The winning team in Montreal! Clockwise from top left : Daria Skrypnik, Anastasia Ilyankova, Angelina Melnikova, Ekaterina Sokova, Ksenia Semyonova
Russia's newly blossoming youngsters scored a win in Montreal this weekend by taking the team gold in the International Gymnix Junior Cup, by a narrow margin over hosts Canada. A tightly contested all around saw Angelina Melnikova take silver and Daria Skrypnik take fourth. Canada's Woo Rose-Kaying took the gold medal, and her compatriot Olson Shallon bronze.
These are excellent results for such tender flowers in one of their earliest international competitions and I look forward to seeing the girls as they grow and develop their skills. Certainly, they must have the motivation to continue strongly into today's event finals, where at least one gymnast has qualified to every final, and all team members will compete (Vault - Skrypnik, Bars - Melnikova and Skrypnik, Beam - Ilyankova and Sokova, Floor - Skrypnik and Melnikova).
It is worth adding that Daria Skrypnik suffered what is for her an uncharacteristic fall on beam - and would have won the all around with a perfect showing. Gymnastics is full of ifs and buts, I know, but this information paints a picture of a relatively strong up and coming all arounder.
Ekaterina Sokova's floor : http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fNF1ziiKGYA
Daria Skrypnik's floor : http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8YokB0L8q4
Angelina Melnikova's floor at a recent Russian competition http://youtu.be/QXYvURQMTE8
Anastasia Ilyankova's beam : http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1n_YrJQ-3j8
Quick hit routine descriptions are available at the International Gymnix Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/pages/LInternational-Gymnix/171920412824114?ref=ts&fref=ts
Full results are also available at Gymnix's main website http://internationalgymnix.ca/fr/
Apparatus scores are available here : http://ww2.sinaimg.cn/mw1024/9d9bf83djw1ee9cmhp15dj20re0h6gpz.jpg
Anyone waiting for EF scores - the website still hasn't been updated (10.00 pm London time) but here is a link to the relevant page, so you can check if you are waiting. I am told that the Russian girls won a few medals :-). http://internationalgymnix.ca/fr/resultats/resultats-2014/dimanche-9-mars-2014/
Angelina Melnikova. Born 18th July 2000. Trains in Voronezh under coach S Denisovich
Daria Skrypnik. Born 4th October 2000. Trains in Krasnodar under coach M Pletinetskaya
Ekaterina Sokova. Born 12th December 2000. Trains in Vladimir under coach A Kulikova
Anastasia Ikyankova. Born 12th January 2001. Trains in Leninsk-Kuznetsk under coach S Kisilev
