komova does a Komova II to Pak, Komova I, inbar stalder with half turn to layout jaeger, inbar stalder with full turn to tkatchev? and dismounts with a full in double back with a step. She looked very tired after the routine.

Note: She only did two giants before her dismount and she usually does three. Did not do a chow with 1/2 as was previously thought she would do.

Maria Kharenkova inbar stalder, toe-on full to Maloney to pak. She makes a mistake and has to do two handstands - doesn't do a van leeuewen after working it out. In bar half, piked jaeger, full in double back dismount. She did well to stay on the bars and not drop eventhough she was way off vertical. It appears she got 13 or something with thirteen.

Kramarenko does a good clean bar set but doesn't do any of the supposed complicated combinations that she had worked out in podium training. Score is 14.667 d-score 6.0.

Aliya Mustafina does a very clean set almost exactly the same routine she did at the Euros. Toe-on full to van leeuwen, piked release. Stuck full-in dismount. Almost as clean as the routine that won her a silver medal at the Euros. Total score of 15.40 and a d-score of 6.3.

Alla Sosnitskaya does a really clean set but with a few feet separation. Double front dismount was pretty clean and only took a small hop, her shaposhnikova variations were clean. Total score 13.833 d-score was 5.8, the judges were quite hard.

Daria Spiridonova did the same exact routine as her bronze Euro medal winning routine. She did the full difficulty and had a pause after one of her pirouettes but managed to keep a vertical handstand even with that. Almost stuck dismount with the smallest of steps forward but with cleaner form in the air. Total score 14.933 d-score 6.3. She missed a connection and that's why she lost the tenth.

Maria Paseka performed some uncommon connections and one into a very bad form pak salto. Did a very rushed pirouette and seemed to have a pause before her double front dismount with a large step forward. Total score 13.30  d-score 5.9.

Paulina Fedorova had a really bad day on bars with two falls but nice form in her handstands and pak salto. D-score 5.5 and a total score of 11.533.

Beam

Polina Fedorova does a BHS+BHSSO, nice L turn, sheep jump, interesting combinations especially one out of a full turn. Very clean two and a half twist. Nice job. Total score 14.4 d-score 5.7.

Aliya Mustafina double turn, excellent. Arabian stuck cold and into a couple of jumps. Split half to onodi to an aerial? and falls - she could have saved it had she faught. Double back tuck dismount with a step forward. Very impressive even with the fall as she was able to get all her combinations in. Total score14.6 d-score 6.4!

Maria Kharenkova front tuck, BHS+BHS SO + Layout to jumps. Does a front aerial into a sheep jump, aerial to back piked, L-turn to full turn, swith ring leap and a double back piked stuck but low landing. She could have won the world title on this apparatus with the performance she just did, BRAVO! Total score 16.2 d-score 7.0.

Ekaterina Kramarenko did a nice routine but I was so excited with the score of Maria Kharenkova that I didn't see half of it. Total score 13.60 d-score 5.2.

Alla Sosnitskaya layout combination was shaky almost fell, front aerial to jump, side aerial to illusion turn, side somi and a low landed double back tuck. She reminds me of the way that the Italian gymnasts do beam. Total score 14.033?

Daria Spiridonova does a y-turn to full turn, side aerial, aerial? to sheep jump, onodi, switch ring leap, nice jump combination, nice form on a her BHS+BHSSO+BHSSO but loses balance. Dismount was much nicer a double back tuck slight step. Total score 14.233 d-score 5.7.

That concludes the competition. I missed the floor portion of the competition except for Maria Kharenkova's routine.

Notes from the event: The federation has switched to digital scoring system since the Russian Championships earlier this year. I miss seeing the kids running around collecting the scores and handing them into the head judge and then manually entering the score into the boards.

Gymnastics News: The Comeback of Anastasia Sidorova

Anastasia Sidorova's comeback appears to be much more serious than I previously thought. Anastasia was back in the gym training some basic elements last time we saw her but now she has moved on to more serious moves. The most impressive of all is that she has almost gotten her triple twist back although a bit helicoptered legs there. Form is quite lacking in some of the Russian gymnasts of that generation but not so much in the newer gymnasts.

Anastasia has a decent looking two and half twist, a double back tucked, double back piked and a full twisting yurchenko. Her FTY is back and it's good compared to some of the gymnast I saw last week at the Youth Olympic Games. It should definitely not be long until she has a full difficulty routine up on floor but not for this year's Worlds.

Below are some videos of her training said elements. She does look a bit labored doing them but I'm sure all the time has something to do with that.

Via Alyssia Spaan on YouTube.

Gymnastics News: Vika Is Back!

