Skip to main content

Aliya Mustafina - 'I'm glad we didn't hit'


Speaking on the Nanning official website, Aliya Mustafina had a few words to say about the day's competition:

On being in the first Subdivision:
“That was our strategy, to go first and have it over and done with, so with the qualifications out of the way we can relax and see what other teams are going to do. It is just so much easier when you have already started; it takes the pressure off you.”

On the Russia team performance:
‘I am actually glad we did not hit it perfect today. Now we know what we need to fix and where we need to put in extra work. The team has now been exposed to actual competition; we got to test all the apparatus in real competition, so we can improve further for the finals.”

“We were not tasked with making it to the finals; we just had to do the program we'd tested during the actual competition.“

On Sunday's biggest difficulty:
“It is toughest to finish on the balance beam. The emotions tend to wear thin towards the end of the session and fatigue is catching up with you as well, while you have to be super-focused. That’s a tough call."

On her own performance:
“I am most happy I had a clean workout with no falls.”

On the pressure of being the team leader:
“I do not feel the pressure, in fact the very opposite. It gives me pleasure to help my teammates. It is much easier for me this way.”

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tatyana Nabiyeva on work and love in China

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...

Men's team results : Russian national championships

Full results are available here . In summary, 1    Moscow    (Olennikov, Garibov, Gogotov, Bondar, Stolyarov, Ablyazin)    261.55 2    Siberia       (Devyatovski, Pakhomenko, Ignatiev, Cherkasov, Golutsotskov  259.85 3   Central       (Barkalov, Nyudakin, Markelov, Perevoznikov, Bondar, Ignatenkov   255.00 Interesting - Mikhail Bondar appears to have competed for two teams simultaneously here - Moscow and Central - not sure how this works but quite pleased with myself for noticing it ;-)  Only his high bar score counted for the Central team.  One of the wonderful mysteries of Russian gymnastics.  Hopefully we'll have the women's team results later.  And perhaps I'll discover something even more wondrously mysterious there.  Who knows. 

Who needs difficulty? Portraits of a young gymnast - Ivan Stretovich

These pictures of young Ivan Stretovich, taken by Elena Mikhailova at last week's European Gymnastics Championships, are available in a gallery at the Russian Gymnastics Federation website.  I wanted to share a sequence of them with you. Stretovich turns 16 in October, and comes from Novosibirsk in Siberia, where he is coached at the Dynamo club by B Konvissar.  This young gymnast emerged at April's Russian Championships, where he took gold or silver medals in every event final except for vault.  In Montpelier, he contributed to the Russian team's silver medal. But pictures speak louder than words, and medals aren't all that matters.  Stretovich's start values (in qualifying 5 (F), 5.1 (PH), 4.8 (SR), 5.4 (V), 5.1 (PB) and 4.9 (HB) leave some room for development, but the special quality of his work is even rarer than a double twisting double back somersault.  That quality is the ability to elevate the simple to a pitch of perfection, and to make the diff...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more