The Russian girls have achieved their aim of qualifying for Rio, the main objective of the World Championships this year. I think it is true to say that they performed somewhat better than expected. At present the team leads vault, bars and beam but is in sixth place on floor ... Russia has to begin to address its problems there, but that is a longer term issue and the girls should be pleased with how they performed overall.
Paseka and Tutkhalyan are in first and third places respectively on vault; Spiridonova, Komova and Paseka occupy the first three places on bars; Komova, Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova are in 2nd, 3rd and 4th on beam and on floor Afanasyeva is in 2nd. But to illustrate Russia's lack of depth there, their next gymnast is Paseka, 22nd.
Young Seda Tutkhalyan avoided major errors in her first senior competition and has clearly qualified to the AA final in 2nd. But for Spiridonova a place in the competition is in doubt - 11th place so far with many other teams still to compete both today and tomorrow.
Russia has done well considering their own self doubts and has shown that they can hold a competition together. I do not know what will happen in the highly pressured all-or-nothing finals. It all matters so much less now the team knows they will be in Rio, everything else they can achieve will be a bonus. I think they may well come home with a better overall performance than last year - they have to do their best, for Aliya.
Sadly, it is almost certain that Romania will need to go to the test event to qualify for Rio as a team. If they don't make it, it would be the first time in my memory that an Olympics took place without the birthplace of Nadia Comaneci being represented. Romania really missed the moral boost of Ponor, who is injured, and a late injury to Ocolisan tore the heart out of them. Surely we will see a comeback from these spirited girls soon.
We will have to wait and see now what the final positions are.