Russia continued strongly today at the Cottbus competition, with Denis Ablyazin establishing himself as Russia's leading competitor. Ukrainian Oleg Verniaiev also performed some outstanding gymnastics on this second day of qualifying. In the women's competition, Romanian Andrea Munteanu easily leads both beam and floor, but in her first senior international competition the promising Maria Kharenkova qualified to both her finals, despite a crunching fall on beam. We look forward to seeing her fight back on Sunday.
Photo of Katya Kourbatova and Tamara Chachua, courtesy of Sportivnaya Gymnastika on VK.com
The competition continues tomorrow from 2 pm. There is some doubt as to whether the live streaming promised by DTB can be provided internationally, for legal reasons. Live updates will be available on Gymnastike http://www.gymnastike.org/coverage/251491-2014-Cottbus-World-Cup/article/25598-LIVE-Updates-2014-Cottbus-World-Cup#.UyNBFH8gGK3
Floor results
Parallel bars
High bar
Vault
As usual the Russian WAG crumbles when the competition starts. No matter how much potential in training they show, their talent seems forever stunted by their warped competition complex (Mustafina and Vika being exceptions...but even they eff up in comp. too).
ReplyDeleteI am not really sure why you bother posting or reading at all if you feel so negative! Kharenkova qualified to two finals in her first senior competition.
ReplyDeleteSure, the Russian girls are not as deep, consistent, strong, confident as many. This blog has laid out many of the reasons, political, technical and personal. I do not believe there is an easy solution, especially as the up and coming girls do not show the same difficulty levels or, often, competitive spirit of their predecessors.
However, they are still competing for medals ... Evaluation of the girls' performance is a relative matter.
I can't see the Rio team doing much unless all of Mustafina, Komova, Frishina and Afanasyeva are on absolute top form on the days of competition and throughout most of the next two years ... Very unlikely. The juniors are all specialists and there are fewer and fewer who impress with their difficulty level.
Alexandrov showed that coaching does make a difference and showed that it is possible to bring through first year seniors to competitive success.
Anyway, back to my original subject, why don't you post something that takes the discussion forward, rather than just trashing others' efforts and using bad language?
I think ur being oversensitive, though its ur blog so whatever. I could have used actually bad language instead of changing the vernacular of my curse-word but that would have been trashy indeed. My opinion is negative but so what? It is my opinion and reflects what i feel is a truth about the state of their program. It is not easy being a Russian fan when they constantly bail on their potential. There are plenty of times for deeper analytic statements but I need not delve into those things every time I want to talk about the Russian WAG. My vent wasn't even disrespectful as it allows that they are talented but that they are unfocused; anyone could agree or disagree and then, whala!, a respectful and open discussion would be created. I didn't realize a comment had to have such academic guidelines as you propose (the political, technical and so on). From now on I will either do that or praise them to high heavens which you would've undoubtedly been okay with.
DeleteDo the Russians coaches realize that the gymnasts will have to compete vault SOMETIME....?
DeleteI know ... I despair too! Especially since they led in vault difficulty in 2010, it is hard to explain why their vaulting in particular has become such a worry.
DeleteWell, it's relative, isn't it - the girls can generally produce reasonable double twisting Yurchenkos. But not enough of the youngsters can really vault well, and they aren't leading the world as they once did. We are just coming upon the lowest era in Russian gymnastics in my opinion - as the Yeltsin generation come of age and the results of poor childhood participation rates become evident. I don't know how long the fallow period will persist. Perhaps it will be the end for Russia. They having been investing since about 2008 but it takes between ten and fifteen years for results to show in this sport.
they really need Alexandrov back....... the problem is that the Rodidenkos are related to Dmitri Medvedev, so to remove them from Russian Gymnastics will be difficult.....
ReplyDeleteEven under Alexandrov, who was no perfect coach, they made mistakes, though sometimes their d-scores allowed them to still medal. But I think that no coach can teach confidence and focus (he can inspire it, perhaps?), and that seems to be what they're always lacking. It must be wonderful to be a US gym fan; to speak about strategy and upgrades and talent, and to see all those things manifest in terms of performance and medal count. *sigh*
Deleteif I saw unfocused and unconfident one I would support him more to be self confident and alert, siphoning off my critics on him won't help him at all ...
