Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

It is worth paying a visit to the Russian Gymnastics Federation's website, where the English language news page includes translations of recent coverage about Universiade gold medallist Alena Polyan, recent USSR Cup success David Belyavski and St Petersburg gymnast, Universiade bars finalist Irina Sazanova. All three of them have hopes to compete in forthcoming competitions, Polyan and Belyavski in Tokyo this autumn, while Sazonova mentions the 2013 Universiade.  I find Polyan's determination and enthusiasm particularly moving, and hope she can somehow make it to worlds for the first time at the age of 22.  Her solid gymnastics and feisty attitude may prove to be a healthy grounding influence on the young team that is travelling to Japan if others' progress proves less than reliable.

It is worth checking out Andrei Sharapov's Photo Galleries which include pictures of the Voronin Cup in 2010 and various other training and competition pictures taken at Moscow's famous Dynamo club.  One of the joys are the detailed captions providing names of the competitors - and there are some beautiful pictures of the upcoming Russian juniors to be found in here, including Evgenia Shelgunova.  With thanks to the Russian Gymnastics Federation.

Bruno Grandi, President of the FIG, will be speaking at an international conference on the future of Russian sports, ' Russia, Country of Sports ', to be held at the Russian International Olympic University in Saransk on the 9th September. The conference will be attended by leading practitioners in the field of sports education, including Head Coach of the Russian national gymnastics team, Andrei Rodionenko. Both Grandi and Rodionenko have given interviews in the approach to this important event which you will be able to find (in Russian) at the Sports Daily website - links provided below.  Bruno Grandi uses the opportunity to trumpet ongoing efforts to simplify the Code with a view to making the sport more attractive to spectators, and looks forward to the London Olympics.  Rodionenko echoes some of the themes he identified in so many of his interviews given at around the time of last year's World Championships - principally emphasising the need to reinforce the re...

In the wake of Andrei Rodionenko's announcement of the training squads for this year's World Championships, RIA Novosti reports that veteran Maxim Devyatovski has made claim to a place on the team.  While he admits that his current form is poor, he says he 'plans to reach a peak' in time for Tokyo, showing his best form at a selection due to take place in Penza on 17th September (4 weeks' time).  The Federation has responded that Devyatovski did not have sufficient physical preparation, and did not want to come to Tokyo anyway, because of concerns over nuclear fall out. The teams announced by Rodionenko are: Women :     Komova, Afanasyeva, Dementieva, Belokobylskaya, Paseka, Nabieva.  Reserves: Polyan, Inishina Men :          Garibov, Khorokhodin, Ignatiev, Belyavsky, Ablyazin, Cherkasov, Golutsotskov, Pluzhnikov Rodionenko also gave special mention to Anastasia Sidorova and Anastasia Grishina, both ...

The recent publication of proposed amendments to the Code of Points on the International Gymnast website surprisingly produced only one public comment.  I say surprising because the fan forum there is continually bombarded with negative criticisms of the Code of Points, and I had expected there to be some fierce discussions.  Instead, however, little more than silence and blank space prevailed. Perhaps it was because of the sheer volume of reading involved.  Around 200 pages of text were produced about the women's Code alone.  The Code itself is a document of some 192 pages of densely packed text, tables and symbols, and to make things worse it is supplemented by a misleadingly named 'Helpdesk' of some 58 pages, which is supposed to be a condensed, easy-to-use guide, but which in fact adds new ideas to the original core Code as well as possible new variations in interpretation.  All in the name of 'simplification'.  Mapping the proposed amendments to the ...

The Russian Cup finished on Sunday with the final day of apparatus finals.  In the women's competition, Komova, Dementieva, Afanasyeva and Belokobylskaya proved to be the most successful of those in contention for places on the national team for the World Championships in Tokyo this October.   In the men's competition, we saw a changing of the guard as Ablyazin, Ignatiev and Garibov began to prove their worth against the falling star of such gymnasts as Devyatovski.  The Russian Federation website carries full results of the men's competition , and the women's competition . The top three in each event, and some more detailed notes, are as follows. Women's Competition Vault  1.  Anna Pavlova          14.225 2.  Anna Dementieva    13.813 3.  Maria Paseka          13.713 4.  Tanya Nabieva       ...

Anna Dementieva has repeated her all around victory at this February's Russian national championships with a gold medal in the all around at the Russia Cup, held this afternoon in Ekaterinburg.  In so doing, she recorded the highest scores on vault (previously a significant weakness, she is said to have mastered a double twisting Yurchenko), beam and floor, amassing a total score of 59.8.  In second place was Viktoria Komova, whose 15.7 on bars was her highest score.  The leader after qualifications, Ksenia Afanasyeva, suffered a double fall on bars and was reduced to fourth place at this competition behind a consistent Yulia Belokobylskaya.  Tatiana Nabieva, competing only on bars and vault, redeemed herself somewhat today after a disappointing round of qualifications.  Her 15.2 on bars was second to Komova and she managed a reasonable vault score of 14.4.   National team contender Ramila Musina did not compete today because of illness. 1 ...

