Skip to main content

Maria Kharenkova medals at Pacific Rim - EF results

13 year old Maria Kharenkova from Rostov on Don achieved two bronze medals yesterday at the Pacific Rim championships, with brisk, energetic performances on beam and floor.  With the European Junior Championships upcoming in May, Maria looks likely to make the team alongside 14 year old Evgeniya Shelgunova.  Maria had narrowly missed a bronze medal in the all around competition after a fall on bars.  Maria's biographical details can be found here, along with those of her five other Russian team mates. 

The senior women (probably to be considered the Russian's 'D' team in terms of experience) did less well.  Diana Elkina, their sole gymnast qualified to an event final, injured her left knee in bars warm-up.  I do hope she can recover well. 

A similar story was told in the men's competition where the senior team failed to achieve a medal position in any competition.  However, the juniors did much better, qualifying for multiple event finals.  Emerging junior Grigory Zyrianov (born 22nd January 1996, he trains in Kemerova with N A Kotyakhov) broke the Russian depression on pommels by taking the silver medal there and also a bronze on high bar.  His colleague Sergei Stepanov took silver on the rings exercise.  Stepanov is 17 years old (born 26th May 1994) and trains in Cheboksary with coach E A Rudyanu.

Full results of the competitions can be found here.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Anna Pavlova interview - YOU ask the questions

Anna with her team mate Maria Nekrasova today.   Maria competed in this spring's Russia Cup and will join Anna on the Azerbaijan national gymnastics team.  Picture courtesy of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation on Facebook. As Anna prepares to compete at this week's Voronin Cup, representing Azerbaijan for the first time, RRG, in collaboration with Anna's authorised website Anna Pavlova Online, would like to invite readers to submit their questions for an interview with Anna.  What have you always wanted to ask one of Russia's best gymnasts of the last decade? Each reader may submit up to three questions.  We will collate and if necessary edit the questions and Anna will answer the ones she finds most interesting.  Please add your questions as comments to this blog, or you may email them to me at rewriterussiagym@btinternet.com.  We hope to publish the final interview on both websites by Christmas. Many of you must dream of having a conversation with Anna...

Simone and the others - results and reflections

In the end, it was as predicted : Simone and the others, with Simone's teammate, Alexandra Raisman, providing the back up.  I do not need to point out that, by definition, the Americans are scoring significantly higher marks than the rest of the field.  Congratulations to them! Aliya Mustafina finished in third place.  The 2012 bronze medalist led the competition after vault and uneven bars, but had a very nervous outing on beam that might have taken a less experienced gymnast out of the medals.  A bravura performance on floor brought Aliya back though to confirm her third place all around.  From her senior debut in 2010 to today, Mustafina has continuously set high standards of grace.    It is the first time since 2000 that a gymnast (Amanar) has medalled in the all around at two consecutive Olympics, and  if Aliya can medal on Saturday's uneven bars final, she will once again be Russia's biggest medal winner of the women's gymnastics.  Russ...

Olga Mostepanova - from beautiful daydream to World Champion

Young Olga in her white leotard and orange hair bows, at her first international competition in Wembley, 1980 I had only been in the Olympiski Stadium, Moscow, for a few moments when it happened: I found myself surrounded by a little army of tiny children, excitedly chattering away in Russian, a language I don't speak.   I strained my ears and heard the names : Aliya, Nastia, Ksenia; I was swept along by this blizzard of pigtails, giggles and pretty eyes; and suddenly I lost myself, and started looking for Olga Mostepanova amongst them.  She might have been there, but (now in her forties) it is more likely that she was hard at work in her own gym, helping a young gymnast learn how to do a walkover on beam. Mostepanova was always like that, even as a child: her gymnastics appeared like a beautiful daydream, but the reality was infinitely more prosaic.  The exquisite plasticity that made her a Champion, the beautiful line for which she is famous, were the product ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more