Happy Friday, dear readers!
Today was an exciting competition of twists and turns in the junior men’s all-around final in the Master of Sport category. The competition was particularly eventful where the rankings changed quite a bit from qualification.
The only thing that didn’t change was Valentin Starikov’s dominance where he was the top qualifier and managed to maintain his lead for the win today. He showed great steadiness and consistency across all six pieces for an easy victory. A standout from last year’s European Youth Olympic Festival in Utrecht, Starikov will be the top new senior to watch for on next year’s squad.
After a rough qualification day in sixth place, Tomsk’s Kirill Potapov rallied through to second place in today’s final where he also showed great consistency. He also received one of the highest pommel horse scores of the all-around final (14.500) that propelled him near the podium.
Maintaining his third place finish from qualification was Nikita Nagorny from Rostov-on-Don. Today he scored a bit less overall from qualification especially on his weaker events, but he easily achieved the top marks on floor (14.500) and vault (14.866). At this point, he seems to be following in the footsteps of the powerful Denis Ablyazin having the same strengths on floor, vault, and rings.
Unfortunately for one of Russia’s biggest stars, Artur Dalaloyan, things didn’t go as planned. The stylish and outgoing Dalaloyan suffered major disasters on floor (10.600) and parallel bars (11.700) to leave him in seventh place. Surely a disappointing finish for the young Muscovite who was second in qualification and has been the main rival to Valentin Starikov for some time. On a brighter note, Dalaloyan took the highest score on rings (14.466) and will hope to bounce back in event finals.
Master of Sport All-Around Final
1. Valentin Starikov 85.066
2. Kirill Potapov 84.866
3. Nikita Nagorny 83.499
4. Sergei Yeltsov 82.699
5. Viktor Britan 82.466
Detailed results:
http://sportgymrus.ru/Admin/GetFile.ashx?get=1&id=45498
Competition continues tomorrow, April 12, with the senior men’s team final and event finals for both levels on Sunday, April 13. In event finals, the senior men will start on floor and the juniors Master of Sport will start on pommel horse.
Readers - please bear with me as I catch up with some blogging from last week after some down time. Nico sent me this piece in good time, directly after the final!