Tess at the Russian Gymnastics Board has posted the top three in today's women's all around competition: 1      Anna Dementieva     59.8 2      Viktoria Komova     58.85 3      Yulia Belokobylskaya   - not sure of score but in the 57s. Someone has reported that Afanasyeva had a bad day, including two falls on bars :-(  Congratulations to Anna Dementieva and all the medallists!  I will post full results as soon as they become available.

Thanks to Emerald who alerted me to this Russia 2 report on the Russian women's successes at the Universiade, including short interviews with Myzdrikova and Polyan. I'm afraid I don't speak Russian so cannot translate - would anyone like to comment on anything significant that is said here? You can link to them on Youtube , also.

Results of the men's qualifications for the Russia Cup can be found here .  1   Sergei Khorokhodin     89.775 2    Nikita Ignatiev            89.725 3    Emin Garibov              89.2 4    David Belyavski          88.275 5    Dmitri Barkalot            87.725 Men's team results are here .

Veteran artistic gymnast Ksenia Afanasyeva leads the first day of Russia Cup competition in Ekaterinburg, ahead of European champion Anna Dementieva and newcomer to the senior team, Viktoria Komova.  This annual competition will form an important element of the selection process for the national team for autumn's World Championships.  Full individual results can be viewed on the Federation's website . Afanasyeva is said to be the gymnast on top form at this competition, having fully recovered from an injury she had been carrying for some time.  Viktoria Komova performed extremely well considering she was not initially expected to compete on all four pieces, and achieved the highest score on bars. Only three of last year's World Championships team - Afanasyeva, Dementieva and Semenova - featured in the top ten here (Semenova, recently returned to Lake Krugloye to begin full training, finished in 7th place).  Tatiana Nabieva competed only vault and bars but seems t...

Gymnastics No Ceiling has confirmed the full competitor list for this September's Ghent Challenger Cup (3-4 September).  Competing for Russia will be Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka, Diana Sapronova and Maria Stepanova. Given Alexandrov's recent announcement that this event could be used as a minor selection, I find this rather interesting.  In my opinion, Komova's place on the team is probably fairly safe.  Paseka, Sapronova, Stepanova may be competing for a place on the team.  Paseka's strength is most definitely vault. That leg strapping looks quite heavy to me, but she looks fit and strong otherwise.  Stepanova took a bronze medal on floor at this spring's Russian national championships. At present, Komova and Sapronova are slated to compete bars and beam only, with Paseka and Stepanova appearing on floor and vault.  It's still early days, though ...

A photo report of today's women's qualifications can be found on the Russian Federation's website . It's a bit difficult to identify all of these pictures.  But I think I recognise the following gymnasts: Viktoria Komova, both ankles strapped, on both bars and beam (on bars, supported by Elfimov) Ksenia Semenova, on bars and floor, looking fit and sharp (supported by Nazarova on bars) Ksenia Afanasyeva Anna Dementieva, looking confident and happy Maria Paseka on bars, with a heavy strapping on lower leg Diana Sapronova, elegant and powerful on floor Ekaterina Kurbatova Tatiana Nabieva on bars Maria Dunaeva ?Yulia Belokobylskaya on bars Anna Pavlova Tatiana Sovoliova As soon as I have access to any results, I'll post. Edited, 18.00 Wednesday 17th February - another link here with some photographs of yesterday's podium training featuring Musina, Nabieva, Belokobylskaya, Stepanova.  Still no results of today's qualifications, though first rep...

The Universiade event finals took place yesterday, with Japan's Yu Minobe taking two golds (bars and beam).  The Japanese women put on a strong showing here, taking a total of nine medals throughout all stages of the competition (seven in the event finals, team gold and silver in the all around (Yamagishi)). Russia showed their class on vault and floor, taking three medals in total.  Alena Polyan, who shone at this spring's Russian Championships, dominated floor, taking the top score on this event each day of the competition.  Along with her bronze all around and on beam, she has a good collection of medals from this event.  2010 European team champion Anna Myzdrikova took silver on vault. St Petersburg's Irina Sazonova performed pretty much as she did in qualifying on bars, finishing in sixth place, Ekaterina Skorodumova took a .6 penalty on floor to finish 6th there also.  Yulia Lozhecko was the only Russian woman not to qualify to any final. In the men's ...

The All Around Forum reports that Alexandrov has announced via Novosti that Mustafina is definitely out of the Tokyo World Championships.  She will be able to begin full training late this year/early next. Not that unexpected, although as you will have seen in my team predictions on the Couch Gymnast, I had hoped we might see her.  The Russian team should take this as an opportunity to step up and show their best face; let's hope we'll have some pleasant surprises in store during the Russian Cup.

