Thoughts on Russia Nationals (MUSTAFINA'S RETURN!) :)

With Russian Nationals winding up, and with it being the big olympic year, I thought I would share my thoughts on the competition.

With the conclusion of the competition, my guess would be that Alla Sosnitskaya and Tatiana Nabieva are out of the running for the olympics this summer. Rodioneko has already said that 4 gymnasts are already locks for the games this year (Aliya Mustafina, Maria Paseka, Ksenia Afansyeva, and Viktoria Komova). Although, after the meet this weekend, I think that Ksenia Afansyeva's (who only seems to hit her routines one week out of the whole year) spot might be up in the air for now. Viktoria Komova missed the meet due to back pain but has shown strong performances all over youtube. Maria Paseka managed to hit a bar routine but fell on both of her vaults. However, she still managed a 14 flat with falls so I don't think that she is out of Rio contention. Aliya Mustafa proved that she is still in the running for the olympics. She proved herself with a 15.333 bar routine and she almost has her full difficulty back there. On beam, she has yet to find a series that'll work. For now, she just does sissone to front aerial to side aerial which looks a little unconfident. However, she still managed a 14.4 on that event. She only competed those two events this weekend. Angelina Melinkova is really making a name for herself on this strong Russian team scoring a 60+ all around score and winning the senior all around. She could take that last spot on the Russian olympic team. Also in contention for the team is Seda Tutkhalyan who is actually starting to hit her beam routines again taking second all around with a 58.266 (even with a fall on bars). Maria Kharenkova finished in 3rd with clean routines just lacking difficulty. So at this point here is an idea of who I think could contribute to the Russian team (with lots of depth) in a olympic games type of format (modified 5 compete):


* Sorry that I had two people for some of them. :(

VAULT:
Ksenia Afansyeva
Viktoria Komova
Aliya Mustafina
Maria Paseka
Seda Tutkhalyan

BARS:
Maria Paseka
Daria Spiridinova
Viktoria Komova
Aliya Mustafina
Angelina Melinkova or Daria Skrypnik

BEAM:
Aliya Mustafina
Evgenyia Shelgunova
Angelina Melinkova
Seda Tutkhalyan
Viktoria Komova or Maria Kharenkova

FLOOR:
Ksenia Afansyeva (maybe)
Aliya Mustafina
Seda Tutkhalyan
Maria Kharenkova
Angelina Melinkova

So, based on that, this is how many times each gymnast was counted:

Ksenia Afansyeva: 2
Viktoria Komova:3
Aliya Mustafina: 4
Maria Paseka: 2
Seda Tutkhalyan: 3
Daria Spiridinova: 1
Angelina Melinkova: 3
Daria Skrypnik: 1
Evgenyia Shelgunova: 1
Maria Kharenkova: 2

I'm not going to make a prediction for this team yet just because there is so much depth and the olympics are still a few months away. Anyway, thanks for reading this article! :) Stay tuned for more olympic prediction type articles and my live blog tonight for Pacific Rims. Also, full results can be found by clicking right here. Thanks again! And comment down below who you think will make the team...

Photo via Getty Images. Aliya Mustafina perfroms a wolf jump on the balance beam at the 2013 World Gymnastics Championships. :)

Lastly, below are Aliya's bars and beam routines from this years nationals.