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Day 2 EF - MAG, WAG Russian Championships

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Olympic medallist Denis Ablyazin was the star this week in Penza


The spectacular events of beam, floor, vault, parallel bars and high bar took place last week and I am finally updating the blog with these results, which can be found in full on the RGF website (WAG and MAG).

They were interesting results : over the two days of event finals, four different women won gold medals (Paseka, Grishina, Shelgunova and Afanasyeva).  The absence of Komova from the competition, and the withdrawal of Mustafina and Grishina from beam and floor finals mean that these results cannot be considered to be the comprehensive book on Russian WAG form, but it is good news that the Russians have such plausible champions on each piece of apparatus.  I am particularly pleased to see that Ksenia Afanasyeva is continuing at full force - her beam routine was especially interesting.

For the men it was a stunning endorsement of the specialist work being done by the fiery Denis Ablyazin (gold on floor, rings and vault), with all around gold medalist David Belyavski confirming his class on parallel bars with a gold, and newcomer to the Russian team Nikolai Kuksenkov asserting his authority and value with a gold on high bar and a bronze on pommel horse, both apparatus at which the Russian men struggle during team competitions.  Kuksenkov's official accession to the national team may come too late for qualification for this spring's Euros, but if he continues in this vein he will be a very useful team member at World Championships in Antwerp.  Of the gold medallists only Matei Petrov, pommel horse, had not been on the Russians' team at the London Olympics.  His candidacy for Europeans will depend on weighing up his likely consistency and medal winning possibilities on this one piece compared to others who may be able to spread their risk across two or three pieces.  Balandin, for example, has potential both on rings and on parallel bars.

There is little room for a fair to middling all arounder on the Russian MAG team these days - most of them are specialists.  Nikita Ignatev, who earned a medal in the all around, looks unlikely to make a senior national team at a major competition, except as reserve, as he has no single piece at which he particularly excels.  I trust that last year's Olympic team captain, Emin Garibov (injured?), does not fall foul of the same forces this autumn in Antwerp.  Internationally, outstanding all arounders such as Kohei Uchimura are becoming increasingly thin on the ground.  What a pity.

As we work towards the first major competition of the four year preparation towards the Olympic Games, the men's team looks more interesting and competitive than the women's.

WAG beam

1.  E Shelgunova   14.05
2.  P. Fedorova  13.9
3.  K. Afanasyeva  13.775
4.  A. Dementyeva  13.4
5.  A. Pavlova  13.275
6.  K. Goryunova  13.275
7.  E. Kramarenko  12.8
8.  A. Polyan  11.725

WAG floor

1.  K. Afanasyeva  13.6
2.  K. Goryunova  13.525
3.  A. Polyan  13.075
4.  A. Pavlova  13.00
5.  E. Shelgunova  12.9
6.  A. Dementyeva  12.625
7.  M. Smirnova  11.95
8.  P. Fedorova  11.8

MAG vault

1.  D. Ablyazin  14.075
2.  M. Kudashov  13.525
3.  P. Pavlov  13.125
4.  V. Kozin 12.075
5.  D. Yakubovski  12.00
6.  A. Byikov  11.85
7.  A. Cherkasov  11.075
8.  P. Suetin  10.475

MAG parallel bars

1.  D. Belyavski  15.03
2.  A. Balandin  14.8
3.  N. Kuksenkov  14.7
4.  A. Cherkasov  14.7
5.  N. Ignatyev  14.68
6.  D. Stolyarov  14.5
7.  D. Gogotov  14.45
8.  K. Ignatenkov  12.9

MAG high bar

1.  N. Kuksenkov  14.95
2.  N. Ignatyev  14.85
3.  D. Kazachkov  14.1
4.  V. Kozin  14.03
5.  P. Russinyak  13.7
6.  E. Garibov  13.03
7.  I. Pakhomenko  12.5
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