Skip to main content

Anna Pavlova (AZE) takes gold at Ljubljana World Cup

Image
By

Nico Jackson writes:


Two-time Olympic bronze-medalist, Anna Pavlova, won Azerbaijan’s first World Cup medal in artistic gymnastics by taking gold on uneven bars at the World Challenge Cup in Ljubljana, Slovenia this past weekend. In a fairly weak women’s field, Pavlova easily won gold with low difficulty but superb execution scoring 12.825 (4.5/8.325). To the surprise of many, Pavlova even upgraded her dismount to a double pike after competing a simple layout flyaway the past few years. It was certainly interesting to see her win on what has been her weakest apparatus throughout her career.

 

Unfortunately the balance beam final did not go quite as well for Pavlova where she showed obvious signs of nerves, wobbling after a number of elements and sitting down her 5/2 twist dismount. Nevertheless, Pavlova’s lines and presence were as strong as ever despite the mistakes. Her Omelianchik (back handspring with 3/4 turn to handstand) was a highlight skill with lovely precision and control.

 

Pavlova’s teammate, Marina Nekrasova, had steady performances but not enough to challenge for the medals.  Nekrasova placed fourth in both the vault and floor final with 13.412 and 12.675 respectively.

 

The Azerbaijan Gymnastics Federation hails Pavlova’s win as a major achievement in the country’s developing artistic gymnastics programme.  Azerbaijan’s last major star in artistic gymnastics was Valery Belenky, who contributed to the success of the Soviet and Unified team in the early ‘90s. Belenky later moved to Germany and competed for that team during the rest of his career. Since then he has become well known for his success as a personal coach to German Olympic medalist, Marcel Nguyen.

 

Next on Azerbaijan’s agenda is the Osijek Grand Prix in Croatia, April 24-27. Here Oleg Stepko is slated to make his international debut for Azerbaijan where he plans to compete in all six apparatuses. Also quickly approaching is the European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria where Azerbaijan’s women’s team will include Anna Pavlova, Marina Nekrasova, Yulia Inshina and Maria Smirnova for the seniors and Anatasia Bolshova for the juniors.  


Watch Anna's bars routine : http://youtu.be/jENNYiynrbY

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

'It is a monstrous lie!' Pregnancy doping - Olga Karasyova speaks! (2001)

By
   Olga with her coach Sofia Muratova in 1971.  You can also see a video of Olga training with Sofia at  http://youtu.be/rDLY5Ctbe38  I wanted to record in English the key points of this 2001 interview with Olga.  Thanks to Maryam Vulis who gave me the link. Date of article - 7th March 2001 Author - Vladimir Golubev Link to Russian language source -  http://viperson.ru/articles/olimpiyskaya-chempionka-razoblachaet-dvoynika Olga invited me to visit her cozy one-bedroom apartment. I see family gymnastic albums, remember her youth, and gradually ask a few questions. - What a voluminous file of documents!  It shows how much time and effort had to be expended to get to court. Correspondence, lawyer requests, decisions, resolutions, agenda ... - Actually, this story began a long time ago.  Once, German broadcaster RTL screened an interview ... with my double!   A certain woman who said that she was Olympic champion in gymnastics, Olga Kovalenk...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tatyana Nabiyeva on work and love in China

By
Some highlights from a long interview with 2010 World champion Tatyana Nabiyeva.  Source: Russian team page on VK.com.  Translation - Google translate A big interview with Tatyana Nabieva about the peculiarities of work and life in China, the bright years of her sports career, a little about modern gymnastics and about love. On the Nabiyeva flight — At the same championship, you presented a new element on the bars, which was later added to the rules with your last name (flying over the top bar with a straight body, difficulty group F. — Sport24). How did you come up with the idea to try something new? — Actually, it happened spontaneously, I think. We worked with Vera Iosifovna [Kiryashova] on the purity of the elements on the bars, sometimes I didn’t fly all the way to the Shaposhnikova element. Once I didn’t fly all the way to the bars either and stood on my feet between the bars, bending my legs in flight for safety. Then Vera Iosifovna said that this was a different eleme...
Post a Comment
Read more

No Paseka for Russia in Berne

By
Barely two weeks will elapse before the WAG European Championships begin in Berne, Switzerland, and the news we had been fearing has been confirmed : world vault gold medallist Maria Paseka is  off the Russian team while she nurses a back injury.  This leaves Russia significantly weakened for the coming competition, with co-star Viktoria Komova also missing from the line-up.  It is a little disappointing, but it seems the right decision to rest the gymnasts so that they can be at their best when and where it really matters. Who will replace Paseka?  Valentina Rodionenko says that the youngster Natalia Kapitonova, who trains in Penza, has been chosen on the basis of her solid performances at national championships.  Well, we will have to wait and see - these announcements often turn out to be unreliable.   I personally would prefer to see the dynamic Seda Tutkhalyan be given a chance at this level, but Kapitonova has certainly shown herself to be more reliab...
41 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more