"She worked at an incredible pace!" Judge Olga Churakova talks about Ksenia Savinova's performance at the Russian Junior Championship

Olga Churakova, apparatus difficulty judge, shared her impressions of the performances of the juniors at the tournament in Kazan:

"Our juniors are doing well, especially our leaders. I was surprised, in a good way, because it was performed at such a high level and at such high speed. This requires practice, of course. It's very difficult to achieve clean execution at speed. But our gymnasts, our leaders, managed it. They mastered one skill after another, one difficulty after another. And it looked very impressive and beautiful."

She noted the program of Ksenia Savinova from Gatchina with clubs, as well as the artistry of Yana Zaikina from Volgograd:

"Ksenia Savinova captivated me on clubs. She worked the apparatus at such an incredible pace, and she, in particular, made the apparatus difficult very quickly and with great quality. Yana Zaikina. She captivated me with her artistry. She's simply an incredible girl; she feels music so well, she expresses its character so well."

The specialist also spoke in detail about the criteria for assessing the difficulty of the subject:

"Gymnasts competing in the Candidate Master of Sport program, also known as junior gymnasts, must have twelve apparatus difficulties in each routine. These difficulties are worth three-tenths of a point. However, if a gymnast performs a high throw and catches it, she receives four-tenths. And if she performs boomerangs in the ribbon, she also receives four-tenths. The main thing is for the gymnast to perform as many correctly as possible, so the judges can count her score. For an apparatus difficulty to be counted, for example, she needs to perform a 360-degree rotation of the body or in the clubs; for example, the rotation on a small throw must also be 360 degrees. If a gymnast wants to receive four-tenths for a catch on a high throw, she must throw the apparatus as high as possible, so that the throw height equals twice the gymnast's height."