Skip to main content

Mustafina, Grishina, Paseka, Afanasyeva - four for Moscow

By
Anastasia Grishina at the Russian Championships in Penza earlier this month.  Picture courtesy of RGF
Nominative registrations are now out for the upcoming European Championships in Moscow.

Women : Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina, Maria Paseka, Ksenia Afanasyeva

I'm delighted to see Afanasyeva on the team - to me, she is the natural selection over the still developing Evgeniya Shelgunova, whose selection could really only be justified on developmental grounds - and perhaps this could be seen as rather indulgent given the current competitive climate in world gymnastics.  Afanasyeva really adds clout to what is a mature and classy Russian team.  She was also looking on good acrobatic form at the French International recently - perhaps less focussed on her dance, but then since when did this really matter to the scores?

Aliya Mustafina is reportedly competing at the Stella Zakharova Cup in Ukraine this weekend so we shall have a chance to see how her preparations are going.  Both Anastasia Grishina and Ksenia Afanasyeva have put in convincing showings at recent competitions, with Grishina looking much stronger and more confident than in London, in my opinion a legitimate contender for the all around gold, and Afanasyeva hopefully able to fight for a European floor gold to add to her World medal from 2011.

But remember what happened last time Europeans were staged in Moscow - 1987?  There the graceful young Daniela Silivas came in and stole the all around title from young pretender, Alleftina Priakhina, leaving veteran Elena Shushunova with a bronze medal.  I would love to see Romanian Larissa Iordache make a similar impact at this competition and compete closely for a medal in the all around.  European gymnastics needs and deserves a higher profile than it gets and a beautiful podium of Grishina, Mustafina and Iordache would really emphasise the classical artistry that is still so much a characteristic of the sport in these parts of the world.

The Russian men's team includes Denis Ablyazin, David Belyavski, Alexander Balandin, Emin Garibov, newcomer Matvei Petrov and Nikita Ignatyev.    Belyavski and Ignatyeva are going for the all around.

Enjoy Anastasia Grishina's gold medal winning beam routine from last weekend's Cottbus Cup.



Appreciate Ksenia Afanasyeva's floor routine from the French International of two weeks ago:




Labels:

Comments

  1. audgator27 March 2013 at 14:49

    Really pleased with Grishina this weekend! While during the Olympics cycle I liked her, I wanted Komova and Mustafina in the AA. But now, I would really like to see Grishina develop into a consistent performer and shake things up in Russia. Haha, as much as I like her I will have a hard time rooting for her to beat Komova or Mustafina this cycle!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous27 March 2013 at 15:15

    No Nabs? :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. M27 March 2013 at 16:45

    It was obvious that Afan would get picked.

    Europeans will be interesting. Hopefully everyone can hit,

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous27 March 2013 at 17:39

    Grishina looks good! A little lack of difficulty tho, but that can be added later for important competitions. No point in getting hurt now.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous28 March 2013 at 14:50

    I saw Grishina's performance in Cottbus, I think she's getting along with her new coach and more confident than before... but I think she penalized severely on UB Final, I mean 8.275 E-score for that routine is just unfair.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous1 April 2013 at 18:21

    This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7 April 2013 at 12:12

    I wanted Nabs to be selected. I don't know how she is doing now, but why hadn't she made it? Did they just don't need her or was she not good enough?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth7 April 2013 at 12:34

      I too believe that Tanya should be selected for every national team on grounds of her entertainment value.

      However, I think she is in training for this summer's Universiade rather than in contention for the first team for major competitions. Valentina R has reported that she is training hard with this goal in mind.

      Tatiana is eligible for the Universiade as she attends the Lesgaft Institute. The age restrictions make such gymnasts as Komova and Grishina ineligible, meaning that competition to reach the team is less fierce than for competitions such as Worlds and Euros. I guess that the Universiade may be Nabieva's last major competition, if she makes it.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More thoughts on US gymnastics, Karolyi - and Zaglada

By
I’d like to add some thoughts to my earlier post about USA gymnastics and Bela Karolyi:  1. What Bela did, he did. He would agree that his actions were his responsibility. 2. Abusive relationships in USA gymnastics (and no doubt elsewhere) pre-existed Bela’s move to the USA and still exist today. 3. Harsh training existed and exists in all of the ‘artistic’ sports and dance-related forms - eg ballroom dancing, ballet, ice skating, circus.  The training involved in most of these activities is founded on an assumption of the benefits of early specialisation.  It revolves around  ‘ideal’ forms, shapes and postures that are difficult to achieve without early years training - women especially.   4. Wherever prodigious early talent exists, there are predators whose main desire in life is to take advantage of that talent - music, entertainment, maths, sport.  The boundaries very easily become confused.  Who owns the talent?  Who decides how many hours to work, at what level?  FOR WHOSE BENEFI
Post a Comment
Read more

RIP Bela Karolyi

By
RIP Bela Karolyi. We were all mesmerised by the gymnastics that Nadia Comaneci brought to the world.    Some of us wanted to be like Nadia.    Others wanted to share her glory. When Kerri Strug saluted the judges with a hop and a cry of agony, thousands of adults cried for joy, felt inordinate pride that a love of country had inspired such courage and strength.   When generations of elite gymnasts, many of them gold medal winners, spoke out about the abuse they had experienced whilst practicing their sport, those thousands and millions of cheering adults didn’t stop appreciating the gold medals. They did start to look for someone to blame, someone who could take responsibility for the entire systemic nastiness that enabled the abuse to take place.    Some chose the man who came to fame as Nadia Comaneci’s coach, and went on to shape elite gymnastics training in the USA, Bela Karolyi. But who facilitated and enabled Karolyi?    Who endorsed the training that earned the medals?   It was
Post a Comment
Read more

Vladimir Zaglada - coach, author, friend, father

By
It is with great sadness that I report here the sudden and completely unexpected death, on 5th October, of our friend Vladimir Zaglada.  I send my love and condolences to his daughter, Olesya.  My thoughts are with the whole family.   Vladimir was born in Lvov, Ukraine, in November 1944.  His father was a progressive lawyer of great courage who was known to defend those who challenged the Soviet authorities.  Vladimir trained as a sports acrobat under the developing Soviet sports system, working in the same club as Olympic champion Viktor Chukarin.  After moving to Moscow, he became a leading coach of women's gymnastics, supporting the development of high level acrobatics.  He worked particularly closely with the up and coming young gymnasts of the early 1980s - you can see him at work in the video 'You in Gymnastics'.  At the national training centre, Lake Krugloye, he worked with Filatova, Mostepanova, Yurchenko, Arzhannikova, Mukhina and more.   Around the mid 1980s Vlad
Post a Comment
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more