Central Federal District gymnasts Ekaterina Sokova and Angelina Melnikova were Russian team mates in Canada earlier this year, are now shining in their country's national championships
There was an outstanding performance from Voronezh's Angelina Melnikova, who will turn 16 in July 2016 and was a medallist at the recent Gymnix International Junior Cup. Melnikova scored a competition high 15.2 on beam, and also leads uneven bars and floor with scores of 14.8 and 14.537 respectively. Muscovite Seda Tutkhalyan delivered the highest vault score of 14.733.
Working under the Russian Junior code, Melnikova totted up an impressive all around score of 58.767. In second place came the powerful Seda Tutkhalyan with a score of 58. These scores represent a significant improvement over last year's competition where the winning total (Maria Bondareva) was 56. In Penza today, the top seven gymnasts cleared an all around total of 54, which only two gymnasts managed last year, perhaps suggesting more depth amongst this exciting up and coming generation. Third and fourth places were taken by Anastasia Dmitrieva and Daria Mikhailova.
These junior gymnasts will now look forward to the junior all around competition on Friday, and event finals on Sunday. Complete results can be found at the Russian Gymnastics Federation's website, http://www.sportgymrus.ru/Admin/GetFile.ashx?get=1&id=43137.
Team competition result
1 Central Federal District 267.966
2 Moscow 263.534
3 Volga General District 256.567
4 St Petersburg 251.266
Leading vault scores (do not know if gymnasts performed one or two vaults so order for qualification may change)
1. Seda Tutkhalyan 14.733
2. Angelina Melnikova. 14.167
2= Anastasia Dmitrieva 14.167
4. Elena Eremina 14.1
5. Daria Mikhailova 13.9
Leading bars scores
1. Angelina Melnikova 14.8
2. Seda Tutkhalyan 14.533
3. Daria Skrypnik 14.5
4. Ekaterina Sokova 14.1
5. Elena Eremina 14.033
Leading beam scores
1. Angelina Melnikova 15.2
2. Seda Tutkhalyan 14.567
3. Maria Bondareva 14.033
4. Elizaveta Kochetkova 13.767
5. Ekaterina Sokova 13.7
Leading floor scores
1. Angelina Melnikova 14.567
2. Anastasia Dmitrieva 14.267
3. Seda Tutkhalyan 14.167
4. Elena Likhodolskaya 14.133
5. Maria Bondareva 14.033
Leading all around scores
1. Angelina Melnikova. 58.767
2. Seda Tutkhalyan. 58
3. Anastasia Dmitrieva. 55.368
4. Daria Mikhailova. 54.633
5. Ekaterina Sokova. 54.5
6. Elena Eremina 54.4
7. Maria Bondareva. 54.399
Please comment if you see any errors! I have spent a good hour poring over these results, till I am almost cross-eyed :-)