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Aliya Mustafina: The comeback is on!

Aliya Mustafina fans can heave a sigh of relief: The 2010 World champion's knee and Olympic hopes are intact following her comeback performance Friday at the Voronin Cup in Moscow, her hometown.

Mustafina, who tore her ACL at the European Championships on April 8, showed an extremely impressive level of difficulty in her first meet in seven months, given that the knee injury prevented her from training floor or vault for several months.

Mustafina finished sixth all-around after a fall on beam, and though she displayed less difficulty than she's had in the past (or than she looks capable of even now), there is no doubt this performance was a great leap forward.

On floor, Mustafina opened with a double tuck, then followed through with a triple twist, 1.5 to front layout full and ended the routine with a 2.5 twist. Notable was the emphasis put on bending her knees on the first and last passes.

Her vault was a Yurchenko full that looked like it could easily become a double if not an Amanar, and her barwork was standard Mustafina, minus a half twist on her dismount. On beam, she did not show full difficulty and fell on a side aerial, but overall the performance was exceptional, given the injury.


Mustafina's performance, though it only landed her in sixth place, in some ways overshadowed that of Voronin Cup champion Viktoria Komova, who won the all-around, followed by 2011 World team member Yulia Belokobylskaya and Israel's Valeriia Maksyuta. Russian Olympic hopeful Anastasia Sidorova, who turns senior in January, finished fourth.

Mustafina's personal coach Alexander Alexandrov said at the World Championships in October that Mustafina had felt ready to compete and "begged" him to allow her to perform in Tokyo. Mustafina was poised to make her comeback on bars and beam at last month's Stuttgart World Cup, but withdrew from the meet after her knee swelled during warmups.

In an interview in Stuttgart, Mustafina said she plans to compete the Amanar vault -- the skill she tore her ACL doing -- in London next summer.

×Today was the last day of the competition! The Event Finals took place today.

Congratulations to Aliya Mustafina for finishing in second place on the Uneven Bars (15.445)!

Aliya is not back in full form yet because she just started training earlier this month after her long recovery. However, considering what she has been through, her results are very good and show great promise from Aliya!

Yesterday I received an inaccurate correction that Aliya was in 4'th place. The report was incorrect. She finished in 6'th place as I first reported. I apologize for the inaccurate update.

This concludes the Voronin Memorial! Videos will be posted shortly

×Anna Pavlova ? LA Anna Pavlova ou une autre ? On ne la voyait plus sur les plateaux ?! Deux médailles de bronze