Russia's neutral gymnasts have been performing very well in competition recently, not least at the Cottbus Cup last week where a fairly inexperienced group of young women took medals on every piece - and their men did well, too. The team is still in the position where its veterans, or at least its established performers, are the leaders. For the women, this means that Melnikova is assumed to be the top, while for the men, Marinov is the one whose name is most likely to be spoken. But he is still recovering from multiple injuries and not expecting to be ready for competition until later in the year. In fact the leadership of the men's team has skipped a couple of generations: first year senior, Arseny Dukhno, is taking the lead for the team. So while the youngsters head off to the World Cup competitions to make a name for themselves there, the leaders are competing in the Serie A league in Italy - and they aren't doing too shabbily there. Both Melnikova and...
Really cool, it's nice to see her having fun and playing dress up. The pic with the teddy is cute.
ReplyDeleteThe true AA Olympic champion IMO
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