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

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...

Komova should have won!

It was a very tight battle in the North Greenwich arena today, with American Gabby Douglas beating out Viktoria Komova by a mere 0.259 points (see results below) and the legendary Aliya Mustafina sealing her comeback from that career-threatening injury with a well deserved bronze medal. Yes, she suffered a fall from beam after her Arabian somersault but elsewhere she was at her best, a real endorsement of the work of the Russian coaches in nursing her back to almost-top form since that fateful day in 2011. Komova had a faultless competition apart from a step on landing her Amanar vault. Frankly, she must feel utterly shattered after coming second once again by a very small margin to an American who was treated very generously by the judges. Komova soared and took every beam move to the max, rounding off with her rare double Arabian dismount in fine style; Douglas literally sidled along the beam, seeming frightened to take her feet off the apparatus for all but her somersaults. Kom...

A timeline of Soviet Olympic history

'If you want to be like me, just train!'  1951 poster promoting the basic physical training system in the Soviet Union.  The man in the picture has the coat of arms of the Soviet Union on his top, indicating he competes at international level.  Picture courtesy of A Soviet Poster A Day Jim Riordan published his article, 'The Rise and Fall of Soviet Olympic Champions', in 1993.   In 1992 the Soviet Union, under the aegis of the Commonwealth of Independent States, had made its last hoorah at the Olympic Games.  The Barcelona Olympics had also marked the 40th anniversary of the Soviet Union's participation in their first Games, at Helsinki in 1952.  Soviet men and women had dominated the artistic gymnastics competitions at both. In the following timeline I extract from Riordan's article key points leading to the accession of the Soviet Union to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1951.  It makes for fascinating reading, addressing such...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more