27. August 2018  
Kazan, RUS  
Rhythmic Gymnastics

Alexandra Soldatova best at the end of World Challenge Cup Circuit 2018

fig-report--: Alexandra Soldatova (RUS) and the Italian Group captured the All-around titles via tiebreaks Saturday at the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup in Kazan (RUS), where Dina Averina and the Russian group swept the apparatus finals on Sunday.
The event at the Kazan Gymnastics Centre, the fourth and final stop of the 2018 Rhythmic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup Series, attracted more than 125 gymnasts from three dozen nations and served as a final warm-up for many gymnasts prior to next month’s World Championships in Sofia (BUL).
Originally an alternate for the event, Alexandra  Soldatova also clinched the overall 2018 World Challenge Cup series, based on the top three performances at World Challenge Cup events, in another tie-break victory over Linoy Ashram (ISR).

Russia’s star twins Dina and Arina Averina were unable to repeat their 1-2 finish from last year’s World Challenge Cup in Kazan, after a lingering shoulder injury forced Arina out of competition (replaced by Aleksandra Soldatova). Russia did finish 1-2 in the Individual All-around, but it was Soldatova who eclipsed Dina Averina, the reigning World All-around champion.
Soldatova and Averina both posted 80.400, but the gold went to Soldatova on a tie-break that favoured the higher Execution score. Ashram won the bronze in the All-around (78.800) and her exquisite performance with the Ball brought 20.750, the highest of any individual during the All-around.
* R E S U L T S: ►► Ind. All-around;    ►► Ind. FINALS

G R O U P S
Italy and Russia also tied in the Group All-around (43.950), but Italy (- with Anna Basta, Martina Centofanti, Letizia Cicconcelli, Agnese Duranti, Alessia Maurelli, and Martina Santandrea) came out ahead in the tie-break, bumping their Russian rivals (- with Anastasiia Tatareva, Mariia Kravtsova, Evgeniia Levanova, Kseniia Poliakova, Anastasia Shishmakova, and Maria Tolkacheva) to second. World championships host Bulgaria (- with (Elena Bineva, Simona Dyankova, Stefani Kiryakova, Madlen Radukanova, and Laura Traets) won the bronze.
In the Group final on Sunday for 5 Hoops, Russia won gold over Bulgaria and Italy.
Russia took also gold in the 3 Balls / 2 Ropes final over Italy and Japan (Riko Oda, Rie Matsubara, Sakura Noshitani, Sayuri Sugimoto, Ayuka Suzuki and Kiko Yokota), reigning world silver medallists in this event.
►► Groups, all