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Russia Cup will take place in Penza, says Valentina Rodionenko


This September's Russia Cup, one of the qualifying events for the World Championships, will take place at the Burtasy School of Gymnastics in Penza.  This is a late change from the planned location of Ekaterinburg.

Valentina Rodionenko reports that, following a visit by inspectors, the facilities at Ekaterinburg just aren't good enough for such a major competition - there is no warm up gym, and the equipment is not state of the art.

In Penza, the gym has benefitted from a gift of brand new equipment from the Ministry of Sport in recognition of the achievements of World and Olympic Champion Denis Ablyazin, who trains with coach Sergei Starkin in Penza.

The School has become almost a permanent fixture for national championships recently and has developed as a power base for Russian gymnastics in general.  Head coach Valeri Starkin, father of the better known Sergei Starkin, was recently elevated to a position as national coach.  This change took place almost simultaneously with the announcement of Olympic Champion Aliya Mustafina's move to Penza to train with Sergei Starkin as her personal coach.  This makes the Starkin 'family' formidably powerful within Russian gymnastics - and also very responsible for the future of the sport.  In Rio, Mustafina and Ablyazin are expected to be Russia's main medal hopes.

Funding follows competitive success in Russian sport, so there will likely be a virtuous cycle of success for this gymnastics stronghold as it builds a sustainable future for itself.  Valeri Starkin, a highly respected and experienced head coach in Russia, seems not only to possess significant technical expertise, but also some vital business acumen.  His gymnastics school is one of the few to engage in self-generating income beyond the sporting realm, in particular hire of any spare facilities for conferences and meetings.  

What is less clear is why the facilities in Ekaterinburg, home of 2013 European Champion David Belyavski, have fallen into relative disrepair.  Local and national funding are provided to gym clubs in Russia, with capital input from sponsors, bank VTB.  Local funding opportunities can vary significantly from region to region.  Former head coach Arkayev has commented that the Moscow local government sustained Russian gymnastics during much of the Yeltsin era when national funding fell flat.  The Penza club has also acknowledged the financial help of their regional government in staging competitions.  

VTB sponsorship is essentially a high profile branch of federal government funding.  VTB, 70% government owned, was told by President Putin some years ago to invest heavily in Russian sports as part of his central Government policy to re-establish an era of Soviet-like pre-eminence for Russia in world sport.  Other Russian companies such as Gazprom are included in this policy of quasi-national/corporate sponsorship that has resulted in the staging of high profile mega events such as the Sochi Olympics, the Universiade in Kazan, and the forthcoming 2018 Football World Cup.  St Petersburg is also a candidate city for the 2028 Olympics.

The generosity of capital funding for sport in Russia is not, however, matched at grass roots level.  While the national training centre in Lake Krugloye and other major centres within Russia have benefitted from state of the art refurbishments, the operating costs of the many smaller, local  clubs who feed talent into the national team remain difficult to cover.  Coaches at these clubs are paid below-subsistence salaries.  There is also a lack of formal training courses for new gymnastics coaches in Russia.  

The plight of the Ekaterinburg club may be partially solved if this high profile rejection leads to more capital backing - but Russian gymnastics still needs an injection of new thinking on its operational cost base and infrastructure if it is to reclaim and cement its leading position in world artistic gymnastics.

Russia Cup 14-20 September 2015
World Championships 23 October - 1 November 2015

Valentina Rodionenko interview source - http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20150702/843445459.html

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