Russia prevails, against the odds

Maria Paseka in flight  Courtesy of the RGF

It has been a curious European Championships so far, for the Russian women.  A team somewhat depleted of new talent is looking to its veterans to carry Russia into the future.  It is a tricky year : with the Universiade coming up in the summer, and Worlds in the autumn, last summer's Olympians face a hectic and pressured time.  You get the feeling that the girls are almost reluctant participants in this, the earliest major competition of the year.  There has just been so much extra curricular activity going on; instead of focussing on the gymnastics, the girls have been at the centre of what at times has resembled the plot of a soap opera.

Regardless of the reality of their everyday training, the picture presented of their lives in sport is far from ordered.  For Mustafina, there has been an unsettling circumstance surrounding the status of her personal coach, Alexander Alexandrov, a man she last year called her 'second father', but who this year was quietly removed from the team roster at the last minute without explanation. The strongest competitor that Russia has had for many a year, its only Olympic gold medallist in the discipline, has been labelled as 'difficult' and 'lazy'.  For Grishina, there has been a change of personal coaching arrangements and a barrage of public criticism  from the Head Coach of the Russian team.  For Afanasyeva, new ambitions have been hyped beyond reasonable belief.  It is almost as though the words have become more important than the deeds, a good story for the press more important than the gymnastics.  You would think that the main thing would be that every gymnast prepared and performed to the best of her ability, wouldn't you?

Who knows whether the many changing stories surrounding their training influenced the results of today's qualifying competition.  Certainly, the level of expectation of the girls always seemed unrealistic to me.  The results certainly aren't disastrous.  Russia vaulted very well. Paseka, the only team member not exposed to some form of verbal assault this year or last, delivered to, and perhaps exceeded promise with places in both vault and bars finals.  Afanasyeva tumbled brilliantly on floor to finish there in first place.  Grishina recovered from a poor start to pull out what was least expected of her in the form of a solid floor exercise and qualification to the all around and beam finals.  Mustafina looked as though she was holding it all together, just as she always does ... until that awful beam exercise where she suffered the indignity of not one, but two falls, and looked somewhat discombobulated to boot.  With a mark in the 11s to carry, she squeezed into the all around final as Russia's second representative behind the much maligned Grishina, but was also the top qualifier on bars, and third on floor.  All four Russians have qualified to event finals; they lead the standings in two pieces, and have three gymnasts in the top five individual ranks from qualifications.

Yet all three qualifications all arounders suffered errors and at times looked to lack fitness, at a time when the sport demands more and more of its practitioners in terms of reliability and athleticism.  Choreographic passages were omitted from floor exericses to preserve energy for the tumbles.  Afanasyeva still performed with ambition and commitment on this piece, but a fall to her side on bars dismount, not surprisingly, led to a dispirited beam outcome.  All three all arounders suffered falls in their programmes.  I expect that the two qualified gymnasts (Grishina and Mustafina) wlll do better in the all around, and I so would like to see Afanasyeva win floor, but then I am an optimist.

Meanwhile, the two gymnasts from Romania (Iordache and Bulimar) looked full of life.  Either Bulimar or Iordache would be worthy all around champions this year, and they also look likely to sweep balance beam, a final with only one Russian qualified, Anastasia Grishina, thanks to the withdrawal of Britain's unlucky Gabby Jupp.  Russia managed to qualify six spots in event finals from a bank of four competing athletes.  Romania 'only' managed to qualify to five berths, but from a team of just two.  All members of both teams will compete again this week at least once.

Yet I am left with an uncomfortable feeling about the Russians. After all the talk, all the rearrangement of coaching, and the appointment of new specialists like beam coach Marina Bulashenko, you would expect them to look better prepared for this competition, the first home European Championships for Russia since 1998.  After all, other gymnasts have faced the rigours of Olympic preparation, are looking forward to a busy summer, and seem to have reached a better pitch of readiness. 

Tomorrow, we will see what the gymnasts can do.  I still feel convinced that a Romanian will take gold and that the Russians will have to wait for event finals if they want to be champions.  This competition has, put simply, come a little too early for them.   They will all, surely, be better prepared for the big competitions of the summer and the autumn.    They will have to be.  In their second home competition, the Universiade in Kazan, the Ministry of Sport is demanding results.

Find links to the scores here.

All around qualifiers

Vault qualifiers

Bars qualifiers

Beam qualifiers

Floor qualifiers