Find a link here to online streaming coverage of the Russian Cup. The list of events gives a local starting time of 17.00 hours tomorrow (18th August) - which is the women's all around competition.   I don't think, therefore, that they are planning to provide coverage of qualifications. Fingers crossed that this link will work for everyone - I doubt we will get to see video of the competition as I believe cameras are banned from the arena.  It may only be a static camera - we will just have to hope for the best. There is an online world clock available here so you can work out at what unearthly time you will need to be up.  Give yourself time to make a cup of coffee if you need it, and to download the viewer. There is a short photo reportage here of the opening ceremony of the Cup.  Gymnasts who can be seen (using your best eagle eye) include Afanasyeva, Semenova, Musina, Kurbatova and Grishina; no start lists as yet and I suppose we'll probably have t...

Mikola Kuksenkov won a gold medal today in ShenZhen, taking the all around title ahead of Japan's Yamamoto.  Nathan Gafiuk (Canada) took the bronze medal.  Full results are available here . Russia's Pavel Russinyak finished 19th out of the 23 competitors.  His compatriot Ignatenkov finished last, but did not present a vault.

China's K Xiao won today's all around final in Shenzhen with a consistent performance topped off by a 15 on bars, today's highest score in the women's competition.  In second place was Japan's M Yamagishi, and taking the bronze was Russia's Alena Polyan.  Alena performed consistently throughout and took today's highest scores on floor and vault.  Her compatriot Irina Sazonova finished in 7th.   Ukraine's Yana Demianchuk, a great hope after Saturday's team final, couldn't maintain her standards, and ended up in 8th.  These gymnasts will all have a chance to win further medals or improve their standings in tomorrow's event finals.  Full results can be found here .  Sadly, two gymnasts were unable to complete their Games - the leading qualifier in the all around, Korea's Jo H, was stretchered off after a nasty accident on bars and Ukraine's Angelina Kysla also withdrew before completing bars - her first piece.

I really enjoyed watching this documentary on BBC TV yesterday afternoon.  It tells the story of a group of British gymnasts working towards selection for the 2008 Olympics team.  For those with British IPs, the documentary is available to view on BBC IPlayer .  Items are available to view for a limited time only, so make sure to set some time aside to view the documentary soon.  A kind soul (gymnasticsstuff) has also posted the documentary on Youtube for more universal viewing.  Get to them quickly as I'm guessing they may be removed fairly swiftly if detected. Part1 Part 2 Part 3 Adrian Stan comes across very well as totally immersed, straight-talking and professional.  It is a very even-handed documentary that shows why Britain is doing so well in gymnastics at present.  I couldn't help but notice parallels between certain scenes in this documentary and parts of the famous Soviet documentary, Will You Come to the Ball . 

Full results (including individual scores) for this afternoon's team competition are available here . Japan have so far won both gold medals available in the gymnastics hall! 1   Japan     269.2 2   China     265.65 3   Romania 264.65 4   Canada   261.75 5   Ukraine  261.3 6th were France, 7th Korea, Russia a rather distant 8th following an absolute disaster on pommel horse, where their team total ranked 15th in the competition. The Japanese founded their win on a good consistent showing across apparatus, topped off by superior showings on floor and rings.  The Chinese men were outstanding on parallel bars and high bar, but couldn't maintain that standard elsewhere despite strong support from the home crowd.  The top five individuals are : 1    S Yamamoto    90.15 2    N Gafuik          89...

There is actually quite good coverage of all the sports at the World Student Games online.  You need to register, but it is free of charge - the link is www.livefisu.tv The men's team final coverage begins at 11.20 am today (British time).  Start lists for the competition are here .  I'm guessing that this is the final subdivision only, with the Russians beginning on parallel bars.  Sadly, the Ukrainian team - looks pretty strong to me - goes in the penultimate subdivision - but the competition looks relatively deep and could be interesting.

A brief video in the Olympic Hopes series can be seen here , with Anna Dementieva reflecting on her sport - can anyone tell us what she is saying?

The women's team final of the World Student Games took place yesterday, with Japan (accompanied by former Ukraine internationals Alina Kozich and Sergei Butsula) winning gold, a lively Ukraine team the silver, and Russia bronze.  Ukraine had been well in the lead till the final round when a relatively poor showing on vault (4th as a team) opened the door for Japan , who stepped up and took gold on their best piece, bars.  The Russian team, comprising retired internationals (Myzdrikova, Lozhecko) and outstanding senior gymnasts (Polyan, Sazanova, Skoromudova), led the field on floor and vault but couldn't keep up the standard on bars and beam. Alena Polyan, who came third overall at the Russian national champinships this February, qualified to the all around as the highest scoring Russian individual and also leads floor despite a distressing fall on her first tumble (a very clean double layout) which left her in floods of tears.  In second place on floor is her Volga Dis...

Brigid at the Couch Gymnast has published my guess at the Russian team composition for Tokyo - find it here .