Stuttgart, Sept 8, 2015: Russia struck quickly as finals at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships began Tuesday night in Stuttgart (GER). Superstar Yana Kudryavtseva won the World title with the Ball for the second consecutive year, while teammate Margarita Mamun took gold with the Hoop.
Seventeen-year-old Kudryavtseva, the undisputed queen of Rhythmic Gymnastics for the past two years, continued the domination she showed at the 2013 and 2014 Worlds. In spite of a slight mishap on a catch with the Ball, the judges awarded the “Angel with Iron Wings” the highest note of the evening on either apparatus (19.025 points).
That score put her a hair over Mamun, 20, who had to settle for silver by a margin of only 0.025 (19.000). Veteran Melitina Staniouta (BLR) won bronze for the second year in a row (18.350).
Kudryavtseva, who has won the World All-around title at the past two World Championships, chose to sit out the Hoop competition this year to keep from aggravating a leg injury. That left the field open for her Russian teammates, Mamun and rising starAleksandra Soldatova, 17.
With the highest scores in both difficulty and execution (18.950 points total), Mamun was the big winner in the Hoop final, pocketing her sixth World title and first with the Hoop.
In her first-ever individual World final, Soldatova won the silver (18.650), a few tenths ahead of Ganna Rizatdinova (UKR), who won the World title with the Hoop in 2013 (18.583).
Russia ended the first day of finals with four medals, two gold and two silver.
The Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships continue Wednesday with the first day of qualifications with the Clubs and Ribbon. Finals for both apparatus will be held Thursday evening. Please find full results of the competition on the FIG website. —- FIG
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