Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Luchinho84 has been uploading videos of today's podium training onto his Youtube channel. Here is Aliya Mustafina's floor from earlier today. Latest news: Nabiyeva may well not compete all around after a low landing (to her head) on a floor tumble. She says she is determined to compete, but does not know in what capacity. She is injured, but not seriously. Fingers crossed that her health is good. And good luck, again, to the whole team.

I'm taking a mini break from blogging this weekend as it has been a very busy time recently and I anticipate a lot more work over the coming weeks. I promise I will try not to miss anything significant, and to catch up fully as we go. You can find links to videos of the Russian girls in podium training at my Facebook page. I don't think you have to be a registered Facebook user to see this. And in the meantime, here is a video of Anna Rodionova training floor in Antwerp. I really like her style. Maria Paseka will not be competing here, due to back pain. The updated participation lists showed Rodionova competing bars and beam only, but I'm hoping to see her on floor as well, where her great lines, posture and spontaneity really stand out. She's a Russian gymnast! On the men's side, unfortunately Nikolai Kuksenkov is out of the all around because of that broken finger. We hope to see him on high bar (seems a strange apparatus choice for a broken hand, bu...

State of the art gymnastics facilities at Europa Gym Centre, Crayford It is 10.30 on a Saturday night, and Len Arnold OBE is shifting mats with the lads.  The 58 year old gymnastics coach and social entrepreneur is Head Coach and manager of the Europa Gym Centre in Crayford, an impressive state of the art training facility that opened in 2012 and which today (7th September) hosted the London Open, a major event in the British gymnastics calendar.  This year, the competition acted as a final trial for the British senior men who will travel to Antwerp for the World Championships later this month, and amongst the competition were two youngsters from the historic Nikolai Tolkachev Gymnastics School of the Olympic Reserve, Vladimir, Russia. The Russian boys' presence was more than a mere opportunity for them to experience competition in a foreign country against some world class rivals.  It also marked the 25th anniversary of a partnership between a legendary Russian s...

Olympic vault medallist Maria Paseka practices floor in training recently An interview with Head Coach for the women, Evgeny Grebyonkin, is summarised below. There are only a few days to go before the world championships, and there are still some gymnasts who are suffering from illnesses and injury and cannot compete - Grishina, Afanasyeva, Komova. The girls had their day off on Sunday, and so on Monday we'll see how they are doing. Nabiyeva is expected to be in the all around final, and we also hope to see her in vault and bars. Rodionova will go on beam - this is her first competition, so we don't know what to expect, as she didn't even compete much at junior level internationally. She doesn't have particularly high D values, so the main purpose of this competition is to give her experience. Rodionova is a girl for the future, she is building her difficulty. We are just hoping that this will be a positive start for her and give her a good base for the fu...

State of the art gymnastics facilities at Europa Gym Centre, Crayford It is 10.30 on a Saturday night, and Len Arnold OBE is shifting mats with the lads.  The 58 year old gymnastics coach and social entrepreneur is Head Coach and manager of the Europa Gym Centre in Crayford, an impressive state of the art training facility that opened in 2012 and which today (7th September) hosted the London Open, a major event in the British gymnastics calendar.  This year, the competition acted as a final trial for the British senior men who will travel to Antwerp for the World Championships later this month, and amongst the competition were two youngsters from the historic Nikolai Tolkachev Gymnastics School of the Olympic Reserve, Vladimir, Russia. The Russian boys' presence was more than a mere opportunity for them to experience competition in a foreign country against some world class rivals.  It also marked the 25th anniversary of a partnership between a legendary Russian s...

Denis Ablyazin with coach Valeri Starkin at Lake Krugloye this week.  Courtesy RIA Novosti More information on the Russian men's programme has been released after this week's press day at the national training centre, and much of it centres on opinions of the amazing Japanese floor specialist Kenzo Shirai . European Champion David Belyavski and Universiade Champion Nikolai Kuksenkov have now both commented favourably on the Japan athlete's prowess on floor, and his astounding difficulty.   'Shirai can perform on the floor mat, what others cannot even do on a trampoline', says Kuksenkov .  In competition so far this has included a quadruple twisting somersault and a mountain of other superior twisting skills in combination, although we must be careful to note the absence - to date - of any double somersaults in his work. Kuksenkov was quick to point out the relative ease with which a specialist on one piece can rise to the top of the sport, emphasising his ad...

