More from the Russian Championships!

I’ve got links to more videos…thanks to RussianCup2009’s YouTube channel!  There are way more videos than these, but I decided to pick out some ones from the senior team finals as well as the junior all-around.  Some good stuff!  I’ll give some general thoughts at the end.

Anna Pavlova Vault Team Finals

Viktoria Komova Vault Team Finals

Viktoria Komova Bars Team Finals

Tatiana Nabieva Bars Team Finals

Tatiana Nabieva Vault Team Finals

Ksenia Semenova Bars Team Finals

Ksenia Semenova Floor Team Finals

Ekaterina Kramarenko Beam Team Finals

Ekaterina Kurbatova Bars Team Finals

Ekaterina Kurbatova Floor Team Finals

Anna Myzdrikova Vault Team Finals

Anastasia Grishina Bars Junior All-Aound

Anastasia Grishina Beam Junior All-Around

Eleonora Goryunova Floor Junior All-Around

Eleonora Goryunova Beam Junior All-Around

Pretty impressive that Pavlova actually WON vault at this competition.  It’s definitely going to help her that she still is one of Russia’s top vaulters even after tearing her ACL…not to mention she still has their strongest second vault with her laid-out Podkopayeva.  With the weak international vault field, she could easily be back in medal contention on this event by October.

Komova’s vault here was much better than Day 1.  I still love her bars, but (and maybe this is getting picky because I’ve seen the routine many times now)…I’m starting to notice all her little leg separations on her piked stalder skills and the tap for her Tcatchev.  She is starting to look uncannily like Nastia on this event!

Nabieva’s bars is AWESOME, and her DTY on vault is definitely the most powerful of the team (we’ve seen her compete a 2 ½).  She does have a slight leg separation on it, but still cleaner than she showed last year.  Do you notice her run and vault look a lot like Zamalodchikova?  That bar routine is one of the very best in the world – one of the best lines and some of the best form being done right now.  I bet she’s a very likely bet for their world team this year.

Semenova showed she can hit two days in a row.  Floor and bars were still both very impressive.  She’s not yet back in all-around contention on the world level yet, but she’s definitely back in contention to compete at worlds this year.  Hopefully she’ll add more difficulty and get back up there.

There are videos of Kramarenko on all four events from the team finals, but this beam routine was definitely the highlight for her.  She used her Beijing music on floor and tumbled a full-in, triple full, front tuck through to back full and a double pike…with landing problems on the first two passes.  She fought through bars after missing her pirouette on the low bar twice and covering up, and she actually did a pretty good laid-out Tsuk full on vault.  She looks in shape but still has a ways to go to get back on their team.

Kurbatova did very well in the team finals…the same strong bar routine she showed last year (slight form breaks), she hit her DTY on vault, and her tumbling on floor was right on.  Myzdrikova hit floor again, albeit over-rotating her double pike dismount, and this DTY shows she could contribute on vault as well.

Anastasia Grishina and Eleonora Goryunova are definitely two to watch out for in 2012.  How about Grishina’s PIKED Tcatchev to Pak salto…very cool! She looks like a little Komova-in-training on this event…very similar skills and routine construction.  She can do WAY better than this on beam.  It looks like she’s definitely grown some and is probably adjusting to that.  She hit her full, but we’ve seen her connect the Onodo-front aerial-side somi combo.  Despite coming off on the double turn, she still got a very solid score…14.45.

I’m sure there are some other really impressive juniors from the meet, but I picked these two out because I knew they were good…let us know if you come across some other great ones!

The event finals are still to come!