Skip to main content

Senior team final - WAG Europeans 2012 - start lists

By
Don't miss these start lists for tomorrow's battle, which begins at 3.00 pm Brussels time.  I will be there.
Russia's working order currently remains unchanged from Thursday's qualifications, so obviously the girls are expected to make amends for their rather shaky performances.  I hope they can at least regain some confidence.

In fact - let's hope that all the teams perform to their best!  Good luck, girls!

Link to the start list here.

Comments

  1. Anonymous12 May 2012 at 18:51

    Those who came second today are the obvious favorites for London. Let's be serious here. If Komova doing 2 events, Aliya just having started to train floor and vault and Ksenia Afanasyeva back home with her World title is BARELY enough for going-at-full-strenght Romania to manage a win, it is as obvious as Aliya being a champion. Stucking her DTY today and posting a 15.8 on bars (not even in full difficulty), splendid work. She spoke for all Russia in terms of how seriously they should be taken. To me, they won big time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Queen Elizabeth12 May 2012 at 20:35

    I would tend to agree but with the cautionary note that the team comp format is rather a lottery and does not favour the risky approach of our favourites.
    The Rom team is very confident and feisty. The scores reflected their position as the strongest team this weekend but might be difficult to replicate in London where there will be no clear number 1.
    In the meantime congratulations to B and B for creating yet another winning team. And to the Russian girls for putting up a real fight. It was great to see Aliya in particular retrieve her smile.
    More on Monday.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous14 May 2012 at 10:20

    The Russian Federation proves unable to put together a team with old gymnasts and juniors, while other teams have older and more experienced gymnasts. Why is Pavlova not training with them? Nabieva? What about talentful Dementieva? They just act as they did during the Soviet period, with three teams and 30 gymnasts ready to perform. Times have changed!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Queen Elizabeth14 May 2012 at 18:49

    In my opinion Pavlova is out of the running (a) because her knee would not withstand the rigours of full training and Lake Krugloye, and the team needs all gymnasts to participate equally (b) because she let the team down so very badly in Beijing ... she really did. Mistakes are part of gymnastics, but to have those errors when she did, in the way they were made was unforgiveable.
    I believe Nabieva is back at Krugloye after a short period at home in St Petersburg trying to get back into shape. Alexandrov says he has only a little hope that she will be strong enough to compete in London.
    Dementieva has a niggling knee injury that is preventing her from working at full strength.
    Russia doesn't seem to have the same strength in depth as the Soviet Union, but then the Soviets had multiple Republics from which to draw their teams, and a sporting infrastructure that was second to none.
    Russia's sporting infrastructure is currently being rebuilt with massive injections of cash from the government and sponsors like VTB but the Russian team is currently managing a legacy of thin participation that will probably take decades to overcome.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

By
Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...
30 comments
Read more

Aliya Mustafina - 'I'm just trying to stay healthy'

By
A brief interview with the World and Olympic Champion from All Sport is summarised below. Russian national gymnastics continues to prepare for the World Championships, which will be held October 3-12 in Nanning (China). Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina told Mary Staroverova about her health and about preparations for the competition. - In June, I went to Germany to solve the problem with my ankle.  I had a small operation to clean the joints of a build-up of bone particles.  Nothing serious was evident, and the operation went well.  Now I have to tumble.  But there is still some discomfort, a slight pain at full load, and I can not tumble at full force.  For the time being, I try to go easy on my legs.  After the Russia Cup I will have to fully prepare for Worlds. That is just one month.   Even if I'm not tumbling, I will keep myself in good shape, and that should suffice (smiles). - I can't say if it is a different pain to before Europeans, because at...
48 comments
Read more

'Mustafina is no longer in pain' - Valentina Rodionenko

By
Picture of Aliya Mustafina, courtesy of RGF Valentina Rodionenko has provided some updates on the Russian teams and how their preparation for Worlds (Nanning, China, 3 to 12 October) is progressing, via Allsports (http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=84328) - The teams are now at camp in Italy, in two small towns close to Milan, by the sea, where the girls travelled on 29th June and the men on 1 July.  The athletes aren't only training, they can also relax. - Komova is working out at Round Lake, she didn't go to Italy.  We will see how she does at the Russia Cup, which will be held late August in Penza. Tatiana Nabiyeva is looking good in training and the other girls are also working.  Ksenia Afanasyeva won't have time to prepare for Worlds, and Anastasia Grishina's participation is also in doubt, we just don't know if she will qualify for the team.   We have hopes for Aliya Mustafina.  As always, she is our number one.  It would be great if there were t...
30 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more