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 Aliya Mustafina led the Russian women to their first-ever team title Wednesday evening at the world gymnastics championships in Rotterdam. Left to right: Yekaterina Kurbatova, Mustafina, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Anna Dementyeva, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Ksenia Semyonova. The Russian women survived disaster on uneven bars to win their first world team title Wednesday, narrowly defeating the defending champion U.S. women at the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam. New star Aliya Mustafina calmly led Russia to victory after her teammates came unglued on uneven bars in the second rotation of the team final: first-up Anna Dementyeva missed her Tkatchev (13.366), and Tatiana Nabiyeva fell twice for the lowest score of the entire night on bars (12.933). But Russia rebounded with three hit beam routines. First-up Ksenia Semyonova celebrated her 18th birthday by delivering a clutch performance. Russia put up five more solid routines on balance beam and floor exercise to secure the title in wake of mistakes from the U.S. and China. The U.S. hit seven of eight routines, and took the top team total on balance beam. The U.S. had their only major break in the third rotation, when Mattie Larson left out a key skill and fell on her double pike dismount on floor exercise (12.533). After Olympian Alicia Sacramone anchored vault with 15.600, the U.S. gymnasts had to wait and watch for last-up Mustafina's score to come up. Mustafina stepped out of bounds on her last pass, raising the U.S. team's chances. Needing a score of 14.465, Mustafina scored 14.666 for the win. It's the first world team title for the Russian women, who were second in 1997, 1999 and 2001, and third in 1994 and 2006. The Russian gymnasts dedicated their gold medal to the late Yuri Ryazanov, who died in a car accident one year ago, days after winning the all-around bronze at the 2009 Worlds. 2008 Olympic champion China took third after errors on uneven bars from Jiang Yuyuan and Huang Qiushuang and on beam from Sui Lu. Despite the mistakes, the Chinese led after three rotations, thanks to big scores from world champions He Kexin on uneven bars and Deng Linlin on balance beam. The team performed cleanly on floor exercise, but a lower level of difficulty let the U.S. vault past them by a few tenths. Fourth-place Romania performed consistently but lacked the difficulty to challenge the top teams. Japan placed fifth, matching its performance in Beijing. Australia, Great Britain and Italy rounded out the eight teams in the final. Competition continues Thursday evening with the men's team final. 2010 World Gymnastics Championships
Comments (13)
koki
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yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay So happy for them Go Russia and God Musty in AA You are the new star of gymnastics    |
stewie
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Japan Good for Japan ... the countries are definitely moving around in the standings ... where did France & Ukraine go  |
me
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2nd again well it isn't first but it's better than third certainly. is anyone else tired of seeing the US finish second??? Always the bridesmaid, to Romania is 2004, China in 2008, and now Russia in 2010...the top teams rotate around us and, true we are consistent, but we seem to lack the spark in our bums to get the job done |
Tanya
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... MOLEDTSI DEVOCHKI!!!!! That was a crazy final. It is sad to see so many falls but it did make it a close contest. For Russia to win with three falls shows you how far ahead they are. And just wait for Komova! The other countries won't have a chance. |
Gabriela
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Yaaay! Finally!  Congratulations to the Russian team! Well deserved! And what a great gesture to dedicate their victory to Ryazanov... Can't believe it's been a year already...  |
Miguel
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... yeahhhhhh Russia, now we have to see komova, Belobiskaya, Grishina, Sidorova joint the team wow.....they will be amazing |
TripleFull
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Congrats to Russia -- but man ... soo many falls!! There is some great gymnastics out there, but no team should walk away from the World Championships too cocky. Everybody counted falls. There is definitely some cleaning to do in the next 2 years. By the way, if you watched it on Universal Sports -- didn't you hate the travelling camera? Seldom do I agree with all, but he was right -- DIZZY. Why can't the cameras show passes from the side and bars from the side. Zooming in on gymnasts faces during skills, you can't appreciate what they are doing. NBC has a LONG way to go with its TV coverage. I can turn down/off the announcers, but the camera shots were AWFUL!!! |
Vicki
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... Fair result. I am glad Russia finally managed to brace itself after slip-ups, instead of melting down again. I hope Mustafina manages to stay consistent; it's so nice to see a combo of power and grace (just like Pavlova who unfortunately was doomed by mistakes and bad luck). The US did a good job -- beating a strong Chinese team. To whoever complained about that: silver is an excellent result; you can strive for gold but have to realize it's extremely difficult to achieve. |
Francesca
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... I'm very happy for Russia, they had a rough start but then they were great! It was really a nice final to watch and I can't wait to see those gymnast in the all around final!!! |
briohnyg
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... Hooray for Russia! I'm so excited they won. I'm so happy they're back to doing beautiful, classic Russian gymnastics again. |
Ely
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... I'm so sorry for the chinese gymnast who fell off the balance beam! One more point and China was first! I'm worried for her safety!! But I'm so happy for russian gymnasts! I love them!  |
K
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Wonderful Yes, it was so wonderful that they dedicated the gold to Ryazanov! It was actually exactly a year since he died too - Oct. 20th. |
