Skip to main content

Grebyonkin - all the top gymnasts will be in Penza, except Afanasyeva

Image
By
Young gymnasts line up prior to the first major Championships of the year

In an interview with Itar-Tass national head coach Evgeny Grebyonkin has given us some clues as to the competitors in Penza this week.

'All of the strongest gymnasts will take part in Penza, with the exception of Afanasyeva, who has only just begun full training again after a foot operation', he says.  'Komova, Grishina and Mustafina will compete for the top places.  Tatiana Nabiyeva has been unable to decide about the future continuation of her career, and this competition will help her draw a conclusion.'

The Antwerp World Championships, back in October, was the women's last major competition.  Since then, Viktoria Komova has recovered from a foot injury she suffered at New Year.  Earlier this year, Aliya Mustafina took a two month break, and she is now working towards achieving optimum form at the European Championships.  She has recovered from her break, but won't be doing anything new here.  They will see how things go, then take some decisions.

Afanasyeva has had two leg surgeries, and the doctors have been advising caution.  If she is ready for Sofia that will be fine, if not it doesn't matter, but they hope she will be ready for Worlds in the autumn.

Kharenkova will compete in both the all around and event finals and will contend for a top place on the senior team.  'Masha made us very happy', says Grebyonkin about Kharenkova's performance at the recent Cottbus Cup, where she brought home medals on beam and floor.  Grebyonkin also mentions Anna Rodionova as an improving gymnast who won a medal on bars at the same competition.  She has added three tenths to her uneven bars D score and unfortunately injured her foot before Cottbus but will be competing here, and the coaches will be watching her closely to see what conclusions they can draw.

http://itar-tass.com/sport/1089651
Labels:

Comments

  1. Unknown1 April 2014 at 20:10

    I hope Afansyeva will make it for EC. It's gonna be my first competition and I hope to see the most of it since I'm volunteering:D I am so happy to work for Team Poland, since Marta Pihan-Kulesza is finally being rewarded for her efforts (Cottbus)!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Gláucia Sousa2 April 2014 at 23:11

    Dovai Alya Mustafina!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Alexander Alexandrov in his own words 1 - A Difficult Decision

By
Alexander Alexandrov with his daughter, Isa, at the statue of Christ the Redeemer, Rio.  (c) Alexander Alexandrov Russian coach Alexander Alexandrov has been prominent in the sport since 1983, when he came to the public eye as coach of the brilliant Dmitri Bilozerchev.  He has over thirty years’ experience of coaching World and Olympic Champions both in the country of his birth and in his adopted home, Houston, USA.  In his most recent position as Head Coach of the national women's artistic gymnastics (WAG) team for Russia, he quite simply resurrected his country’s gymnastics programme, re-establishing his team at the very top of the sport.  Prior to Alexandrov’s appointment, at the 2008 Olympics, Russian WAG had walked away empty handed, without medals.  At last year’s London Olympics, artistic gymnastics was one of Russia’s most successful sports.  Alexandrov’s Russia won the most gymnastics medals of any country competing, and his athlete Al...
11 comments
Read more

Fact or fiction? The press, gymnastics and pregnancy doping

By
It was a Sunday morning.  I was drinking my coffee and contemplating the day ahead - a workout at the gym, shopping for groceries, an evening reading a book, or catching up on last night's episodes of crime thriller The Bridge .  How nice it was not to have to think about work for a day. Then I saw it - a story about the history of doping in The Observer .  Interesting reading. Of course, cheating is as old as the hills.  It is, unfortunately, human nature for some people to try to gain easy advantage in any kind of competition.  That is why we have laws, rules, ethical guidelines.  People who cheat should face justice and shouldn't complain when they are found out. But the story about pregnancy doping bothered me.  Hadn't that been found to be fictional?  The author began with Olga Kovalenko's allegations made in 1994 - but the rumours had started way back in 1991 with the documentary series More Than A Game .  The practice...
3 comments
Read more

Review of Russian WAG at the 2014 World Championships

By
The Russians during a team talk in training for the World Championships.  Courtesy RGF Bronze all the way for Russia then.  Beyond the euphoria and surprise of this morning's competition there doesn't really seem to be much to write home about. I am delighted for Aliya personally that the efforts she has made to help the team have provided her with some tangible result, but the principal feeling at the end of the competition is that of relief.  As Vaitsekhovskaya said in her article last week, there were no moments of shock and awe from the Russians, and that's what will be needed if they are to compete for gold medals in Rio (translation available here ). Let's consider a timeline of the competition : before, during and after. BEFORE The promise of a return to the Worlds stage by Viktoria Komova gave Russia a feeling of optimism pre-Russia Cup.  However, Viktoria's performance at this important competition gave little reason for celebra...
43 comments
Read more

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more