European high bar champion Emin Garibov wears the T shirt of his team, Dynamo Moscow, at a recent training session at the national training centre. Dynamo has recently been able to confirm that its annual Voronin Cup will take place this y ear at the Olympiski Stadium after the RGF/VTB released funds to help the club stage this popular competition.  The club's long term future still remains under threat, however, as it searches for new training facilities.  Read more here .

Aliya Mustafina at work recently.  RGF Lupita translates a Tass interview with All Around contender, Aliya Mustafina. Olympic champion Aliya Mustafina has decided not to experiment with new vaults at the World Championships that start in a week’s time in Antwerp (Belgium). The athlete made this statement after the open training session that took place on Thursday at Ozero Krugloye. She was asked about the likelihood of performing a triple twisting Yurchenko vault. “A TTY is a new vault, we will have to see how it goes. I am training two vaults, but I’ll decide in Antwerp which of them I’ll perform ". Mustafina got injured when performing an Amanar vault (two and a half twisting Yurchenko) in April 2011. Nevertheless, she recovered and came back to win gold at the London Olympics in the summer of 2012. "I am training conscientiously for the World Championships … I know what these competitions are like. Other athletes will compete there with me. Except for Tanya Na...

With many thanks to Zarariel for posting this video.  Aliya here practices some of her bars routine, and is seen walking through her new floor choreography. With thanks to Nikky Veronika for the link.

If, like me, you aren't part of the Antwerp action in person, I'm sure you will want to be there virtually, and to schedule your viewing time ... so hoorah for British Gymnastics , who have confirmed the BBC's timetable of coverage of the Antwerp World Championships.  Get out your diaries and block off your favourite sessions for some serious gymnastics. Thursday 3rd October BBC Online 19.00-22.00 BST  - Live men`s all-around Friday 4th October BBC Two 13.00-15.00 BST – Highlights of the Men`s all-around BBC Three 19.00-21.00 BST  Live women`s all-around Saturday 5th October Red Button/Online 13.30-14.25 - Live men`s floor and women`s vault BBC One 14.30-16.30 BST – Live men`s pommel/uneven bars and rings + h`lights floor/vault Sunday 6th October BBC Two  13.30-16.30 BST – Live apparatus finals. This is correct at time of publishing, but you should make sure to check your usual sources closer to the transmission time....

Nikolai Kuksenkov, in training this week for Worlds at Lake Krugloye, has his painful hand treated.  RGF Lupita translates an interview with the Russian head coach, Valeri Alfosov: Nikolai Kuksenkov, the winner at the Universiade, has a finger injury [dislocated finger]; he might not compete on all events. 'When will the decision be taken?', asked Sovietski Sport ' In Antwerp, in the final training sessions', replied Alfosov. Kuksenkov thinks that this was a silly injury. He was training bars, and thinks it will be fine by the time that the World championships start. 'We are doing everything' he says. 'Have you seen the new 19 year old gymnast from Japan?' Alfosov replied, ' Kenzo Shirai? I saw his floor clip on the internet. He performs incredible elements in his routine: no double backs, only twists: four twists at the end, triple twisting front.'   David Belyavski has an ankle injury but will try to compete in Antwer...

Tatiana Nabiyeva at the recent Universiade, where she won a gold medal with her team Lupita has been translating for us, the words of Valentina Rodionenko on the forthcoming worlds. Aliya will fight for the AA gold. I think that her rival is Larisa Iordache from Romania, who has a very strong beam. Her technique is very original. On floor Aliya and Larissa are at the same level. Aliya is better on vault and, of course, bars. Her routine is more difficult than the one she performed at the London Olympics. For instance, she does the Shaposhnikova with a 360º twist. Very few gymnasts have performed this element we will see in Antwerp. So lets’ hope… On Nabiyeva, Valentina has also said : 'she has become thinner now, she is a 'krasavitsa' right now (beautiful woman).

