Bad food, inappropriate men and funny friends precede brilliant Russians - a brief story of Brussels 2012

There are some unexpected recurring themes in my gymnastics holidays: bad food, inappropriate men, funny friends and brilliant Russians.  As this is a diary of my Brussels experience as much as a story about the European Championships, I will provide you with an update of how Tracey and I are getting on here, as well as some links to interesting information about today's junior team competition, which the Russians won quite brilliantly.

First of all, let me show you a picture.

Snack acquired at Le Roy d'Espagne, Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium

Let me take my earlier statement a little further, and propose the hypothesis that bad food and inappropriate men precede brilliant Russians.  We first established this possible link in Stuttgart, when an order of lasagne turned out to be the worst culinary disaster of our lifetime.  (I have never had to carve pasta before or since.)  Secondly, in Athens, a self-described 'very bold, very audacious' Georgian gentleman promised us the world in his boudoir.  (I'm sure he was very skillful, by the way.)  The dates were 1989 and 1990, when the Soviet Union won the World Championships, and Boguinskaia won all five golds at the Europeans.

These events alone were not enough to fuel development of a hypothesis proposing any degree of causality between bad food, inappropriate men and brilliant Russians.  However, the happenings of the last day and a half do suggest that there may be a link strong enough to justify further investigation.  First of all, the snack served to us at Le Roy d'Espagne evoked memories of Stuttgart for all the wrong reasons.  Please see the picture.  A platter of cheeses and salami sounded just right to go with the cherry beer we were enjoying.  What was served looked more like a plate of leftover processed cheese and bad quality luncheon meat, the pinkest of pink 'salami' quivering with artificial additives and the sweepings of the slaughterhouse floor. 

Sadly, I did not take a picture of the handsome gentleman whose restaurant we may unwittingly have entered had it not been for the inedible snack served to us on the Grand Place.  'My name is Mr Satisfaction' he whispered into my left ear, leaving behind a thick patina of grease that made me fear I may need emergency antibiotics.

So we went merrily on our way, wondering if the following day would bring brilliant Russians, which it did ... in the shape of young Maria Kharenkova, who particularly thrilled me with her sparkling floor work and maximal, knows no fear beam work ... I can honestly only speculate that she is a star in the making, but that bright, intelligent face, those sky-high leaps, the personality in her work, all makes me think.

Yesterday, I mentioned that friends were an integral part of all gymnastics trips.  Brussels has been no different for us, and I would like to introduce to you the merry trio with whom I will be spending some of the coming days.

Tracey from Southgate, and Nadine from Dijon, in an over-priced Brussels restaurant.  Nadine was feeling a bit sleepy.

Christian, from Paris, openly adores me

However, he hides his love for Nadine behind a collection of hastily assembled lever arch files found in a skip behind the Bourse in Brussels, retrieved to form the basis of storage for a comprehensive gymnastics archive, which are currently stashed 'for safe keeping' in my hotel room after an early morning visit took me and Tracey by surprise.

So we have those three recurring themes in Brussels: bad food, inappropriate men and funny friends who like to collect waste stationery and make surprise breakfast visits.  We do also already have brilliant Russians; and I'm hoping for some more.

So finally (at last, I hear you say!), I must get round to giving you some essential information about today's competition in Brussels: the Russian junior team won, leaving the Italians in second place by over three marks and the Romanians in third.   Russia came first in every event except beam, where they were narrowly beaten by Russia.  View the full results.

Maria Kharenkova, Rostov on Don team mate of senior gymnast Anastasia Sidorova, proved herself for the first time on the international stage as an all arounder, finishing in first place in qualifications.  One year her senior, Evgeniya Shelgunova finished in third place behind Italian Elisa Meneghini.  Evgeniya suffered two unfortunate crashes on vault which left her very upset indeed; she is recovering from an injury and somewhat below par, but hopefully she can retrieve some wellbeing in the all around final on Friday night, and in the three event finals to which she still managed to qualify despite it being a relatively bad day for her.

Kharenkova was the undoubted star of the day, qualifying to every apparatus final but bars, where she finished in the top eight, but preceded by Shelgunova and little Viktoria Kuzmina, who is charm itself.  View full results of vault, uneven bars, beam, and floor.

Last, but not least, I must remind you of some more brilliant Russians : the senior women, who will appear in their own team qualifications tomorrow.  Visit this site to view an absolutely gorgeous picture of the Russian girls, including Ksenia Afanasyeva but without Maria Paseka.  There is also a collection of Russian language candid interviews with each of the girls, including self descriptions that are anything but flattering!  You will be able to find some nice translations of these by Triplefull at the IG Forum - start at this page and scroll down the entries to find them all.  The pictures are there, too. Great reading.

Time I got some sleep ...  Speak soon.