EYOF in a nutshell

Highlights

- Eythora Thorsdottir on beam. Refreshingly Soviet and glorious.
- Kim Janas' floor choreography. Not so much that it flowed wonderfully, it didn't, but the actual movements were great.
- Laura Jurca's DTY! Really excellent first showing.
- In general, 2 more DTY's for Romania. They now have 3 in the junior ranks.
- Tyesha Mattis' double double. So unneccessary (skills are capped at E value) but awesome, great landing.
- Solid Russian beam. How very unusual! Great routines by Maria Kharenkova and Maria Bondareva.
- Andreea Iridon's beam. Love.
- Quality performances by Britain. Team gold, AA gold and silver, rings and pommel gold, parallel bars and floor silver in MAG, team silver, AA bronze and vault gold and bronze in WAG. Awesome! They could have done even better but they had some issues in WAG team finals.
- Maria Kharenkova's double arabian. Lovely and neat. Jury's still out on her double pike- sheep jump. She needs a B jump for that connection so your average leap won't do but the very nature of a sheep jump makes it slow. Maybe a double stag if that's a B? Any other suggestions?
- Martina Rizzelli on bars. Deserving bars champion. She's a new one on me and I really loved her swing and lightness.
- Emma Larsson's bounciness on floor. Great tumbles from her.
- Eythora Thorsdottir on floor. Because who can't be enthralled even from the way she walks on before saluting?
- Silvia Zarzu on floor. She looks better, more 'on'. Despite the loss of her much-loved floor music from last year (to me anyway) I really enjoyed her on this event.
- 2/3 hit routines for Eythora Thorsdottir on beam, and no falls! Her usual beam routine is almost guaranteed to have a fall. Nice 2.5 upgraded dismount too.
- The resurgence of Laura Jurca. She's been relagated to an alternate type but she really showed what she's made of at this competition. Sadly she wasn't great in the AA but did so well on the first day and in vault finals. Super DTY!

Not-so highlights

- The absence of Andreea Munteanu (hand surgery), Madalina Blendea (stomach issues), Enus Mariani (back problems) and Elizabet Vasileva (???).
- Tiebreakers. Particularly the AA one, a tiebreak for gold is extra unfair. Poor Kim Janas! Does everything with Olympic in the name employ tiebreakers?
- Falls, like Andreea Iridon on bars, Russians on bars, Silvia Zarzu on vault, Tutya Yilmaz' meltdown on bars in the AA and more.
- Russian steadiness on beam seeming to come at the cost of their bars. Even Viktoria Kuzmina was not great, short handstands, no upgrades. They do have good basics of course..
- Very harsh scoring, particularly on floor. Scores were also too close, which resulted in several ties.
- The livestream. Would not work on firefox, had to use Chrome. Way too much focus on the audience and on gymnasts after their routine. Nice variety of gymnasts shown but many of the top contenders had only 1 or 2 routines, or in the case of Maria Bondareva- none, shown.
- Super bouncy floor. This is the floor that was used a few times so far this year with numerous out of bounds, and will be used in Antwerp. There's getting used to a different floor and then there's a floor that is just too bouncy.

Best routines

Beam- Eythora Thorsdottir, EF
Floor- Ooh. Kim Janas, Emma Larsson or Eythora. 
Vault- Laura Jurca, EF
Bars- Martina Rizzelli, EF

Best leotards- Netherlands TF, Romania TF

A great competition, though marred by notable absences, falls and tiebreakers. Not the best competition for Russia and Romania though a valuable experience for them I think. What were your highlights? Has Eythora won over the masses yet?

Nothing else will embed! A pity she doesn't have the difficulty for gold but a silver is such a boost anyway for her most troublesome apparatus, and in front of a home crowd too.




 

The State of Russia

Part 3 of a 4 part series. You can read 'The State of China' here and 'The State of the US' here.

Russia, aside from Aliya Mustafina of course, had a pretty disappointing time in London last year and although they do have fabulous juniors in the pipeline they are clinging to their veterans facing into the new quad. So, after Russian Nationals and Euros with Universiade looming; where do they stand?

