Skip to main content

Dementieva grasps her moment in Berlin/poor Aliya injured

By
Ouch.  No doubt by now you all know that poor Aliya Mustafina suffered a torn meniscus on landing her first vault of the all around competition.  So now my heart hurts almost as much as my hand, and my thoughts are with Aliya, her team mates and her coaches, who must be going through an agony of pain and uncertainty, physical and otherwise, at present.

I am however delighted at the victory of that most Russian of gymnasts, Anna Dementieva.  Anna is a delightful, strong gymnast; all light, airy amplitude, impressive technique and deceptively steely mentality.  The Russians deserved a little good luck after the bad luck of their prime competitor here, but I don't think this was that lucky a win - Anna was clearly the class act of the field, well ahead of the rest even if this fact is disguised by the somewhat distorted scores of Elizabeth Seitz who experienced a significant 'home advantage'.

I cannot say that Dementieva reminds me of any particular gymnast from the past as she is so distinctively herself.  She only needs a stronger vault to place herself in medal contention at worlds level.  Dementieva is not a lead-off gymnast or a reserve - although she would be more than well qualified to undertake that role for an ultra-strong Russian Olympic team - she is a sleeping giant who has grasped her moment - watch her go from strength to strength,

I wish the gymnasts, including my favourite Tanya Nabieva, the greatest good luck as they progress to apparatus finals this weekend - just do it for the Queen, girls. xx

And as I'm still indisposed and can't write half as much as I'd like, please visit the Russian Federation's website for some cracking photos of qualifications.  Here's the link  http://www.sportgymrus.ru/
Gymnastics is a sport in which friendship rules - stay close, girls.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tatyana Nabiyeva on work and love in China

By
Some highlights from a long interview with 2010 World champion Tatyana Nabiyeva.  Source: Russian team page on VK.com.  Translation - Google translate A big interview with Tatyana Nabieva about the peculiarities of work and life in China, the bright years of her sports career, a little about modern gymnastics and about love. On the Nabiyeva flight — At the same championship, you presented a new element on the bars, which was later added to the rules with your last name (flying over the top bar with a straight body, difficulty group F. — Sport24). How did you come up with the idea to try something new? — Actually, it happened spontaneously, I think. We worked with Vera Iosifovna [Kiryashova] on the purity of the elements on the bars, sometimes I didn’t fly all the way to the Shaposhnikova element. Once I didn’t fly all the way to the bars either and stood on my feet between the bars, bending my legs in flight for safety. Then Vera Iosifovna said that this was a different eleme...
Post a Comment
Read more

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

By
Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...
14 comments
Read more

Alexander Alexandrov in his own words 1 - A Difficult Decision

By
Alexander Alexandrov with his daughter, Isa, at the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio.  (c) Alexander Alexandrov Russian coach Alexander Alexandrov has been prominent in the sport since 1983, when he came to the public eye as coach of the brilliant Dmitri Bilozerchev.  He has over thirty years’ experience of coaching World and Olympic Champions both in the country of his birth and in his adopted home, Houston, USA.  In his most recent position as Head Coach of the national women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) team for Russia, he quite simply resurrected his country’s gymnastics programme, re-establishing his team at the very top of the sport.  Prior to Alexandrov’s appointment, at the 2008 Olympics, Russian WAG had walked away empty handed, without medals.  At last year’s London Olympics, artistic gymnastics was one of Russia’s most successful sports.  Alexandrov’s Russia won the most gymnastics medals of any country competing, and his athlete Al...
11 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more