Skip to main content

A bad day at the office

First year senior Anastasia Grishina is the Russian team's leading all around gymnast at these Championships.  Picture by kind permission of the RGF.


I have to give credit to Romania today - they recalled Romanian teams of the past and performed with confidence and energy to beat Russia to first place in qualifications.  Ioana Iordache leads the unofficial all around with a display of light and precise acrobatics that must position her as a favourite for the individual Olympic title if she can reproduce her form of today once more, on that much anticipated July day in London.

This was a strong, perhaps the strongest possible, Romanian team, drawing on Olympic champions past and, maybe, future.  As I had predicted, Iszbasa, Ponor, Iordache, Bulimar and Haidu pulled out all the stops to give their best and take first place against a somewhat below-power Russian team.  It remains to be seen whether the Russians can turn their form around in two days flat and contend for gold in the final. 

The thing I can say in the Russians' favour is that they do have some wiggle room, both within the team of gymnasts presented and, more widely, gymnasts at home in Moscow.  The team undoubtedly missed the experience and strength of both Ksenia Afanasyeva and Tatiana Nabyeva, Komova competed on bars and beam only, and Mustafina made uncharacteristic errors on both floor and bars.  In the end, the team's effort rested significantly on youth, with Grishina showing progress in both her technique and her competitive demeanour.  Sidorova made a good account of herself on beam and indeed carried the burden of the team's efforts here on her shoulders as start off gymnast, while Paseka delivered two competent vaults to keep the team afloat. 

The team were determined to avoid falls on beam and both Sidorova and Grishina more than held the boat steady for a strong routine from Viktoria Komova, who delivered a picturesque and technically accomplished routine, despite a few wobbles.  Komova's stature and bearing in Brussels has been altogether lighter and more mature than in Tokyo; she has grown, not only physically, but mentally and, one suspects emotionally. 

Perhaps it was the effort of suppressing all those nerves that got to the Russians.  Seeming a little subdued, they progressed to floor, where Sidorova managed a nice performance marred by some serious errors that kept her score down in the 12.9s.  Both Mustafina and Grishina followed in the same vein.  Their team total entitles them to claim the 9th best slot on floor on this piece, a record I am sure they will wish to improve on in Saturday's final.  No Russians in the floor finals on Sunday.

A competent performance on vault was followed by some great exercises on the uneven bars from Grishina and Komova, where sadly Mustafina looked rather tired and suffered some uncharacteristic errors.

So in the end, Russia did well to finish second behind Romania, but ahead of a confident British team who presented some very nice gymnastics.  The fact they could do this whilst counting such a disastrous floor rotation speaks volumes for their talent, but Russia will not be able to afford such mistakes again.  I will not predict what might happen on Saturday, let alone in July, but to me the Romanian team does look much stronger here.

Individually, Grishina led this team with a creditable second place in the unofficial individual all around.  Anastasia qualified to event finals in vault, bars and beam, accompanied by her 2010 Junior Europeans team mate Komova on bars and beam.  She is developing an impressive portfolio of international competition experience, is taking up an increasingly responsible role within the team, and looks set to rival Mustafina for the second all around spot for Russia in London if Mustafina cannot fully overcome the mental and physical trauma of last spring before July.

Hey ho, from tomorrow everything starts again from scratch.  Fight on, girls.

Full results are available at the following links :

Team summary results

Detailed team results

Individual results (unofficial all around competition)

Vault qualifications

Uneven bars qualifications

Beam qualifications

Floor qualifications

You will also find a good collection of videos at the Full Twist blog.  Enjoy!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tatyana Nabiyeva on work and love in China

Some highlights from a long interview with 2010 World champion Tatyana Nabiyeva.  Source: Russian team page on VK.com.  Translation - Google translate A big interview with Tatyana Nabieva about the peculiarities of work and life in China, the bright years of her sports career, a little about modern gymnastics and about love. On the Nabiyeva flight — At the same championship, you presented a new element on the bars, which was later added to the rules with your last name (flying over the top bar with a straight body, difficulty group F. — Sport24). How did you come up with the idea to try something new? — Actually, it happened spontaneously, I think. We worked with Vera Iosifovna [Kiryashova] on the purity of the elements on the bars, sometimes I didn’t fly all the way to the Shaposhnikova element. Once I didn’t fly all the way to the bars either and stood on my feet between the bars, bending my legs in flight for safety. Then Vera Iosifovna said that this was a different eleme...

‘We all love her very much’ - Roschina speaks of Mustafina and the need to perfect an Amanar vault

From sport.ru via vk.com.  Google translate  A big interview with Anastasia Loginova from Sport24 with Lyudmila Roshchina following the Strongest Cup, where the gymnast won four out of five gold medals. We quote several fragments, the full version is available on the publication's website, link at the end. ❓ The Strongest Athletes Cup has recently ended. Did you have time to analyze your performances? 💬 I just rewatched the broadcast, looked at my shortcomings. ❓ Did you set a medal plan for this start? 💬 I didn't think about it. Only that I needed to do my program - and then what will happen. ❓ Did you have time to discuss the competition with your coach? 💬 She praised me, said that I was great. She didn't scold me for mistakes on the beam - on the contrary, she supported me. ❓ Can we say that the beam is your weak spot? This is the only final you didn't get to. 💬 Probably yes. I have this apparatus that is a bit unpolished, so to speak. Treacherous. I need to work...

Angelina Melnikova photo session

Daria Isaeva has done a photo session with Angelina Melnikova at Dynamo Moscow.  Here are Angelina’s words about it.   "  The first time I was on a balance beam I was six years old. I was scared because of the height, so at first I walked hand in hand with my trainer." "The hardest thing on this apparatus is to keep your balance. Usually, when I'm on the beam, I imagine that I'm in a corridor 10 centimeters wide." "You can't be afraid of the beam! Coaches say that if you have fear, you will perform poorly." "The first difficult element I did at the age of eight was a backflip. In adult gymnastics, this element is considered one of the easiest." “I still can’t do a cartwheel on a log; I can easily fall off it, although children can do this element at the age of six.” "It's better to perform on the balance beam barefoot - you feel the apparatus better that way. But to avoid injuries, we sometimes tape our ankles." "It...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more