Skip to main content

Shelgunova silver, Kharenkova 6th in Brussels 2012

Image
By
Evgeniya Shelgunova, second placed in tonight's Junior Europeans All Around competition.  Picture courtesy of the RGF.


A good competition today, with our two Russians performing well to expectation.  Shelgunova was extremely happy to land her full twisting Yurchenko after Wednesday's disappointment (two crashed vaults left her out of the running in theoretically one of her best events) and went on to complete her bars efficiently (a couple of form breaks but a good double layout dismount).  She also delivered strong routines on beam and floor where she looked very solid on both days.  Italy's Enus Mariani competed to her predicted form and took gold, just over a point ahead of Shelgunova and third placed Romanian Andreea Munteanu.

I shall reserve a small gasp of delight for the second placed Russian on the team : Maria Kharenkova really performed tonight and finished in sixth place; is it academic that she missed 5th by only .067 of a mark?  What is less academic is how Maria worked tonight.  Had she not counted a fall on her layout back somersault with altitude (they should create a new description in the Code for this), and a close fall elsewhere on beam, she could quite easily have competed for gold with Mariani.  As things stood, she not only performed well but also competed relatively unflappably, catching her piked Jaeger which she had crashed in warm-ups, following up with a sky-high double pike dismount, and fighting back with real spirit during the fluffed beam routine and, afterwards, that lovely floor routine.  Which for me outshines any floor routine of the whole Championships, Junior or Senior.

Shelgunova was a delight, feisty, competent and showing routines full of interesting difficulty.  Kharenkova is a real Russian, adding that extra dimension of musicality and amplitude.  It is a different sport when she is on the podium.  I hope they both manage to maintain their progress and work their respective ways into senior competition, where they will enrich the field significantly.

Full results of the all around competition are available here.


Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

‘My daughter likes gymnastics. For us, this is the big success’. Aliya Mustafina talks to Match TV

By
Via VK.com.  Google translate A big interview with Aliya Mustafina was published on MATCH!. We provide a small excerpt below, and the full version is available on the website at the link below  ❓ Aliya, you are now the head coach of the junior artistic gymnastics team. What does your typical day look like? 💜 My current life is similar to what it was when I was competing. In the morning, I have breakfast and go to work by 9:00, we train for four hours, have lunch, rest and train for another three hours. During the training camp, the athletes live at the base. They live and train on the same territory. ❓ Do you manage the gymnasts' personal trainers or do you evenly distribute the responsibilities? 💜 We work in contact with the personal trainers, I listen to their opinions. For example, if the trainer believes that their athlete needs to be given a little rest or do fewer repetitions of a particular exercise, we do so. ❓ Describe the current generation of children. Do they nee...
3 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

Aliya Mustafina - national coach. Interview with Elena Vaitsekhovskaya

By
 Source: Russia Today/Google Translate  Alia, come on. You can": Mustafina - about "nightmares" dreams, coaching career and muscle mass July 4, 2023, 15:32 Elena Vaitsekhovskaya It is better for a gymnast to be strong than thin. This opinion was expressed in an interview with RT by two-time Olympic champion in uneven bars Aliya Mustafina. According to her, weight is not a problem at all for an athlete if the muscles are well developed.    She also admitted that she had never been upset because of the competition, remembered the sudden phone call that changed her life, and explained why she did not consider it necessary to force athletes to train. “I didn’t go into coaching because of a divorce” - One of your interviews during your sports career was called "I love children too much to be a coach." Nevertheless, you are now leading the country's youth team in women's gymnastics and, apparently, you really like it. “I really love coaching. First, because i...
Post a Comment
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more