DeleteWhat coulg Alexandrov do right now? Prepare Mustafina a little better? What did he do for Komova? for Afanasyeva? Rodionova is an exquisite gymnast, but who can give her skills on vault and floor?
DeleteI think based on Alexandrov's track record, he might perform better at motivating a stronger work ethic amongst the team. It wasn't his job to be personal coach to every member of the team - Afanasyeva and Komova have excellent personal coaches of their own.
DeleteYes, the Russians have huge problems at present with weak participation, migration of coaches, etc. But it's a huge problem that the team management seem prepared to deny responsibility for, asking questions like the one above ('Who could give Rodionova skills on floor and vault?') to suggest the problem is beyond fixing - which, given the talent of those at the top of the sport in Russia, shouldn't be the case in my opinion. Think how much the Romanians have done for many years, with a miniscule number of gymnasts at their disposal.
(I thought Rodionova looked fantastic in Cottbus, by the way, and better than the result she received potentially. This isn't a criticism of Grebyonkin, who may well begin to deliver results the closer we get to the Olympics ... I hope so, at least.)
But all this is a moot point, since Alexandrov is now in Brazil and by the look of his team at a recent competition, I guess he is working very hard. I am sure there are other coaches who could do equally well as him in Russia, but they are either not on the national team, or their talents are muted by a somewhat negative moral atmosphere, or some other problem with which we can't know about.
I agree with everything you said, Elizabeth. My one problem with Alexandrov is that he pushed a very hard U.S strategy (high d-scores) on the girls. For instance, why were so many Russians practicing or competing amanars when none of them seemed to have the form or strength for it? It worries me (for the Brazilians) that he allowed such high difficulty, which did bring Russia the medals, but at the sacrifice of everything we admire about Russian gymnastics: superb technique, attention to form, and finessing the details. Grishina's double double, all the amanars, Aliya's triple AND her 3 1/2, the "Nabieva" on bars...all of those things needed work in the execution department but it never took priority. It came at the cost of injuries and inconsistency for some of the gymnasts. At least this is my opinion.
DeleteWhat he gave Russia is a return to a diligent work ethic (which appears to have evaporated) but I don't like the savior-worship of him that persists on the gymternet; he was good but he had faults and like you, I think that someone of equal or better administrative talent is capable of coming to the forefront.
Alexandrov is a great motivator, team leader and collaborator; to suggest that he was single- handedly responsible for the technical advances made by Nabiyeva, Mustafina and Grishina is to give him too much credit. After 2010 his achievements were severely curtailed by the Rodionenkos but Alexandrov doesn't say that this was down to a lack of ambition; rather that Valentina wanted to reduce the conditioning load and generally undermine his position as senior coach for the women - and I think most people would agree that the Russian team in London lacked a bit of fitness. Grishina was taken away from him and coached at home by her personal coach, so how could Alexandrov be even remotely responsible for her double double? I think Alexandrov's legendary status with fans is partly a response to some of the more unpopular statements by Valentina and the fact that he is so obviously the more charismatic, honest and approachable coach. I also think he is a remarkable coach whose track record speaks for itself. As well as the lyrical tradition, Russia has always pursued innovation. Such gymnasts as Priakhina, Produnova and Shushunova are examples of this trend. They were not all willowy ballerinas, but they did all have good basics (in the main; Priakhina less so) and a unique artistry. If Russia's gymnasts lack good basics these days - and I don't think you can generalise that they do - then it is down to deficiencies in the early training. And those deficiencies are no worse than those exemplified in the work of such gymnasts as Raisman and, yes, Biles. We expect better of our Russians, but the Code demands different things. And, as Arkayev says in his book, the progressive changes in the Code risk undermining quality gymnastics in favour of lower level performance - I am paraphrasing, but that is the gist.
DeleteI agree with all you say of course.
Grishina had good basics, much better than Mustafina, for example. The problem is that Grishina or Komova cannot cope with the Americans' athleticism or with the Code.
DeleteI don't know about Komova since she had the best Russian Amanar before she got injured and had the most difficulty at the London AA. I agree that Grishina has good basics but she runs out of air early. I think if the Russians apply better conditioning they will fix many problems in their program.
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