Russian Cup: Belyavskiy Takes All-Around Title

David Belyavskiy from Yekaterinburg won the all-around title at the 2012 Russian Cup in Penza today. The 19-year-old scored 89.131 points to take the gold ahead of Sergei Khorokhordin (87.997) and Igor Pakhomenko (87.932). Belyavskiy looked stronger and more confident than at the recent European Championships in Montpellier but still struggled with his vault, landing the Tsukahara double pike on his knees. His other events did not provide much trouble for Belyavskiy, including a 15.166 on parallel bars (steps on his double front pike dismount) and a 15.066 on floor (a few hops on landings). Like many gymnasts, Belyavskiy opted to use a crash mat for his roll-out skills. He opened his competition with a very solid effort on high bar with an adler half to Tkachev, adler full to Yamawaki and full-twisting double layout dismount.

2008 Olympian Sergei Khorokhordin missed his grip on a turn on high bar but got away with a severe leg bend and an extra swing. He also included a Tkachev-Tkachev to mixed grip combination and a Kolman.  Solid elsewhere, he trailed Belyavskiy by six tenths going into his final event, parallel bars, and took a large step forward on his double pike. Third placed Igor Pakhomenko started his competition with a fall on floor but redeemed himself with the highest score on high bar (15.0/layout Jaeger full, layout double-double dismount) and a 14.800 on pommel horse. Strong on floor, rings and vault, the Russian team looks to have weaknesses on high bar and pommels. Pakhomenko is surely a candidate to fill the gaps. Nikita Ignatev took the Russian national all-around title this spring but was not part of the team that made the trip to the European Championships. At the Russian Cup he has so far failed to make a major impact, finishing sixth after a disaster on pommel horse with two falls.

Even though it was an all-around competition, the specialists competed on their events a second time. Alexander Balandin continued to impress not only with his rings but his relative usefulness on parallel bars and even pommel horse. Denis Ablyazin has shown remarkable consistency in his high risk vault and floor (though his marathon routine is always in danger of going overtime) as well as rings. He tried high bar again today – and fell again. Twice – both times on Weiler kips.Konstantin Pluzhnikov has the misfortune of being an excellent rings worker in a team of excellent rings workers. He has parallel bars and pommel horse to offer as his other events and was outscored by Balandin on all three events.

With Emin Garibov, Denis Ablyazin and Alexander Balandin looking to be locks for this team, the search for the two remaining gymnasts and the alternates goes on.

The competition at the Russian Cup continues tomorrow with the women’s all-around at 4:30 pm local time.

Russian Cup Men’s All Around Final

Full results