Skip to main content

Eremina, Skrypnik, Melnikova, Sokova - four young champions for Russia in 2015



The Russian Junior Championships closed today with event finals in beam and floor, and the young Russians in the Master of Sport category demonstrated their fighting spirit, recording some good results and demonstrating that this generation has relative strength in depth - even though there is still a clear weakness on vault.

The four event champions are - 

Vault - Elena Eremina, coached by Alexander Kiryashov in St Petersburg (5.3/4.6 : 14.134)
Uneven Bars -  Daria Skrypnik, who resides in Krasnodar (6.6 : 15.567)


Beam - Angelina Melnikova, from Voronezh (14.767) http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/MS.compressed.pdf
Floor -  Ekaterina Sokova from Vladimir (14.633) http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2-list-MS.pdf

Melnikova, who had scored 15.6 on uneven bars in the team competition, but who fell on her layout Jaeger here, took silver on floor, showing her potential as an all arounder.  Skrypnik took a bronze medal on floor. With Eremina taking bronze on bars and silver on beam, and Sokova bronze on beam, these four gymnasts have established themselves at the top of their generation, although it remains to be seen if they can make the perilous transition to senior level.

2001 born Eremina, age eligible for selection to the 2017 World Championships, will just miss out on the Rio Olympics but Melnikova, Skrypnik and Sokova (just squeezes in with a 12th December birthday) all have a chance to make the Games.  The past record, however, shows that at most one first year senior will make the cut - in London, it was Anastasia Grishina.  Given the increasingly conservative Russian team selections that focus on reliability and a proven track record long term, it is likely to be extremely difficult for any 2000-born gymnast to make the Russian team.  Next year's Russia Cup, and the European Championships in spring, will doubtless be the testing grounds.  I hope these girls all work hard and put up a strong fight - they will likely be the foundations of Russia's progress post-2016.

Angelina Simakova - three gold medals as a Cand. MS - AA, vault and floor!

In the Candidate Master of Sport competitions the following gymnasts won : 

Vault - Angelina Simakova - 14.767 (Yaroslavl)
Uneven Bars - Yuliana Perebinosova - 13.967 (Penza)
Floor - tied between Viktoria Gorbatova and Angelina Simakova - 14.267 (both Yaroslavl) - http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/KMS-2-list.compressed.pdf

Comments

  1. I think that Melnikova will make the Games next year if she stays healthy, she is exactly what the Russian team needs.
    John

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Russian gymnasts to apply for neutral status

Gymnastics has lost some of its appeal over the past few years, whilst Russian athletes have been out of competition.  This might be an unpopular opinion, but it reflects the reality of international gymnastics without around a quarter of its leading protagonists.  The international competitive field has not raised its performance in the absence of Russia's leadership; gymnasts from the top ten or fifteen have floated upwards in the ranks to fill gaps in the medal placements, and we see mediocre performances gaining gold, silver and bronze medals.  Gymnastics has lost some of its imagination and vision without Russian athletes. This doesn't detract from the efforts of the world's best gymnasts.  Gymnastics quite simply needs the special abilities of Russian athletes to provide competition for our international contenders and drive the sport to ever greater things.  In particular, artistry has been almost entirely lost without Russian athletes to provide a good e...

Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics

Svetlana Boginskaya, 15 years old, with her medals from the Seoul Olympics Nico translates the latest interview with gymnastics legend Svetlana Boginskaya, during a recent visit to her home country of Belarus. Svetlana Boginskaya: I was always a bitch* in gymnastics, so now I ask for forgiveness from everyone who came in contact with me. The National Olympic Committee of Belarus held a press conference with three-time Olympic Champion in artistic gymnastics, Svetlana Boginskaya. The meeting was devoted to the 25th anniversary of the Olympic Games in Seoul. In South Korea the Belarussian won two gold medals in the team competition and vault. As a gift to the Olympic Hall of fame, the famous gymnast, now living in the United States, donated one of her trophies that she won at the 1990 European Championships and a pennant for Best Female Athlete of the USSR in 1989. How happy we were when we could share with such stars as Boginskaya, Scherbo, and Ivankov,...

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...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more