Skip to main content

Mustafina wins gold on bars at Russia Cup

Today's event finals have taken place, with finals for the women on vault and uneven bars, and for the men high bar, floor and pommels.  The gold medallists are Anna Pavlova (vault), Aliya Mustafina (bars), Ignatyev (high bar), Belyavski (pommels) and Ignatyev (floor).

Courtesy of the RGF
Vault was especially disappointing for specialist Maria Paseka, hopeful for the Olympics, who for some reason incurred a 2 point deduction on each of her two presentations and finished in last place in that final.  This competition did not feature those who are expected to be strongest in vault by the Olympic Games, namely Komova, Grishina and Mustafina, although it is fair to say that the Russians do seem to have a weakness in depth on this apparatus and are reliant on their three star performers.

Both Mustafina's and Komova's bars routines had a start value of 7, with Mustafina performing hers without error.  Komova's bars were good but for sitting down her dismount.  Anastasia Grishina's score of 15.45 earned her second place, although as she was competing as a guest she did not medal, leaving Komova and Nabieva to mop up silver and bronze. 

Ignatyev went against earlier form to take his two gold medals today, while Belyavski and Pakhmomenko made strong efforts on the Russian men's weak piece, pommels.  Both have therefore reinforced their claim to spots on the Olympic team.  Ablyazin suffered errors on floor and so failed to medal there.

The competition concludes tomorrow with finals in (women) beam and floor and (men) rings, vault and parallel bars.  Rodionenko has said that the Olympic teams will be chosen following the Russia Cup - although I expect each squad to include more than the minimum five gymnasts required for the competitive line up!  I am also not sure if this means that there will be a public announcement ;-)

With thanks to Nora at the All Around Forum, who provided the reports.  Full results are available at the Federation website.

Women's Vault

1.    Anna Pavlova                   14.390 (5.8/5.6)
2.    Tatiana Nabieva               14.150 (5.2/5.8)
3.    Anna Myzdrikova            13.800 (5.0/5.6)
4.    Ekaterina Svetkova          12.880 (4.6/4.6)
5.    Kristina Bodryagina          12.790 (4.6/4.4)
6.    Olga Bikmurzina               12.025 (4.0/4.6)
7.    Maria Paseka                   11.930 (6.5/5.8)

Women's Uneven Bars

1.     Aliya Mustafina                 16.150 (7.0)
2.     Anastasiya Grishina           15.450 (6.5)*
3.     Viktoria Komova              15.150 (7.0)
4.     Tatiana Nabieva                14.900 (6.1)
5.     Anna Dementieva             14.425 (6.1)
6.     Anna Rodionova               13.500 (6.2)
7.     Maria Paseka                   13.175 (6.1)
8.     Ksenia Afanasyeva           12.900 (5.7) 

* appearing as a guest


Men's high bar

1.     Nikita Ignyatev                14.833 (6.7)
2.     David Belyavsky             14.467 (6.0)
3.     Sergei Khorokhordin      14.033 (6.2)
4.     Alexei Rostov                 13.833 (6.0)
5.     Kirill Ignatenkov             13.333 (5.9)
6.     Andrei Cherkasov          12.533 (4.9)
7.     Danil Kazachov              12.500 (5.1)
8.     Alexander Klochkov      10,700 (2.7)

Men's floor

1.      Nikita Ignatyev               14.633 (6.1)
2.      Sergei Khorokhordin      14.433 (5.8)
3.      David Belyavsky             14.167 (6.0)
4.      Alexander Ilyn                14.067 (5.6)
5.      Denis Ablyazin               14.033 (7.1)
6.      Igor Pakhomenko           13.767 (6.2)
7.      Dmitri Gogotov               13.533 (6.0)
8.      Andrei Cherkasov          10.900 (4.0)


Pommel horse

1.       David Belyavsky             15.200 (6.3)
2.       Andrei Perevoznikov       15.033 (6.6)
3.       Igor Pakhomenko            14.766 (6.2)
4.       Sergei Khorokhordin       14.433 (5.8)
5.       Nikita Ignatyev                14.300 (5.6)
6.       Alexander Ilyn                 12.967 (5.5)
7.       Alexander Balandin          12.200 (5.1)

Comments

  1. Yay for Aliya, I wonder if she will upgrade her bars. If the Russian's can't do the Amanar, they could go for a vault that is 6.3 or soemthing. Or do the 5.8 vault but have more difficulty on bars to make up some points.

    Paseka is not helping her self make this team, she fell on both her vaults!! Not good at all. I hope Grishina comes back and Afan gets in shape because everything is riding on Aliya and Viktoria's shoulders right now, and that's a huge burden for them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I really hope Grishina is better and back more or less immediately ... they really do need her if they are to fight for gold seriously.

      I hope Paseka makes the Amanar reliably in time for London.

      I agree the injury risk is to great to have the all arounders practicing the Amanar.

      Delete
  2. These Amanars are a pain in the ass is what they are and they start to backfire, especially on the Americans. They use to perform them flawlessly and now, it looks like an injury waiting to happen. It sounds weird, but I really do hope that not all of the Russians will perform them in July, simply because I still believe that winning an Olympic gold should not depend on one vault when it is an all around sport for crying out loud... I love my Russian team and pray for their gold so I do realise that an Amanar is needed. I just hate that it's become compulsory

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I so agree with everything you say and hope the Russians do not just sheep like follow the trend. There are other high value vaults and i would also rather see well executed Dtys than, as you say, an injury waiting to happen.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nagorny in Bolshoi Sport interview, 7 November 2025

  You announced that you "unofficially" retired from athletics. How do you rate it? What achievements are you most proud of? To what extent did you realize your full potential? Were there any career moves you regret? I haven't yet mentally accepted the fact that my career is over. I understand that my chances are slim due to the personal sanctions imposed on me and my personal schedule. I work three jobs, and sometimes I don't have time to train, let alone take care of my personal needs. I have a lot of responsibility for projects and the team. I'll likely make my official retirement announcement next year, but I still want to compete somewhere, to "shake off the old days." I regret that my professional career ended so early and abruptly. I still have, as we say in sports, "something left in me." In many ways, I could have pushed a little harder, been more disciplined in my training, found a new approach... For example, the Youth Olympic Games ...

Anna Pavlova interview - YOU ask the questions

Anna with her team mate Maria Nekrasova today.   Maria competed in this spring's Russia Cup and will join Anna on the Azerbaijan national gymnastics team.  Picture courtesy of the Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation on Facebook. As Anna prepares to compete at this week's Voronin Cup, representing Azerbaijan for the first time, RRG, in collaboration with Anna's authorised website Anna Pavlova Online, would like to invite readers to submit their questions for an interview with Anna.  What have you always wanted to ask one of Russia's best gymnasts of the last decade? Each reader may submit up to three questions.  We will collate and if necessary edit the questions and Anna will answer the ones she finds most interesting.  Please add your questions as comments to this blog, or you may email them to me at rewriterussiagym@btinternet.com.  We hope to publish the final interview on both websites by Christmas. Many of you must dream of having a conversation with Anna...

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

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...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more