- First up is their main weapon, Aliya Mustafina. Aliya, the 2010 world champion, ACL comeback girl extraordinaire and the most medalled gymnast of the 2012 games continues to be the strongest gymnast they have as of now. Aliya has reworked her beam entirely with exciting new connections, it's definitely far from solid yet though it looked great at the Zakharova Cup. Even with a double tuck dismount she can reach 6.6 without the arabian and it can go higher if she upgrades when she needs to. That's the key to her longevity now- clever preservation; she has pulled out of all three floor event finals she qualified for so far this year, her choreography is still fairly underdeveloped and her bars are at a conservative 6.3- sans transition connections and her own dismount. What's clear is that she'll pull out all the stops when she needs to and not before. Underestimate at your peril, and try to avoid her ridiculously stalker fanbase! Aliya will almost certainly compete at Universiade, it will be most interesting to see how her beam has progressed.

- Viktoria Komova has not competed yet this year as she is out with a back injury. All is not lost, though she is not training at full intensity she apparently has nearly all of her skills back. She had less time coming back from injury leading up to both the 2011 worlds and the 2012 Olympics than she does now so remain optimistic that she'll come out all guns firing in time for worlds.

- Anastasia Grishina changed coaches last year after the Alexander Alexandrov shakeup. While she certainly hasn't hit every routine so far this year, her consistency record has gone way up, with beautifully hit beam routines in particular at Cottbus and Euros. This is in stark contrast to last year when it was practically impossible to find a routine where she did not meet the mat too early. What's perhaps most startling about her now is her confidence. This definitely isn't the same gymnast who balked about going up on beam last year in team finals and messed up a round-off shortly after. She looks very comfortable with her coach and her routines, even if she has hit the mat a few times. What's most important is to retain her consistency and add the difficulty back in gradually in time for worlds. It's almost sad that we are very unlikely to see her in AA finals this year if Viktoria Komova is healthy. But you just never know and winning AA and beam bronze is definitely a great boost to this beautiful gymnast.

Grishy. Copyright- Thomas Schreyer

- Ksenia Afanasyeva is a true veteran, with two Olympics under her belt. Not only is she continuing to train and competing as an all-around gymnast rather than dropping vault and bars but she is actually upgrading. As of now she has the second hardest floor routine yet competed this year, with significantly better execution than that of the most difficult. In a surprising twist as she is not known as a vaulter, she's training an amanar though she failed to land every single one she attempted at Euros in warmup. Word is her floor is not done yet and a video emerged of a full-twisting DLO. Another possible upgrade here could be a 3.5 twist as she finishes twisting very early in her triple full. It's rumoured that she will unleash a new floor routine later this year. Afan unfortunately does have an inconsistent streak and is unlikely to be able to surpass her teammates to compete AA, especially with a bars dismount that causes her endless trouble, but she is still a very important national team member as she is a major contender for the floor title this year and a strong contributor to team finals in the future. She will compete next at Universiade though she will drop bars for that competition.

- Maria Paseka, brought to London just to vault, has been busy getting her bars up to scratch. She competed well at Russian Nationals and her vaults looked better than they did last year, but unfortunately she finished dead last in the Euros vault final after crashing both vaults. Fortunately she managed to eke out a bronze on bars immediately after which will have gone some way to comfort her. If she can land her vaults this year then that's all she'll need to make her case for inclusion on the worlds team.

- Anna Dementyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Tatiana Nabieva in particular are the main gymnasts also gunning for a spot at Universiade. Anna remains as lovely and inconsistent as ever but has a very good chance of performing at Universiade. It's very unlikely that she would be trusted to compete at worlds. Ekaterina competed at the 2007 worlds (notoriously so) and the 2008 Olympics. While she is past her prime she can still knock out strong routines. Tatiana no longer does her named release but scores well on bars and vault all the same. Neither of these three are in contention for worlds etc. anymore I don't think but all are capable of netting high scores.

- I don't believe that this is Evgeniya Shelgunova's year. She of the infamous sheep-Pak has reportedly had issues with her back, which could explain the failure to improve her form. She is quite an asset on beam and floor as she is usually rock solid though not exactly beautiful to watch but very unlikely to stand out as a medal threat on any event in Antwerp. I expect her to feature next year in team situations.

- Alla Sosnitskaya could be a nice surprise this quad. She's quite powerful with a DLO and triple full on floor but what makes her special is her turn combinations, which she is training but did not compete at Russian Championships. Although she had issues with her landings when we saw her last, including a fairly disastrous double pike she has shown herself to be much better that that. She's another who is more useful in team situations and would complement a UB/BB specialist very well.

