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Past to Future : Shakhlin and Spirina feature in Russian media

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I'm just collating the voluminous amounts of results and video links relating to the Russian Federal Championships, though I'm afraid my progress is rather slow thanks to the recent adoption of two adorable black and white cats, Harry and Ron, who are of course my priority at the moment, alongside large volumes of assessment I must complete as part of my 'proper' job!  However, to keep you interested, here are some links I located via the Russian Gymnastics Federation website. 

First of all, an interview (from 2007) with 13 time Olympic medalist and long-serving member of the Men's Technical Committee, Boris Shakhlin (RIP).  Boris reflects on the relative increasing difficulty levels in gymnastics (he competed at Olympics in 1956, 1960 and 1964), on the rewards accorded to sportsmen in his time, and on his premature retirement from sport, brought on by a heart attack at the age of 35 as he prepared for the 1968 Olympics.  When asked to rank the best gymnasts of all time, he identified Viktor Chukarin as his all-time best, closely followed by Takashi Ono and then himself.  His top three women gymnasts were Latynina, Comaneci and Polina Astakhova; he points out that four of these were from his country, Ukraine!

Fast forward to today and a link to Mir TV station who celebrate the achievements of another Polina, Spirina, an 11 year old gymnast who progressed to the Russian national junior team this year.  Polina competed hors de concours at the recent Russian Federal Championships in Novosibirsk, Siberia, beating all the senior competitors.  The field was missing national team member Valeria Sviridova, who was a strong favourite to win.
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