Skip to main content

Russia's new champions : Mustafina and Belyavski

A fresh start has been made in the Russian Federation, and yesterday Russia's stars presented themselves anew in their first small steps towards the Rio Olympics in 2016.  The team's leading Olympic medallist, Aliya Mustafina, won the all around competition ahead of the unlucky bird of London, Anastasia Grishina.  In third position we have youngster, first year senior Evgeniya Shelgunova.  Of course, the subtext here is that the best of all, graceful, powerful, Viktoria Komova, could not compete thanks to a nagging back injury ... surely she would have beaten the lot of them if she had only been at full strength. 

On the men's side, David Belyavski confirmed his position as Russia's leading all around gymnast, and joker Nikita Ignatyev gave him strong competition in second place.  Many of Russia's leading male gymnasts did not appear in the all around competition, however, preferring to present on their specialist pieces.  The most encouraging work came from Garibov who managed a 15.45 on pommel horse - very important to the Russians who struggle on this piece .  Balandin managed a fantastic 15.7 on rings, but then Russia's talent on this piece is well established.

The influence of new beam coach Marina Bulashenko is well evident in the work of Aliya Mustafina, who has added significant new combinations to her work and seems revived in her floor choreography (which, by all accounts, Bulashenko has been helping the team with).  You can see a good video of Aliya's work below, with thanks to Tatiana.  Aliya came first on three apparatus : vault, bars and beam, leaving floor to her London team mate Ksenia Afanasyeva, who has added a two and a half twisting somersault to her battery of floor skills.  Second placed overall, Anastasia Grishina, saw her competition spoiled by a tired double pike at the end of her floor exercise (12,6) but then she did manage to complete the double double which had seemed to be a twist too far in her London efforts.  I liked the look of Grishina at this competition, she seemed significantly more confident and strong alongside her new personal coach, Viktor Razumovsky.  I am expecting great things of her at her first home international, the European Championships, in Moscow, in April. 

I was not especially impressed by newcomer Shelgunova, but then Valentina Rodionenko has emphasised that she is there to gain experience so perhaps we can expect better things in a year or so.  Of the specialists, Maria Paseka looks to be in contention for a place on the Europeans team with strong performances on vault, where she placed second to Mustafina, and an improvable fifth place on bars. 

Sadly, Anna Dementyeva seems to remain in her good reserve position, rather than having taken a step back up into contention for the main team. I think a place on the University Games team is probably more realistic for her than Europeans. Nabieva posted solid scores on bars and vault and may have qualified to vault finals but will need to keep up her training effort if she is to compete in Kazan this summer - fingers crossed for the joyful Tatiana.

I'll post below Mustafina's beam video, some links to screen captures from the live stream (thank you Albert) and links to results.  More to follow, including today team finals, then later in the week the all important event finals.




See Albert's channel for some captures from yesterday's live streaming.

Go Tribe has transliterated the results in full at her excellent website.

And of course, the RGF has produced the results in full, with numbering to indicate the positions on the individual apparatus : MAG and WAG.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

Mustafina Interview 2 of 2 : 'I will only perform under the Russian flag'

Argumentyi i Fakti interview with Aliya Mustafina Translated by Marina Vulis ‘I have no fear’, says Aliya Mustafina.   ‘My father [Farhat Mustafin, the bronze medallist in Greco-Roman wrestling at the 1976 Olympics] took me to my first gymnastics class.   In his opinion children need to do sports, and he saw gymnastics as useful for my general development.   He had no goals – just to let us practice.’ It did not end with ‘just practice’ – she became the World Champion at 16, but then had an ACL injury the next year (2011) at the Europeans.   Even just returning to gymnastics is a feat; then she came back to win four medals at the 2012 Olympics. Aliya Mustafina – That injury.   I do not know why I was ashamed – so many people were watching me and I could not even walk.   My parents!   They saw everything on TV (the coach had to carry her from the podium).   Of course I was aware that anything could happen in gymnastics, but I di...

I am looking forward with inspiration - Melnikova returns to international competition

Angelina Melnikova will be the first Russian WAG to compete internationally since the IOC ban in 2022 when she appears at the World Challenge Cup in Paris on September 13 and 14 this year. Travelling with her will be coach Konstantin Pluzhnikov and judge Elena Redyanova.   Angelina says she will compete AA with a relatively simple programme. I’m glad Angelina is making this start for Russia.  It’s a real tribute to this young woman that she is trusted with the first effort at coming back after such a long time, and I hope people welcome her back warmly.  Angelina will be competing as a neutral athlete, of course.  She was awarded this status after a fair and rigorous process of evaluation by the FIG.   Here is what Angelina said today to Match TV: Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Angelina Melnikova told Match TV how she reacted to being admitted to the FIG World Challenge Cup tournament in France. ❓What emotions did you experience from the fact that you w...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more