Viktoria Komova is back! A video has surfaced online showing the 2011 World Champion on uneven bars performing a full bars set. The video is of a routine that is almost exactly the same as the one she performed at the Russian Nationals with a few exceptions. The video has made its way around the gymnastics blogs but they have all seemed to have missed one small detail, actually a big detail. Vika has dropped her Komova I release and is doing a Chow with 1/2 turn. That is very telling as in a previous post I wrote that she was probably training that element to connect it with from the Pak salto. She has replaced an E element with a much easier E element.

This particular bars set is hovering around a 6.4 and 6.5 D-score. The problem with the set is that she has a very piked jaeger and is probably going to get that element devalued. She probably has a 6.4 D-score at the moment but with the connection of the Pak and Chow 1/2 she could have 6.6 D-score. I don't think this is the bars set she will perform at the Worlds but could be close to it.

She is training bars and beam at the moment and needs a strong performance at Russian Cup later this month to make the team. I will keep my fingers crossed for her to make the team and show the world that she still has it.

Breaking Down | Mustafina Dismount - 1 1/2 Twisting Double Tucked

It has almost been four years since Aliya Mustafina introduced her namesake dismount on uneven bars, a one and a half twisting double back tuck. The weird thing is that a stretched dismount of the same element has not been performed. The problem with that element is that the CoP has no special value for it given that a full twsiting double layout is rated an F and the double double is rated a G. The CoP had the luxury of fitting the Mustafina, an E rated element, in between the D and F.

The fact that the CoP isn't clear, with regards to this element, will prevent it from being encouraged. This is a problem that is a mistake with the CoP and not really with the elements or the gymnasts. I can think of many other elements, particularly on beam, that are more difficult than their half turn less brothers but are still given the same rating.

Check the Aliya Mustafina performing her trademark bars dismount below - she sticks it too.

FIG Rules | UB - Failure to Maintain Stretched Body Posture

The FIG has deductions for failure to maintain stretched body posture in stretched dismounts off the uneven bars. I covered this in the explanation of jumps a few posts back and referenced that the CoP would deduct three tenths for just this type of fault. The FIG repeats just that under the video by marking it (-0.3)

The gymnast in the video attempts to dismount with a simple double layout in the stretched position. On dismount she slightly pikes her form into a position that was clearly not straight. This is a very typical form break when gymnasts do double layouts and it's the risk most gymnast take.

The real funny part about the video is that they picked a Romanian gymnast to call out - they are notoriously weak on the uneven bars. Also that was a different generation and a different CoP that would have overlooked such faults and focused on the landing.

Breaking Down | Positions - Tucked, Piked and Stretched/Layout

Every jump/salto has a position a gymnast's legs are in and that position is what determines the difficulty value awarded. The positions that exist in gymnastics are: tuck, pike and stretch and mostly called layout. The tuck is generally considered the easiest to perform and stretch is the most difficult to perform. The CoP has specific angles that each position must be within to be awarded credit as that type of style.

Tuck
The tucked position requires that the hip and knee angle be less than 90°. That means you are between straight and 90°, imagine yourself with your bent knees on the floor and the rest of your body straight. That position is the most easiest and probably the most commonly performed by less experienced gymnasts.

The diagram below will show exactly how the position should look according to the CoP.

Left -.10 for 90° angle and right -.10 plus cowboying deduction.

Deductions, the code is very strict these days and will deduct one tenth if you are in the squatting position. It will deduct three tenths if performed in a 135° angle, a less than pikes position with bent knees. The judges will also deduct if the gymnast 'cowboys' the jump, that means their knees aren't touching but rather open like if they were riding a horse. Pretty harsh but once you realize this you will understand why gymnasts  rarely crack 9.0 in execution.

Pike
The piked position is one in which the legs have less than a 90° hip angle. The knees aren't bent and they are at a greater than 135°. If you see the diagram below you'll recognize it very easily.

I find that a piked jump receives less deductions although they have the same deduction possibilities. They are a tenth if 90° hip angle and three tenths if greater than 90° hip angle. That means that the judges want to see a pikes position that has the legs closer to the body than not.

Stretch

The stretched position is by far the hardest position to perform and the most deducted out of all the positions. The requirement for this position is that the body is in alignment, straight at 180° when vertical. 

While the deductions only include a one tenth deduction if body alignment is out of sync by more than 10°. In actuality the judges find deductions in this position for leg separation, lack of pointed toes, bent knees, etc. It is very easy to find something wrong with a layout position and that is very evident in the scores for the people performing the move.

Note: D-Panel is in reference to the judges that are evaluating the gymnasts' performance on the difficulty level. The E-Panel refers to the judges that are evaluating the gymnasts' execution of the elements. 

Video

The video below shows a piked backflip in action. If you notice the gymnast is at a less than 90° hip angle which means she will not incur any deductions for hip angle position.

Back Somersaults - Gymnastics (Slow motion)