The Russian women win Russia's first ever World Team title at the 2010 World Championships women's team finals in the Ahoy arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands. They are coached by Alexander Alexandrov, who got the call to return from the USA to Russia to coach the girls. New on the scene Aliya Mustafina, nicknamed 'the diva' and compared to Svetlana Khorkina, led Russia to victory, nearly flawless, no big mistakes just small balance checks, etc., but the Russians had 3 falls on bars, their second rotation. First up on bars Anna Dementyeva missed her Tkatchev release move (13.366 on bars), and Tatiana Nabiyeva fell twice (12.933 - lowest score on bars of the night). Aliya stepped out of bounds on her last tumbling pass, but she scored 14.666 for the win, 0.2 above the USA team. The Russian gymnasts dedicated their gold medal win to Yuri Ryazanov. Russia made mistakes during the prelims too, though they were leading then too (scores don't carry over, but all teams comete with a blank slate). China had falls on beam and bars, USA had a fall on floor. It was a pretty 'messy' World Championships...survival of the fittest...but in the end, Russia's difficulty value/skills was so high they were able to keep the gold - if they hit all their routines (team finals are 3 up, all 3 count), they would be points ahead - even if all the other teams hit, instead of the .2 they were ahead of the USA women's team. For example, Russia had 2 of the girls performing yurchenko 2 1/2 twists. Russia hit all three beam routines and then hit three more solid rouitnes in their final rotation, floor. USA's Mattie Larson had a major fall on her floor double pike dismount, falling on her knees and hands (12.533 floor), but there were mistakes everywhere - the .2 points that the Russian women edged over the USA women could have been scored extra by any of the gymnasts...though you could tell in Mattie's interview with John McCready that she was upset about the fall. Mattie said her teammates told her to breathe and not rush it, but she thinks she rushed her last tumbling pass because she was excited so much to be at Worlds. Best to just brush it off, messing up on a tumbling pass or other gymnastics move happens when you're not a machine - it can happen then too, actually. Alicia Sacramone did a great job at a first major competition since announcing her comeback from the 2008 Beijing Olympics. If anyone knows what it's like to feel like your mistake cost the team the win, it would be her - her fall on beam and mitake on floor at the Beijing Games - though the USA wouldn't win over China at the Olympics if you calculate the points, still a 'perfect' stuck routine with no major mistakes would put the pressure to be 'perfect' on China, so that could have changed their performace. As Alicia said in her interview after the Worlds competition, she has had a love-hate relationship with beam. This time around, Alicia didn't fall on her front tuck mount on beam, though she landed kind of low and a bit tilted, she was determined to stay on the beam. She almost fell on her front tuck on beam, one foot was off, but it was like her feet were glued on the beam. Great job A-Sac and her coach, Mihai! Alicia anchored the vault with a 15.6. Her teammate Alexandra Raisman who also trains at Brestyan's American Gymnastics with Mihai, also had a great meet, no nerves to get in the way. Her strengths like Alicia are also floor and vault. 2008 Olympic champion China won the team bronze. Jiang Yuyuan and Huang Qiushuang both had errors on bars - He Kexin had her usual big score on bars with her awesome release move on the high bars. Sui Lu had a fall on beam right at the top of her routine, but Deng Linlin offset the low score with her high scoring beam routine. The high scores put them in second place above the USA after the third rotation, but their floor difficulty (though performed cleanly) wasn't high enough compared to USA's last rotation, vault. 2010 World Gymnastics Championships Oct. 20, Rotterdam, the Netherlands Women's Team Final VT UB BB FX Total 1.Russia - 45.766(1) 41.899(7) 43.733(2) 43.999(1) 175.397 2.United States - 45.666(2) 44.065(2) 43.799(1) 41.666(6) 175.196 3.China - 44.666(3) 44.316(1) 42.566(4) 43.233(2) 174.781 4.Romania - 44.266(4) 42.232(6) 43.532(3) 43.066(3) 173.096 5.Japan - 43.066(7) 43.633(3) 42.232(5) 40.966(7) 169.897 6.Australia - 43.499(6) 42.533(5) 40.598(6) 41.999(5) 168.629 7.Great Britain - 43.732(5) 42.699(4) 37.632( 42.765(4) 166.828 8.Italy - 41.965( 41.032( 39.666(7) 40.766( 163.429 Left to right: Yekaterina Kurbatova, Aliya Mustafina, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Anna Dementyeva, Ksenia Afanasyeva and Ksenia Semyonova. (photo via IG)