- Ekaterina Baturina has absolutely beautiful gymnastics but definitely needs upgrades to contend. I'd like to see her contend especially on floor in the future. She turned senior next year and thankfully has an assignment coming up- the Portugal World Cup where she will compete alongside Alla Sosnitskaya, Anna Rodionova and Anastasia Grishina.

- It's hard to know what stage Anna Rodionova, a 2012 senior, is at. She injured herself last year on bars in the team final at Stuttgart WC and we haven't seen much of her since. A very beautiful gymnast though unlikely to knock out huge difficulty I would think.

- There are 4 juniors who have quite a bit of hype being generated around them- Maria Kharenkova, Maria Bondareva, Anastasia Dmitrieva and Viktoria Kuzmina. The first and last are 2014 seniors and the other two are 2015. Of these the best all-arounders for the future are Anastasia and Maria Bondareva. Maria Kharenkova should be well up there, her bars are currently not up to the standard of the others and she's just slightly sloppier in form but exciting to watch, especially on her pet pieces of beam and floor. She looks like she could crank out a DTY sometime soon too. Viktoria is stunning to watch on bars and beam and has a 6.1 d-score on the former. She appears to have fallen on bars at her last meet, a friendly, but even so.Sadly, videos have not emerged from this meet. A bars/beam specialist to complement one or two of the others I think. She does not even have an FTY yet and while her floor is lovely the difficulty is beyond low, and comparable to the routine of the ridiculously adorable Varvara Zubova who is four years her junior. She did however place second in the AA in her category at Russian Junior Championships behind Maria Bondareva and placed first on bars and second on beam. The results of the friendly recently were interesting- Maria Bondareva came out on top again, but her scores were lower than Anastasia's with the sole exception of bars, and I believe Anastasia can definitely catch up there. Maria lived up to her reputation by adding golds on floor and beam to her AA first place at Junior Champs, while Anastasia received silver on beam and second on vault.

Kuzmina. Copyright- Stefan Wurzer

- You won't hear too much about Seda Tutkhalyan and Yevgeniya Zhukova but they could definitely be game changers. Seda in particular is of a much stockier and compact build than her fellow pixies and is consequently more powerful. Thankfully, she can point her toes too! She won the all-around in her category at Russian Junior Championships, and also won bars and vault, along with bronze on floor. Yevgeniya also looks like she could be a little powerhouse, she won vault in her category and was third on floor and beam, with a 4th place on bars too. She really came out of nowhere this year, vastly improved.

While talented juniors are definitely in the ranks, Russia are wisely holding on to their Olympic team, all five of whom are actively training and competing. This year their new seniors will not be a massive help, though I'd expect Evgeniya Shelgunova in particular to be an asset next year for team competitions. For the AA they have Aliya Mustafina, hopefully Viktoria Komova, Anastasia Grishina and probably Ksenia Afanasyeva too. Bars remain strong as ever, and even if Komova cannot do AA she can surely do bars. The strongest routines unsurprisingly belong to her and Aliya who are essentially guaranteed to be in the bars final at worlds if they are healthy and do not monumentally screw up. Anastasia Grishina is also very strong on bars and Maria Paseka has made great strides of improvement there too. Looking to the future, Maria Bondareva and Viktoria Kuzmina are glorious on bars, and some other juniors look promising also.

Floor belongs to Ksenia Afanasyeva who can hopefully stay consistent with her routine this year at worlds. Aliya is probably still their second best floor, and then a healthy Komova and an upgraded Grishina are very valuable too. I'd expect Bondareva, Kharenkova, Tutkhalyan and Zhukova to contribute high scores here also. Vault-wise they should have two amanars, and Afan is definitely training one. Aliya's DTY is rock solid and if she can at all clean up her legs in the second twist then it could outscore a Pasekamanar. Paseka is still quite an asset for vault alone, they don't have a huge number of vault specialists climbing the ranks just yet. Beam remains an issue though their use of new connections particularly in the case of Aliya and Afan is very heartening, despite numerous wobbles and falls plaguing this pair on this event. Komova also should boast a difficult routine in time, and Grishina hopefully can execute a more difficult routine while staying on the beam. Kuzmina, Kharenkova and Bondareva in particular stand out as ones to watch here.

The worlds team will most likely be some combination of the Olympic team. Who to leave at home though? If healthy then Aliya Mustafina and Ksenia Afanasyeva are locks. A fully restored Viktoria Komova would be too. Unfortunately for Anastasia Grishina, she's unlikely to take the fourth spot as she's not a medal threat without quite a few upgrades, and would be bumped out of AA and UB finals by her teammates unless by fluke. I would say Maria Paseka will take it.

