Skip to main content

We want to win medals - Valery Alfosov

Nikita Ignatyev competes this spring at Russian Championships.  Picture courtesy RGF

Key points of interview with men's head coach Valery Alfosov http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=82847

- The team is at the final stages of preparation, undergoing control competitions.  Training is very good, he is satisfied with the gymnasts and their routines (elsewhere, Kuksenkov says the men have upgrades to show, his on high bar and pommels).  http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20140508/744508287.html

- Their team is in 'perfect working condition', and working to peak for competition at the end of May - in time for Euros.  His only slight worry is Ablyazin's second vault - but there will always be these worries when you want to win medals.  'We can only hope for the best'.

- 'The most dangerous competitors - the UK, Germany, France, Ukraine and Romania.'

- 'We want to win medals. But we understand that our rivals are very strong, do not stand still, and are developing and complicating their programmes, improving items and so on. Therefore to predict winning medals at the European Championships is very difficult.'

- 'There was a period when different opponents considered it an honour to beat a Russian.  ... Our task is to train well, get ready to try to beat our rivals. That's all!'

- Selection for the World Championships will be made on the basis of the results of the Russia Cup.  He hopes there will be some new names on the roster, mentioning in particular 19 year old Vlad Polyashov from Cheboksary, who is reserve for the Euros team (8th all around in Russian Champs, competed in pommel horse and parallel bars finals, coached by A Vassiliev).

-  The athletes competing here are the foundation of the Olympic team, as we are mid Olympic cycle.  They want members of the youth team to now come forward and begin to prepare for the Olympics, hoping to rise to the senior team.  Strong competition always leads to good results.

Comments

  1. I hope they get medals too, the men can be so disappointing, they do well in qualifying and then awful in the finals.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Exactly, they run out of gas by team final.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Simone and the others - results and reflections

In the end, it was as predicted : Simone and the others, with Simone's teammate, Alexandra Raisman, providing the back up.  I do not need to point out that, by definition, the Americans are scoring significantly higher marks than the rest of the field.  Congratulations to them! Aliya Mustafina finished in third place.  The 2012 bronze medalist led the competition after vault and uneven bars, but had a very nervous outing on beam that might have taken a less experienced gymnast out of the medals.  A bravura performance on floor brought Aliya back though to confirm her third place all around.  From her senior debut in 2010 to today, Mustafina has continuously set high standards of grace.    It is the first time since 2000 that a gymnast (Amanar) has medalled in the all around at two consecutive Olympics, and  if Aliya can medal on Saturday's uneven bars final, she will once again be Russia's biggest medal winner of the women's gymnastics.  Russ...

UPDATE 23/9 - Russian WAG team for Nanning confirmed

Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn.  Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova.  Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team.  In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova.  Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!).  The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall.   Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but the...

Andrei Rodionenko explains Russia's performance at Worlds - Lupitatranslates

Rodionenko with European Champion David Belyavski  Courtesy RGF/Elena Mikhailova This is the interview that many people on the internet have already commented on, regarding Andrei Rodionenko's alleged racism.  The original, Russian language version, appears on VTB Bank's website (VTB are sponsors of Russian gymnastics).  It takes cleverer people than me to decide what is racism, what is deliberately perjorative, and what is inferred in an interviewer's question.  For now, I will not comment on this, therefore, but I would ask you to read Lupita's translation carefully before you form your own opinion.   I am providing some links below which might help you to decide where you stand. Definition of racism Definition of sexism BBC Sport article by Matthew Syed : Is it wrong to note that 100m winners are always black?            Updated 24/10 CSKA Moscow: UEFA opens racist chants case         ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more