Aliya Mustafina confirmed her dominance of the Universiade today, winning gold in the all around competition with a competent, if not full powered performance, understandable considering she had left hospital only a few days ago.
The victory was certainly not assured. After vault, Ksenia Afanasyeva was in the lead. Mustafina, predictably, pulled ahead by two points with an accomplished bars routine culminating in a very strong dismount, but then dropped off beam after a double turn. So it was left to Afanasyeva to win the title on beam and floor, her strongest pieces. But the veteran of two Olympics could not assert herself, making three major errors, failing to complete moves and combinations in the process, to score a competition low for her of 13.15. So after the third rotation Mustafina still led the competition, with Afanasyeva a disappointing third at that stage - and needing her best floor routine to claw back the silver.
She did not disappoint. That floor routine of Afanasyeva was to be the highlight of the all around competition. She does not perform the complex choreography any more - the Code has more or less made that irrelevant to the sport anyway - but what this gymnast does do, she does with beauty, great energy and huge complexity. Her double straight somersault, and her two whips to triple twist, take my breath away. She tumbled as well as I have seen for what seemed like a stingey mark of 15, and brought a unique grace to the name of power tumbling.
Mustafina closed out the competition with what seemed a rather tired floor exercise, bereft of the lofty leap after the opening double arabian and missing the final pose. She avoided major errors, though, and won the all around. Once again the Muscovite came first in 2013, and Afanasyeva was left standing on the sidelines, wondering about what might have been had she been less nervous on the beam ...
Did you miss the live streaming? The competition is archived and available for viewing here.
Ksenia Afanasyeva - floor routine
Full results are available here.