Aliya Mustafina- AA, UB, (BB and FX attempts)
Viktoria Komova- AA, UB, BB
Ksenia Afanasyeva- FX, (BB attempt)
Maria Paseka- VT

Quite a strong team. Who do you think will be featuring on the horizon coming up to Rio? Favourite juniors? Can Grishina continue to stay on the beam and get her big chance soon?

Some video highlights after the jump..

News

I'm sure most have already heard this but just in case- Victoria Moors is training a laid-out double double, which she has just competed at Canadian Nationals. This is majorly exciting first because of how incredible it is, second because Victoria has very good execution in general on floor and thirdly because she is much more likely to be at worlds than Mykayla Skinner who also has one. Unfortunately, Victoria was below par otherwise and had a disastrous beam routine where she fell twice and lost connections and compositional requirements all over the place. She also significantly watered down vault and her floor aside from her new skill must have been watered down too since it only netted her a 5.1 difficulty value. This was also the case earlier in the year too, but then she came out in top form at American Cup. So I wouldn't worry unneccessarily about her yet.

Sure she's soft in the knees, but she has plenty of time to hone it and it's definitely not enough to declare it tucked.

Kaitlyn Hofland placed first in the AA qualifiers at Canadian Nationals, followed by Ellie Black and Maegan Chant. Talia Chiarelli placed fifth and was deliriously happy to make bars finals of all things. Here's Mihai Brestyan's reaction:

Source- gymnasticscoaching.com- @taliachi

Her twitter, like Catalina Ponor's, is endlessly entertaining. In the junior ranks, wunderkind Shallon Olsen was victorious. Hopefully with sharper form. Second and third were Aleeza Yu and Brianna Clark. You can find senior results here and the junior ones here. Note that a bonus system was applied in the junior rankings. Shallon Olsen has very high difficulty, particularly for her age, but not THAT high. Edit- Woops, posted AA qualifier results as final ones. Final results have not been confirmed yet, though it's known that Ellie Black won in senior and that the podium in junior was unchanged, even though Shallon Olsen fell three times. Victoria Moors withdrew from competition, and Heaven Latimer (she of the superb layout full and very strong floor) and Jordyn Pedersen were both out with injuries.

Andreea Munteanu has won the all-around at the Lugano Cup. You can find the results here. The order is vault, bars, beam and floor. Andreea's pet pieces are unsurprisingly beam and floor, though it's heartening to see her vault and bars score, especially her improvement on the latter. Her bars had (wait for it...) the highest e-score! Which is amazing given that she was in the presence of some very lovely Russians. As can be seen from the scores, third place Anastasia Dmitrieva is that bit bit better than the much more hyped second place Maria Bondareva on three out of four events. And I believe she can close the gap on bars in time; to me she is the best junior they have. Certainly, sixth place Viktoria Kuzmina is top notch on beam and bars..but there she'll stay as she does not even have an FTY yet and floor does not look to be her strength either. But bars/beam specialists are still highly valuable. Check out her bars d-score, she obviously fell but 6.1 topped the difficulty field by nearly a point. Even better, she has her own dismount, an arabian double layout no less! I'm really hoping for a video. Andreea Munteanu will compete alongside Andreea Iridon, Laura Jurca, Diana Teodoru, Silvia Zarzu and Madalina Blendea at the France V Romania juniors meet coming up soon. There are some videos here (one Italian, the rest Romanian).
  
Nadine Jarosch of Germany has sadly torn her ACL. This is ACL tear number four, the others are Mariya Livchikova, Gabby Jupp and Yvette Moshage. It's happening far too often. In more positive German news, Tabea Alt won the all-around at the recent German Junior Championships.

Here is the first look at how all-arounders are shaping up so far this year/quad. The difference in scoring must be taken into account; for example Yao Jinnan is in eighth place under a notoriously harsh scoring system whereas the top 3 in particular had the opposite. Jesolo is known to be harsh but that didn't really happen this year. Also I don't see Kyla Ross getting that close to a 60 with her difficulty in a fair competition.

The last segment of the Pro Gym Challenge airs tonight in the US. I for one have really enjoyed it. Retired gymnasts, college gymnasts etc. showing off excellent skills with a team spirit of camaraderie (except a certain US coach) and no pressure? Yes please! It's up on youtube and some parts won't embed which is messy. This awesome uploader uploads frequently so I'll link to the very first one here to make it easier to navigate.

