Press day at Lake Krugloye!

Viktoria Komova at last week's press day.  Note the background banner advertising sponsors VTB.  Photo by Elena Mikhailova, by kind permission of the RGF

The Russian gymnasts and coaches are busy preparing for the London Olympics, and barely interrupted their regular training to make time to speak to journalists at the Russian National Training Centre in Round Lake (Krugloye in Russian). Photographer Elena Mikhailova was on hand to record proceedings. 

As ever, the reticent Russians do not reveal over much about themselves - what is said could probably have been intelligently guessed anyway, on the basis of results and other reports.  Nevertheless, it's helpful to hear how the girls themselves are feeling about their preparations and to see how happy and healthy they look in the pictures.  Alexandrov gives some details of their travel plans to London and Valentina Rodionenko reveals a framework for the national team composition, suggesting it revolves around four all arounders, with significant competition for the final place as vault specialist.  Tatiana Nabieva's competitive status sadly seems moot as she struggles at home in St Petersburg to comply with the weight requirements of the national team, but in her place we see an interesting struggle between newcomers Anastasia Sidorova and Maria Paseka.  There is no further clarification of the form of Anna Dementieva, other than some very nice pictures and a brief video interview, thus suggesting she sits at the cusp of the national team.

Here surely Rodionenko has revealed the achilles heel of the Russian team - that of logistics.  Sure, there is an 'A' and a 'B' team possible, but in terms of numbers they cannot compete with the solid and consistent Americans who have a certain margin of error available at this stage, simply because there are so many of them.  If the Russians win in London it will be thanks to meticulous planning, outstanding coaching and vastly superior gymnastics at the highest level that during competition will not heed the cautions of risk.   No playing it safe or relying on stolid consistency possible - all the Russians have to be at their best.

A nice touch is that the photographs include some of the Russian youngsters who will be expected to compete at the Junior Europeans in a few weeks' time, most notably Maria Kharenkova.  This is encouraging, but personally I'm not sure that this junior team will dominate at the coming championships.  Their leader, Evgeniya Shelgunova, has been mysteriously absent from the public eye and I'm guessing that without her the youngsters of the next generation, led by Kharenkova, may struggle against an aggressive Italian team.  Of course, it may be that Shelgunova's silence is merely an indicator of concentrated training leading to a stunning surprise in Belgium ...

As for the senior Russian girls - I've no need to say it really, this is a critical time.  A warm-up, friendly team competition next week against Britain and Switzerland will test the set-up for the European Championships (main rivals?  Alexandrov says Italy, Britain and a fast-improving Romania). Then we must acknowledge that Europeans, where Mustafina says gold is expected, are but a step on the way to the Olympics.  Discussions of the composition of the team for London are well in the swing, although in an interview with Sports Express, Alexandrov emphasises that its final membership is still unknown. 

Elsewhere, Valentina Rodionenko elaborates on the four all arounders she says are on the team.  These gymnasts are not to be considered locks for the Olympics team which is surely still to be determined and will not be finalised until the very last days before the team travels to London on the 21st July.  Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina and Ksenia Afanasyeva are the four, but the Russians will need more than four good gymnasts to make good their European advantage on a world scene, where US and China are their main rivals.  To add depth to strength they are looking for a good vaulter to round out the mix - this could be Maria Paseka, Anastasia Sidorova, or 2010 World Championships veteran Tatiana Nabieva. 

Nabieva is currently training at home in St Petersburg with personal coach Alexander Kiryashov, having suffered with weight problems over the last year.  Implicitly she will only be in contention for the Olympic team if she solves them and makes her way back to Krugloye.  Otherwise, Sidorova seems likely to be favoured as she has two vaults and a good beam and floor, compared to the one-apparatus specialist Paseka. 

Alexandrov confirms that Aliya Mustafina's recovery is going to plan, and Aliya herself adds that she will be increasing her difficulty in time for Brussels, with the aim of winning gold.  Alexandrov makes clear that none of the girls will show their full programmes until the Olympic Games.  They will travel to London on the 21st July because an earlier departure will only disrupt their preparation. 

Viktoria Komova says she needs another month to get back to her full capacity (so just after the Europeans) as she is still recovering from her leg injury and still has to catch up with her team mates.

Valentina Rodionenko made a special thanks to sponsors VTB Bank who had made possible a renovation of the National Training Centre to facilitate the concentrated training necessary to peak for the Games.

RIA Novosti have produced this video coverage of the press tour where Komova, Mustafina and Paseka can be seen in training, along with coach Vasily Ivanov, and interviews with Alexandrov, Komova and Mustafina.  There is a brief translation given in the comments below the video.



There is further video coverage here, along with imagery of Dementyeva and Komova in training. 

I'm guessing that final nominative registrations for the Europeans will be finalised in the next ten days, and I will post details here as soon as available.