Anna Rodionova will compete in her first Worlds this autumn. News of Russia's embattled WAG team is now being confirmed in the Russian press, and we are all grateful to Lupita for translating the key points from this article , an interview with team coach Evgeny Grebyonkin. 1)       Dementyeva is not going to retire. She went home and has now decided to continue. 2)       Komova is recovering in hospital (note: I have read elsewhere that she will leave hospital on the 27th September, but won't be able to train for anything up to two or three months).  In a mock competition prior to her illness, she had scored more than 60 points all around. 3)       Afanasyeva will compete in Mexico in November. Surgery went well. 4)       Mustafina has a cold. She has upgraded bars, beam and floor and has added a vault (note: elsewhere , Mustafina's bars D value is said to be 6....

Polina Fyodorova has qualified to beam finals in the Osijek finals; could she be a last minute addition to Worlds? Russia's sponsor, VTB Bank, has published a picture gallery of the Russian team in training.  Those featured include Aliya Mustafina, Tanya Nabiyeva, Maria Paseka and, recumbent and face down, clinging to the hand of one of her team mates, young Anna Rodionova. The resurgent men's team is also depicted in this candid collection of images.  It's a great record with photographs by Sergei Kivrin. Self-possessed, looking strong - Aliya Mustafina Of course, we still do not really know who the Russians will field as the final four in their Antwerp team ... the WAG team has been riddled with injuries and illness, and recently Andrei Rodionenko has also been blaming the wide variety in formats of FIG competitions for the problems the team faces in making team selections ... basically saying, do we train specialists, or all arounders?  You can read a full ...

A full Russian language translation is now available of Alexander Alexandrov's interview at : Anna Pavlova Online   Появилась версия интервью с Александром Александровым на русском языке на сайте Анны Павловой. За 5 минут все не прочитаешь, так что запаситесь временем, если хотите прочесть от начала до конца - оно того стоит!!!! Благодарим всех, кто помогал с переводом, а также отдельное спасибо лично Elizabeth Booth и сайту Rewriting Russian Gymnastics, где размещено оригинальное интервью. By permission of RRG. Спасибо, Dina Rantsevich, за организаторскую работу с группой переводчиков Copyright (c) Alexander Alexandrov/RRG 2013

The peerless Viktoria Komova will have a chance to compete bars and beam if fully recovered from her recent illness The Russian teams for Antwerp have been announced ! WAG : All Around : Aliya Mustafina, Tatiana Nabiyeva Event specialists : Maria Paseka, Aliya Mustafina, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Viktoria Komova or Anna Rodionova   MAG : Al l Around : David Belyavski and Nikolai Kuksenkov. Event specialists : David Belyavski, Nikolai Kuksenkov, Emin Garibov, Denis Ablyazin, Mattvei Petrov   If Komova is ready, she will compete either bars or beam or both but, it seems, not all around.   Sadly, Ksenia Afanasyeva, who would have been a front runner for a floor medal, is confirmed as having had an ankle operation last week, and so is out of this competition. Valentina Rodionenko says she should be back in shape in December.   In as far as Grishina is concerned, Valentina says that the gymnasts selected all participated in all of the necessary qua...

I have tried to allow a little time for people to digest Alexander's interview.  It is still early days.  There has been some frantic discussion on the gymternet.  Most it has characterised the 'story' as an argument between Alexandrov and the Rodionenkos: who was right, and who was wrong? Of course, it will take much more time to stand back and see the whole picture.  This is an emotional story that presents itself as a classic confrontation between good and bad.  We see the Rodionenkos as paranoid, manipulative dictators, self-interested and determined not to be outshone by a star performer on their team.  The spontaneous Alexandrov, on the other hand, is engaging, direct, full of tough love for his gymnasts and focussed only on a desire to see his team perform well.  This is a compelling proposition, and it's not surprising that the vast majority of discussion on the internet revolves around this argument. One thing that I find remarkable is how...