Yulia Belokobylskaya of Russia has retired, at just 17. She won bronze on floor at Euros 2011 and helped with team silver at Worlds the same year. Unfortunately, she struggled quite a lot in the Olympic year. Hopefully she will be happy with whatever she decides to do.Edit- Yulia has entered the world of ballet and is already en pointe!

Natsumi Sasada won the all-around at the recent Japanese Nationals. She also had a strong meet at Jesolo this year after practically disappearing last year with injuries, so that's great to see. Not only is she back with a vengeance but she's brought her layout full mount with her! I was so sure it would have been ditched with the onset of puberty, it's great to be wrong sometimes. Second place went to veteran Yu Minobe who will compete at Universiade this year and third was Mai Murakami who would have won had she not fallen on beam. I have tried to give up hope in Mai, who performs quite strongly in Japan but nowhere near that internationally. But then I see a video of her huge smile during her floor routine and it's impossible to write her off. I still want her to win floor and the AA at worlds this year, however irrational that may be! Asuka Teramoto crashed her second pass and almost sat her first, which along with her vault difficulties is pretty worrying. These results will be coupled with those of the upcoming NHK Cup on June 8-9th in deciding their worlds team and East Asian Games team. As we saw last year, they don't hang around in deciding teams. Because this is a specialist worlds they won't just pick the top few all-arounders, but in this case I think it will serve them very well, though I'd like to replace Yu Minobe with Wakana Inoue..though the latter fell twice. Some videos after the jump; and the information as to how they will choose the team is there too (with thanks to an awesome source).

Quick round-up- update Gabby Jupp :(

Maria Bondareva has won the Russian Junior Championships AA. Interestingly, Viktoria Kuzmina qualified in first and Maria in third- there must have been mistakes by one or both over the course of the few days. I am seriously excited to see Viktoria Kuzmina's bars- she is doing a piked double front dismount! Not to mention the interior of her routine must be great too- she scored a 15 during qualifications.

Australian gymnast Maddie Leydin is reported to have a Counter Kim- Gienger combination on bars, verified at a recent camp. I can't find this information but she must be either a new senior or became one last year- she did compete at Pac Rims and Gymnix last year but both incorporate juniors so that's no help. Anyway, WOW! I'm definitely not up with the mechanics of gymnastics but a Counter-Kim strikes me as being incredibly difficult to release out of as it's one of those built-in dead hang releases, so this girl must be amazing. I can't wait to see a video. Other reports from the camp are intriguing- several girls have DTY's, another has a Tkachev-Gienger combination and there's lots of interesting floor work- Alexandra Eade has a double layout, tuck full-in AND a 1.5 tuck full-in and Maddie Leydin has a whip-double arabian. Thinking about the Counter-Kim-Gienger again and I don't think it can be a direct connection as they go from different directions. What's far more likely (if the word Marinich is not a mistake- please let it not be a mistake...) is that she does an uprise like Becky Downie or something similar in between, that would also make more sense given the enormous difficulty in connecting a Counter-Kim to anything dynamic.

TripleTwist have compiled a list of girls at and not at the latest camp. You can find it here. I'm really pleased to see Kennedy Baker, Elizabeth Price and Sarah Finnegan back in the mix as well as of course...McKayla Maroney! There's no way she's at camp if she doesn't have something of substance to show. She said in an interview a good few weeks back that she has successfully vaulted a Yurchenko (full?) so maybe by now she the amanar back. What's arguably more interesting is what she has to show on the other apparatus. Strange that she is more ready than Jordyn Wieber who did not have near as many injuries to come back from. Jordyn does look well on her way though, with a new skill in the works- sadly for those who want her to ditch her Weilers on bars it is a variation- a Weiler full. Fascinating to think she could get a named skill on her weakest piece, but she would be far from the first to do so. It's unfortunately not a surprise that Katelyn Ohashi isn't there as she had shoulder surgery just a few weeks ago. I'm interested to see beam and bars work from new elite Madison Kocian who has been held back in the past with injury- especially bars, if they have upgrades she could be very valuable as a complement to a powerhouse gymnast. And of course, also intrigued to know whether or not Mykayla Skinner has gained in consistency now that she has an ambitious floor routine and vaults (laid out double double, amanar and Cheng respectively).Update: It appears that McKayla Maroney pulled out of camp at the last minute. If so, I still think it's positive that she was supposed to go, she must have solid routines to show.

