Russia's Olympic Training Squads - MAG

Albert from the All Around writes here about the recently announced 2012 training squad and prospects for this summer's London Olympics:

Russian Gymnastics Federation published the list of men's national team members earlier this year. There are 14 gymnasts fighting for 5 Olympic spots. In the reserve group, there are some gymnasts that might join the national team if they improve throughout the year.

Denis Mikhailovich Ablyazin
3rd August 1992
Trains at - Penza, Moscow Dynamo
Coach - S Starkin

Alexander Sergeivich Balandin
10th June 1989
Dynamo Petrozavodsk, Karelian Republic
V N Bubnovski, S G Zagorski

David Sagitovitch Belyavskiy
23rd February 1992
Ekaterinburg
V N Lomayev, P A Kitaiski

Emin Nadirovich Garibov
8th September 1992
Moscow Dynamo
A I Sabyelin

Dmitri Alexandrovich Gogotov
12th September 1987
Moscow Dynamo
V F Kalinov

Anton Sergeivich Golutsotskov
28th July 1985
Tomsk
L Y Abramov, V V Skyryukha, A V Yanets


Maxim Igorevich Devyatovski
22nd April 1984
Leninsk-Kuznetsk
I A Devyatovski, A E Zimmerman


Nikita Alexeivich Ignatyev
21st June 1992
Leninsk-Kuznetsk
D D Chunasov, T V Popova, E R Saifulin

Igor Alexeivich Pakhomenko
10th June 1992
Leninsk-Kuznetsk
D D Chunasov, T V Popova, E R Saifulin

Konstantin Sergeivich Pluzhnikov
28th April 1987
Tomsk
A V Yanets, L Y Abramov, V V Skyryukha 


Pavel Alexandrovich Russinyak
9th October 1989
Penza
V S Kirillov, S V Kirillov


Dmitri Vladimirovich Stolyarov
8th October 1991
Moscow
V E Stolyarov


Sergei Gennadivich Khorokhodin
9th October 1985
Khimki
E V Kovezhnikov, L V Monarev, O A Nechaeva, L E Kovezhnikova


Andrei Andreivich Cherkasov
1st January 1991
Leninsk Kuznetsk
F N Stolyarov, E S Maltsev

Russia is slowly coming back strongly to the top with a new, young generation that combines high difficulty and good execution; but their hit ratio is still far from ideal. In Tokyo they finished in fourth position, making a last minute change to allow rings specialist Konstantin Pluzhnikov to compete instead of Nikita Ignatyev. This movement might indicate an interest from Russian officials to prioritize the team competetion above individual medalists; but will they use the same strategy at the Olympics? What will Russia prefer: a team medal or several individual medalists?

The European Championships in May in Montpellier, France will be the first real test for Russia. Europeans format is the same as the Olympics: 5-4-3 (5 gymnasts per team, 4 compete and the 3 best scores count), and competition between Russia, Great Britain and Germany for coming to the Olympics as the top team in Europe will be tough. It is important to remember that Europe will be the continent with the most representatives at the Olympics this time (8 out of 12 teams are European). 

Taking the 5-4-3 format into account; the logical strategy would be to have 2-3 strong all arounders and a couple of specialists. For me, there are three locks at this point: Emin Garibov, David Belyavskiy and Denis Ablyazin. The first two are 90+ All Arounders with the potential to make event finals in different apparatus. Garibov is an excellent high bar worker; while Belyavskiy could sneak into floor, vault or P-bars finals. What makes both of them so valuable, though, is that they can produce mid-14s routines on pommel horse, an event on which Russia has struggled for a few years now. Even their top specialists on the event are unable to match the highest scores from the top of the world.  Ablyazin is a clear contender for vault and floor finals at the Olympics; and his rings are getting stronger every year. 

The remaining two spots have several gymnasts fighting for them. In my opinion, they should try to fill the gaps with respect to team finals. In this scenario, my fourth gymnasts would be Nikita Ignatyev, another young All Arounder who could contribute in team finals with his routines on rings and his very good parallel bars and high bar; or Sergei Khorokhordin, who would be useful on pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bar. Either of these two gymnasts would make an ideal alternate if not selected.   

For the last spot, in my opinion, there are two routes: (1) - Going for the well known and international golden specialists like Anton Golotsutskov (VT/FX), Konstantin Pluzhnikov (SR), Alexander Balandin (SR); or, (2) - trying to use a gymnast who is good on pommel horse, to correct their deficit in the apparatus, such as Dmitri Stolyarov or Igor Pakhomenko. The real Russian specialists in the event like Andrei Perevoznikov and Matvei Petrov are not even in the National Team, so Russia might think that they could add more points by going the first route, with a veteran high scoring gymnast; the problem will be - which one?

Based on past results and current shape, I believe these are the strengths for the National Team:

Denis Ablyazin – Floor - rings - vault

Alexander Balandin -Rings

David Belyavskiy – All Around, Floor, Pommel Horse, Vault, Parallel Bars

 

Emin Garibov – All Around - Pommel Horse - High Bar

Dimitry Gogotov – All Around, Parallel Bars

Anton Golotsutskov – Floor Exercise - Vault

Maxim Devyatovskiy – All Around, Rings

Nikita Ignatyev - All Around, Rings, Parallel Bars, High Bar

Igor Pakhomenko – All Around, Pommel Horse

Konstantin Pluzhnikov  - Rings

Pavel Russinyak -High Bar

Dimitry Stolyarov  – All Around, Pommel Horse

Sergei Khorokhordin – All Around, Parallel Bars

Andrei Cherkasov  –Floor Exercise

Pictures by kind permission of the Russian Gymnastics Federation