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| Russian WAG at Stuttgart this weekend : national coach Evgeny Grebenkin, Aliya Mustafina, Yulia Inshina, Anna Rodionova, Kristina Goryunova. Can anyone identify the coach to the right? Picture courtesy of Schwaebischer Turnerbund on Facebook. |
In the WAG all around, the USA's Elizabeth Price took the gold. She reminds me of Alexandra Raisman, all power and energy, but look around for photographs of her in flight, all booty feet and bent legs. It's a terrible indictment of international standards and the Code of Points that, as Rick says on Gymnastics Coaching, Elizabeth is probably the strongest international competing currently, what with the leading Olympians taking breaks from full training. He thinks she could have taken gold medals in London ...
Russia's representative, the hard working Goryunova, finished in seventh with a disappointing score on beam; but she would not have finished higher than fifth at best. (Rumour has it that Goryunova substituted for Anna Dementieva in the all around, who found she could not travel at the last minute because of visa complications, though I do not understand why the unfortunate Dementieva should be the only one to be unable to secure a visa ...).
In the MAG team competition the Russian men finished second behind Japan, but ahead of Great Britain, counting some fantastic scores from star Denis Ablyazin, but still showing a shocking weakness on pommel horse.
David Belyavski took the bronze in the men's competition all around behind Germany's Marcel Nguyen and Britain's Daniel Purvis. Almost incidentally, but very sadly, Phillipe Boy announced his retirement from international gymnastics this weekend. I will miss him.
TamTam1982 has some videos from the competition.
Aliya Mustafina: straight Yurchenko
Aliya Mustafina : beam
Aliya Mustafina : bars
Is Mustafina nursing her leg during that dismount on beam and on vault?
GymPower has a wider range of video available:
Anna Rodionova floor (qualifications)
Kristina Goryunova balance beam (quals)
That's not an FTY from Mustafina, it's just a laid out Yurchenko with no twists- if she actually did an FTY in competition, that is a mistaken video of a timer during warmups.
ReplyDeleteAlso, your embedded vid of Goryunova's BB is messed up- it's instead another copy of Inshina's floor.
Oh dear ... a bad day at the office.
DeleteOf course that is a straight Yurchenko ... Mustafina's start value is a mere 4.4.
I have removed the embedded video of Goryunova's beam ... for some reason the HTML code provided on Youtube seems to be wrong.
From someone who was tweeting from the meet (SuperGymmie), she said "musy fell on her piked yaeger in warmup. is still limping a bit "
DeleteSo it sounded as if she hurt herself a little, which shows her determination to help the team because she still stepped up and did vault.
I don't think it is a bad injury, maybe a little sprain.
A forma de Price é simplesmente feia e grotesca. Ela ganhou somente por causa do seu salto amanar, pois todo o resto de sua ginastica é feia. Seus saltos na trave são muito mal executados e sua nulidade em expressão artística é algo triste de se ver.
ReplyDeleteQuem dera Russia e Romênia voltassem a ocupar o topo dos pódios mundiais. Ao menos é uma ginástica mais bela e completa.
Translation by LUPITA:
ReplyDeletePrice's form is simply ugly and grottesque. She won only thanks to her Amanar, because all the rest of her gymnastics is ugly. Her jumps on beam show a bad execution and it's sad to see her lack of artistic expression.
I'd like Russia and Romania to win the first places at the world level. At least their gymnastics is more beautiful and complete.
Yay!!
ReplyDeletePrice is a good tumbler like Raisman but aside from that they are very different. She swings bars in the Beth Tweddle-esque school of bars, good natural swing and plenty of room/ability to add difficulty. Her leaps, especially on beam, are not good and she is very disjointed from her choreography. While Raisman was never a ballerina on beam or floor her presentation and flexibility improved dramatically. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and while yes Elizabeth has her work cut out for her in flexibility and presentation it would be hard to find another female gymnast who could perform a better double-double.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth's double double is good, and performed with amazing ease.
DeleteShe could do well under the new Code, I think she has fewer form issues than Raisman but we can't ignore the noteable bootiness of her feet on bars.
And she isn't an artistic gymnast, in the full sense of the words ... I can respect her acrobatics, her power, her devotion to the cause, her athleticism ... but she isn't an artistic gymnast.
It is a terrible indictment of the judges, the Code, the FIG, her rivals, that a gymnast like Elizabeth Price can win gold medals at world level in the sport of artistic gymnastics.
Although I can see her work having significant merit on a tumble trak.
Hi Elizabeth, I only just noticed that you asked who the coach on the right is. His family name is Pravdin. I can't right now remember his first name. When this picture was taken I was standing just to the right of Grebenkin ;)
ReplyDeleteThank you ... so now I am trying to guess your identity! :-)
DeleteIs Mr Pravdin any relation to Kristina Pravdina?
As to my identity - we met in Brussels...
DeleteI googled Pravdin and reminded myself that he is Inshina's coach and his first name is Alexander. Kristina's patronymic is Alexandreevna....
I reckon that they look alike and he is the right age to be her father.
And they all come from Voronezh, so it looks quite likely that he is her father. She didn't train with him - she trained with Yelfimov and Bulgakova but perhaps they thought that best.
Next time I see him, I'll ask!
Thanks ... and hello again!!
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