This is my favourite of Aly's dances. I think she's doing a great job of the ballroom dances but I'm more into this as it's quite obviously much more personal to her, as well as my not having a clue about ballroom dancing..except names really. LOOK at that leap at 4:00, I've never seen her do a leap that good. And the series right after it looked like it has better form than what she has usually shown in the past. The major part of the video is the choreography obviously, and not the gymnastics bits...it makes me very hopeful that she will do a floor routine at least at Classics next year choreographed by Mark Ballas, her partner (and Shawn Johnson's first time around). I wouldn't care if it just had back layout passes, it would be just so amazing to see her instil what she has learned into her dance. And it looks like she has learned a lot overall..starting with counting music which she stated herself..and more than likely, emoting and relating to music in sync.

Gabby Jupp's injury has been confirmed as a torn ACL. Devastating that she will out for about a year. Hopefully she can use this time like Aliya Mustafina did to build a spectacular bars routine on what is already a very promising foundation.

Catalina Ponor, Tommy Ramos, Marissa King and Ashanee Dickerson have been added to the Pro Gym Challenge roster. I mentioned this a while ago and I'm still excited about it..they're adding people by the day and the roster is very impressive now! As well as the above, Anna Pavlova, Oksana Chusovitina, Jade Barbosa, Jessica Lopez, Vanessa Zamarripa, Chellsie Memmel, Alyssa Pritchett, Noel Couch, Kat Ding and Jana Bieger will be there. The MAG side has bigger names too. This competition will have no routines, it is moreso a skill challenge which wouldn't be to everyone's taste but I find the format interesting. The competition takes place May 10-11th.

This is video of the week for me, (a bit old..) where Mykayla Skinner's coach states that Mykayla would have had the laidout double double named after her had she performed it at Jesolo/Chemnitz. Snort. I also found the high drama of the whole piece hilarious, it didn't seem like they were gearing up for a gymnast performing a skill (albeit a new, very impressive one) in her own gym, but rather a space launch of some sort. There is a lot of fuss on the gymternet over Mykayla's own arrogance but I don't like commenting on gymnasts on anything other than their own gymnastics, so I won't. I hope she doesn't end up in the 'bad personality' box in my head as that makes me unable to enjoy their routines no matter how great they are.

New Kids on the Block: Russia

Russia's best juniors will not begin turning senior until 2014. Only one stand-out turns senior next year. This of course gives Komova and Mustafina a greater chance to continue dominating! And for Paseka to continue, as vault could easily be an issue for the next quad.


Maria Bondareva

This tiny munchkin has superb elegance and extension. Not without errors, but she has a long way to go and improve overall as she does not turn senior until 2015. Another who is being paced very well. Beam is a stand-out event for her, but she has all the makings of a true all-arounder as even though bars are currently an issue for her, they don't look unfixable.

Her odd round-off technique may be what makes her landings out of control, hard to tell. Such expression and potential here.

Just fabulous. A real star on beam. I have seen better dismounts from her also.

It's usually her first release that does her in. I think when she grows a bit she might have a more fluid line also. Another apparatus full of potential for her, and I LOVE her shape on her pak, incredible.


Viktoria Kuzmina (reminds me of Viktoria Komova)

Viktoria will turn senior smack in the middle of the quad, 2014. She is strongest on beam and bars (Russia will be STACKED on beam next quad) but shows nice potential elsewhere too.

Really nice potential here, great energy

Even with a fall this is great to watch

Beautiful!


Yevgeniya Shelgunova

Yevgenia is the junior to watch who turns senior in 2013. Though she is not oustanding on one event, she is pretty strong on all four.

Very nicely done, choreography not great though

Hopefully she can become more confident in all of the skills she has checks on, makings of a very good beam here


Maria Kharenkova (Reminds me of..Mustafina! Serious makings of a champion here)

Maria is set to be one of the stars of the next quad, let's hope she can stay healthy! One of the very few new Russians who can execute a decent vault, which along with the rest of her high potential on other events make her very valuable. She will turn senior in 2014.

Awesome, great expression and command of her unusual choreography. Fabulous twister too.

Wonderfully floaty here

Fabulous long lines here and I love her piked transitions

Truly one who has it all. Lovely form and attack, and I am in LOVE with that spin.



Other Juniors of note: Daria Spiridonova, Yulia Tipaeva, Anastasia Dmitrieva
Next: Future stars of Romania