Skip to main content

Grebyonkin: Aliya succeeded in spite of knee pain


In an interview with Albert Starobutsev of ITAR-TASS, Russian WAG team coach, Evgeny Grebyonkin, spoke of Aliya Mustafina's performance in the all around yesterday.  'We are very happy with the performance of Aliya', he said, 'she completed her task, pulled herself together and managed to win a bronze medal, even though she had hurt her knee.  This explains why her bars dismount was not perfectly landed.  On beam, I liked how Aliya performed'.

Aliya herself has also spoken of the impact of her health on her performance at these Worlds.  'It is a joy' she said of the bronze medal she won, 'especially as just before the World Championships I suffered a virus, which left me with almost no physical strength, and even worse, sapped my morale'. 

Aliya added another bronze medal to her collection in today's uneven bars final, while in the men's competition Alexander Balandin secured a silver in rings.  You can find full results of these competitions here.

Congratulations to all the gymnasts, and good luck to Aliya again, and to young Anna Rodionova, who compete in the beam final together tomorrow afternoon.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

More thoughts on US gymnastics, Karolyi - and Zaglada

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

Komova should have won!

It was a very tight battle in the North Greenwich arena today, with American Gabby Douglas beating out Viktoria Komova by a mere 0.259 points (see results below) and the legendary Aliya Mustafina sealing her comeback from that career-threatening injury with a well deserved bronze medal. Yes, she suffered a fall from beam after her Arabian somersault but elsewhere she was at her best, a real endorsement of the work of the Russian coaches in nursing her back to almost-top form since that fateful day in 2011. Komova had a faultless competition apart from a step on landing her Amanar vault. Frankly, she must feel utterly shattered after coming second once again by a very small margin to an American who was treated very generously by the judges. Komova soared and took every beam move to the max, rounding off with her rare double Arabian dismount in fine style; Douglas literally sidled along the beam, seeming frightened to take her feet off the apparatus for all but her somersaults. Kom

Britain 1, Russia 2 in Junior European Gymnastics Championships

Sergei Eltcov, Kirill Potapov, Artur Dalolyan, Nikita Nagorny, Valentin Starikov It was a close-ish competition, but Britain came out on top everywhere as a team, except for pommel horse where the British had a bad day, and rings, a strong piece for a Russia.  In truth, they are two brilliant teams.  Many of these gymnasts will turn senior next year, swelling the ranks of their respective teams.  I can't wait to see them fight for medals at the a Rio Olympics.  Coached by two Russians (Andrei Popov and Sergei Sizhanov from the historic gymnastics city of a Vladimir), the British team carries the classical mark of the Russian school. CORRECTION - The British Junior team head coach is now Barry Collie.  

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more