The 7th Annual Penza International finished today with Viktoria Komova confirming her position as the brightest light in Russian gymnastics with two golds on bars and beam. Tatiana Nabieva took gold on vault while veteran Ksenia Afanasyeva took gold on floor. European champion Anna Dementyeva had a difficult competition this time round, missing out on medals completely, but Yulia Belokobylskaya showed how consistent she can be with even performances throughout the competition. Full results are available here (in order of presentation, you will find men's and women's apparatus finals, junior women's finals and junior men's finals, in case you don't speak Russian).
I'm guessing this was a hard competition for the girls, given its timing as they prepare for Tokyo, but then surely part of the point was to give them a test under stress and fatigue. It remains difficult to predict who will be the final two members of the team for Tokyo. I would suggest that Tanya Nabieva has more than proved her worth here and should be at least reasonably confident of a place on the team; the final place seems to be a choice between the potential of a high scoring vault from Maria Paseka, or the more evenly able Yulia Inshina who did well today on floor (2nd place) and not too shabbily on beam and bars either. I suspect we will not know the exact line up until the day of the competition and I just hope the entire team remain healthy.
(Spare a thought for Queen Mustafina, who must be looking longingly at these results and wishing she were part of the team. Her little sister, Nailya, performed well in the junior competition, but probably not well enough for her own liking, being a member of the Mustafin family, finishing second on floor.)
In the men's finals, Denis Ablyazin and Nikita Ignatyev absolved themselves somewhat after relatively poor performances yesterday with golds on floor and vault (Ablyazin) and parallel bars (Ignatyev). The other golds went to Belyavski (pommels and high bar) and Pluzhnikov (rings). Veteran Maxim Devyatovski, who performed better than expected in yesterday's all around competition, failed to medal here. With Garibov emerging as a strong all around contender and gymnasts like Ablyazin and Ignatyev establishing their class, the coming world championships seems to be the likely setting for a new generation of Russian men to emerge, hopefully in time to mature at London 2012.
I'm guessing this was a hard competition for the girls, given its timing as they prepare for Tokyo, but then surely part of the point was to give them a test under stress and fatigue. It remains difficult to predict who will be the final two members of the team for Tokyo. I would suggest that Tanya Nabieva has more than proved her worth here and should be at least reasonably confident of a place on the team; the final place seems to be a choice between the potential of a high scoring vault from Maria Paseka, or the more evenly able Yulia Inshina who did well today on floor (2nd place) and not too shabbily on beam and bars either. I suspect we will not know the exact line up until the day of the competition and I just hope the entire team remain healthy.
(Spare a thought for Queen Mustafina, who must be looking longingly at these results and wishing she were part of the team. Her little sister, Nailya, performed well in the junior competition, but probably not well enough for her own liking, being a member of the Mustafin family, finishing second on floor.)
In the men's finals, Denis Ablyazin and Nikita Ignatyev absolved themselves somewhat after relatively poor performances yesterday with golds on floor and vault (Ablyazin) and parallel bars (Ignatyev). The other golds went to Belyavski (pommels and high bar) and Pluzhnikov (rings). Veteran Maxim Devyatovski, who performed better than expected in yesterday's all around competition, failed to medal here. With Garibov emerging as a strong all around contender and gymnasts like Ablyazin and Ignatyev establishing their class, the coming world championships seems to be the likely setting for a new generation of Russian men to emerge, hopefully in time to mature at London 2012.
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