Skip to main content

Denis Ablyazin leads on two events – MAG Europeans

Image
By
Denis Ablyazin in flight, during his vault at yesterday's qualifying.  Picture by Elena Mikhailova, courtesy of the RGF

 The Russian team sits in second place in team qualifying behind the British team after a hot and cold performance on the first day of senior competition at the European Championships in Montpelier.    Five gymnasts selected for their event finals potential provided fans with highlights and lowlights, the highlights including Denis Ablyazin’s highly acrobatic floor routine and dynamic vaulting which currently lead the scoring on these two events.  Also qualified in first place on high bar is Emin Garibov, with Alexander Balandin sitting in second place on rings.  

Gympower has caught a video of Ablyazin's floor, and of course I am sceptical.  The tumbling is impressive - such a lot of it, and well performed as far as can be seen.  But is this really gymnastics?  What do you think?  Is this the direction men's floor should take? Of the five gymnasts on the team, four have qualified to finals (Golotsutskov will appear in the vault).  Russia will not, however,  be represented on pommel horse or parallel bar finals.   A significant lowlight was indeed pommels, where Golotsutskov scored in the 11s, and Russia do not appear to have improved much on this apparatus.

No Russian appeared in the unofficial all around competition which Britain’s Daniel Purvis leads.   David Belyavski, often amongst the leaders in individual competition, was disappointing yesterday, did not compete all six apparatus and failed to make any event finals.  This leaves him with the opportunity of Saturday’s team final  to prove himself to the Olympic selectors.

Russia still have significant room for improvement in the final, but then so do all of the top four teams (including Britain, Germany and France,who have a home advantage).  Russia will have to find consistency if they are to rival for medals on Saturday; hopefully Belyavski will be able to pull out his best form and make the chase interesting.

Full results can be found at the UEG’s website, and summary images are provided below for ease of reference.  The Russian Gymnastics Federation also now has a gallery of pictures from MAG Europeans including both junior and senior competitions, and the UEG is posting highlight videos relatively rapidly on its Youtube channel.

The competition continues this afternoon at 3 pm French time (2 pm in the UK) with the junior all around competition, where Russia's Grigory Zyrianov is expected to compete for a medal.












Labels:

Comments

  1. Anonymous25 May 2012 at 14:20

    Oh my i can't wait for the team finals !!!!!
    And events too : )

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who really won the WAG All Around?

By
You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ...
70 comments
Read more

Simone and the others - results and reflections

By
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...
56 comments
Read more

Viktoria Komova - back pain has forced me to step down

By
I awoke this morning to a very simple statement from Viktoria Komova, on her vk.com site, which Papa Liukin has translated (via the IG forum): 'Dear friends, fans, and gymnastics lovers. Unfortunately back pain isn't allowing me to train to my full potential and get ready for competitions. I've made the very difficult decision to stop training and take care of my health. I want to thank everyone for their support! Without your love and warmth it would've been more difficult to go all the way. Thanks everyone and see you soon! Love and kisses.' Well, first of all, good wishes and best of luck to Viktoria, who has struggled since 2012 to re-establish herself fully as a competitive gymnast, whose talent was so great that she secured gold on bars at two different World Championships, four years apart, whose career was littered with controversy, who must be allowed to live her life as she wishes.   I know that the 'gymternet' will now be overflowing...
43 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more