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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.

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