Skip to main content

EYOF WAG All Around live streaming; video from WAG team final

By
You will be able to watch Maria Kharenkova and Maria Bondareva compete for the all around title at the European Youth Olympic Festival in slightly less than an hour's time (3.30 pm London time) here.

It has been a great competition for the Russians so far, with the boys taking silver in the team competition against a very strong British team on Tuesday, and a bronze for the graceful Ivan Stretovich in today's all around, again against two British gymnasts. Britain's MAG programme is certainly highly competitive at all levels these days and with Russia as their closest rivals, there looks likely to be a fascinating battle between these two teams over the coming years.

Russia's girls yesterday took gold in the team competition, ahead of Britain, with Maria Kharenkova sitting in second place in all around qualifications behind Britain's Tyesha Mattis.  The team of Kharenkova, Bondareva and Kuzmina were OK on vault with FTYs, took two falls on bars, but then excelled on floor and beam.  Let's hope the Russian team's technical strength in bars work will enable this junior generation to train well and make up for their current relative weakness on this apparatus once they reach the senior team.

I will update the blog with a more comprehensive review later in the week, but don't forget the live streaming later!

Maria Kharenkova, floor





Maria Kharenkova - beam (15.05!)



Maria Bondareva, beam



Maria Bondareva - floor






Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Who really won the WAG All Around?

By
You will find a link to the FIG's newly published book of results at the Olympic Games here .  This year, they have broken down the judge's execution scores so you can see exactly how each judge evaluated the gymnasts' performances.  It makes for interesting reading - if only I had more time to analyse each judge's marking.  A skim reading already highlights multiple inconsistencies in individual judges' marks and makes you wonder why they bother with the jury at all. I have taken the time to look at the reference judges' scores for the top four in the women's all around.  The FIG explains here what their role is, and how they are selected.  I even used my calculator, which is a risky thing in my hands.  My, how I wish we could have seen a similar document for the Tokyo World Championships. I wonder if anyone can explain how, if the FIG's Code of Points is so objective and fair, it is possible to come up with two different results using two differ...
70 comments
Read more

The State of the Art - Gymnastics in 2013

By
Just picked up Peter Aykroyd's 1987 book  International Gymnastics: Sport Art or Science?.  Seeing it reminded me that gymnastics is in a constant state of flux and change; its identity has been subject to debate and conflict since the earliest days of competitive gymnastics, well before it existed in the form we recognise today.  I want to try to talk about the state of the sport today, how it compares to past models, how it arrived at this point, and what are the questions arising. I make no apologies for publishing the picture comparisons on this page, which were created by Lifje.  Some have seemed to find them rather challenging in the past, but they are not airbrushed or altered in any way.  Yes, the pictures are purpose selected for the sake of comparison, but they express a truth about the direction the sport has taken over the past few years.  They are not so much about Russia versus America as artistry versus athletics.  I do not pretend...
41 comments
Read more

Is gymnastics still artistic?

By
Such a lot is said about artistry these days - but you don't really see much evidence of it in the gymnastics.   There are flashing moments of brilliance that some people enjoy - for example, a gymnast like Brazil's Flavia Saraiva is a favourite for her spirited and expressive floor and beam.  Others might prefer the structured work of a gymnast like Kyla Ross.  For me, though, the idea of consummate artistry has been lost almost totally - the last time I saw anything like it was in 2012 when Komova performed her floor so brilliantly in the all around final.  But without a mechanism to reward artistry - something that is absent from this Code of Points - there really isn't much point even trying any more. Aliya Mustafina was interviewed recently while on holiday in Italy and expressed the opinion that artistry was something that was inborn, rather than trained.  She uses a metaphor to describe this - some gymnasts have five gears, not four, and the abilit...
36 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more