2021 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships: Live Webcast of the Group Finals, October 31, 2021
Andrey Shitikhin
Let’s take stock of the past World Championship.
Agree, it turned out to be interesting! The Russian national team won seven out of nine gold medals (plus four silver and two bronze silver). Dina Averina became the most titled gymnast in the history of the world championships with 18 gold medals. She is the only four-time absolute world champion in history. Belarusian Alina Gornosko with ribbon and the Italian national team in exercises with hoops and clubs. And all this is very interesting before the next world championship, which will be held under the new rules.
That’s all. Rhythmic gymnastics after the Olympics, albeit due to the scandal, became very popular. Let it also be competitive by all the rules.
Andrey Shitikhin
Is the victory of the Italians sensational? Of course not. The Italian gymnasts were just a team, showing many complex synchronized elements. And our girls are great, they fought to the last. But also a little lucky. Three national teams fit into 0.1 points at once – Russia, Japan and China.
Andrey Shitikhin
Italy beat Russia in the last World Cup
It remains to congratulate the Italian team on a beautiful and very convincing victory. The Russian national team is the second, the Japanese team is the third.
Andrey Shitikhin
The Russian national team lost to the Italian national team in the last event of the program. 40,950 is just 0.05 more than Japan and much less than Italians. But it is impossible to say something about the judges here. The Russians did not go without losses, they were not always synchronous.
Andrey Shitikhin
The Italian national team received 42,275 points! This is a benchmark for the Russian national team. The Italians performed almost flawlessly. It will be difficult for our girls.
Andrey Shitikhin
Only 0.05 divided China and Japan. The Chinese team received 40,850 for their performance. Most likely, the coaches of the Chinese national team will file a protest against the assessment.
Andrey Shitikhin
So far the leader is the Japanese national team – 40,900. But the Japanese women also did not go without mistakes. This estimate is much lower than in the all-around.
Andrey Shitikhin
And almost without a break, the last final at the 2021 World Cup began. The national teams of Spain and Belarus showed their programs with three hoops and two pairs of clubs. But the scores are not very high – one difficulty was not enough, the other had errors.
Andrey Shitikhin
Russia took gold in the ball exercise!
The Russian national team won the gold medal in the exercise with five balls! Our girls were the first to perform, showed an excellent program and were 0.4 points ahead of Italy in the aggregate. The Japanese national team is the third. Italians and Japanese women protested their grades.
Andrey Shitikhin
The Italians filed a protest against the score, and the judges added 0.1 points to the result after the revision. But this is not enough to bypass the Russian national team. And the Chinese national team received 42,450 for their performance – this is the fifth place.
Andrey Shitikhin
Great program of Italian women. There are a lot of interesting elements that only they do. And a score of 45,500 – they are second. The Italian team lost only 0.5 points to our girls, but still lost.
Andrey Shitikhin
The national team of Belarus is still in an intermediate third place. They have 44,100. But the assessment of the Japanese national team has been revised – 44,500.
Andrey Shitikhin
The Japanese national team with its most difficult program could compete with the Russians, but not everything was done cleanly – 44,100. So far, the hosts of the World Cup are in second place.
Andrey Shitikhin
Well, great performance of our girls! Fans of the Russian national teams on the carpet shouting “Come on, girls!”, And they gave “Polovtsian Dances”. Anastasia Bliznyuk, Polina Orlova, Angelina Shkatova, Alisa Tishchenko and Maria Tolkacheva received 46,000! Excellent mark, albeit slightly less than for the same program in the all-around.
Andrey Shitikhin
The teams are already ready to show their exercises with five balls. The Russian national team will appear on the carpet as the first of eight finalists.
Andrey Shitikhin
We believe that after individual exercises our gymnasts will be the same as after the all-around.
Andrey Shitikhin
I would like that after today’s performances there were no comments about the refereeing, as it was in the past days.
Stop talking about refereeing! Who is to blame for the stricken Russian gymnast artists?
Andrey Shitikhin
Let us recall the list of participants in today’s finals:
Five balls (11:30 Moscow time): Russia, France, Azerbaijan, Japan, Belarus, Italy, China, Brazil
Hoops / clubs (12:20 Moscow time): Russia, Spain, Belarus, Japan, Azerbaijan, China, Ukraine, Italy
Andrey Shitikhin
The day before, Dina Averina became the most titled gymnast in the history of the world championships, breaking the record of Evgenia Kanaeva.
Andrey Shitikhin
Recall that in Kitakyushu, the Russian national team has won five gold medals out of six played at the moment. However, six out of seven can be counted, since the Russian gymnasts became the winners of the team tournament ahead of schedule.
Andrey Shitikhin
Today’s finals will start at 11.30 am. And the main question, perhaps, is whether the Russian national team will be able to win two gold medals? In the group all-around, everything was not so simple; in the exercise with hoops and clubs, the teams of Italy and Japan performed splendidly. The higher the competition, the more interesting, isn’t it?