Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

'Should Mustafina compete in Glasgow, considering her fragile state of health? - aren't the Olympics more important?' are the key themes of this brief news piece by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, a top sports journalist who has interviewed Alexandrov, Arkayev, Starkin, Mustafina and Rodionenko in the last five years since Aliya won the World Championships. Elena stresses that this year nothing unusual has happened.  Aliya has worked hard with her new coach Sergei Starkin.  She did a 'great job', demonstrating her work at the European Games in Baku where she won the all around, bars and team events as well as silver in the floor exercise. But, says Vaitsekhovskaya, more important than the medals was the fact that Aliya showed a new technical level, began work on upgrades for the Rio Olympics.  Just competing in one event - the Baku games - could be enough for a veteran athlete of Mustafina's experience.  The body ages in both time - and injuries.  Athletes always respond

Anton Golotsutskov: Black strip can be takeoff From 30 years old Anton Golotsutskov '23 played sports three times a day. Ten years - from 2002 to 2012 - was a member of the national team. Two-time Olympic bronze medalist in 2008 (in the floor exercise and vault), bronze medalist of the World Cup - 2009 World Championship silver medalist in 2010 and 2011, three-time European champion. After the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing Anton Golotsutskov was a hero of the country: two bronze gymnastics competitions were his. The team captain is configured for success in London suddenly was forced to retire. - After a serious injury was a question whether I will walk at all - he says. Bedridden, who lost all sports revenues ... Anton admits that it's all go for the second time he is unlikely to have had the strength. On the other hand, had it not been a black band, there would be no current Golotsutskova, successful owner of the gym in Moscow and VIP-coach children of billionaires. W

As quickly as my posts have been published, new stories have emerged.  In my last post - you will need to read it in order to get the full picture - I said we would need to read Aliya's words, and here they are, thanks to RSport and some very vigilant readers of this blog who tipped me off!  The decision to include Aliya on the team is not as definitive as might have been taken from Valentina and Andrei's words, but then we always have the subtleties of translation to deal with. "I do not know for sure, (my performance in the World Championships) is questionable. When I am ready, it can be a statement, but for now it's not possible. I will be looking at my health closer to departure," - said Mustafina by telephone .  She also noted that saying anything concrete about her health is difficult. "While it is difficult to say anything about the state of my health, one does need to start training. We will work in the camp at Round Lake." In turn, the he

Aliya Mustafina - competitive status has been veiled in mystery.  Photograph is by leading Russian photographer, Sergei Bermeniev The mist surrounding Aliya Mustafina's official competitive status lifted just a little this afternoon as head coach Valentina Rodionenko first announced one set of names for the forthcoming World Championships, then added another to the roster.  'Yesterday, Mustafina decided to clench her teeth and prepare for Worlds, despite her back pain.  We know her condition and cannot force her to train ... We will take seven gymnasts to Glasgow', said Rodionenko.  Later, Andrei Rodionenko added that ten gymnasts will join a training camp tomorrow at Round Lake to prepare for Worlds - and participate in final selection.  Names are given below. We will have to look for Mustafina's own words to provide the definitive account of her miraculous return, and of course the only team that will matter is the team that marches out into the arena in October!  But

Dynamic young Seda Tutkhalyan, a leading gymnast in Penza this week, is finding her feet in senior competition Once again this week the Russian women showed themselves to be vulnerable to errors in the first day of apparatus finals, while the men excelled.  Please see the results below, as ever courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation. On bars, Viktoria Komova performed hors de competition, recording a score of 15.3 - she didn't qualify officially to the final so can't be recorded as champion, but she is consistently now Russia's highest scorer on this apparatus.  Russia are already strong here, and she will need to up her game on other apparatus (Valentina mentioned beam and vault) to qualify to be part of the team in Glasgow. A key fact emerging this week in Penza is the growing strength of Nikita Ignatyev, who for a long time was the unlucky one on the team who would often fall or make unexpected errors.  Gradually Nikita has been improving, until in this c

In Glasgow, MAG could well provide the highlights for the Russian team this time as Nikita Ignatyev's surge towards AA victory has strengthened the team in depth.  The addition of ambitious young blood such as Nikita Nagorny also shows that there is no lack of inspiration in the Russian MAG team, led by Head Coach Valery Alfosov.  Both Russian teams (MAG and WAG) are leading their assault in Rio with strong AA gymnasts.  It seems that the specialists (like Maria Paseka) are being required to develop on at least two (WAG) or three (MAG) apparatus.  Given the various competition formats, it might be difficult for those who are strong on one piece only (eg Mattvei Petrov) to find a place on the final team. In the picture - (clockwise, from top left) - Kuksenkov, Ignatyev, Belyavski, Kudashov, Rostov, Nagorny, Dalolyan.   Valentina Rodionenko has been drawn on the 'virtually decided' membership of the Russian teams for Glasgow (23 October to 1 November) though the information s

Mustafina will not compete at Worlds, says Valentina Rodionenko.  The gymnast will concentrate on her preparations for Rio, says the Head Coach in RSport. http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20150918/864271660.html The readers and editors of RRG wish Aliya the best of health as she approaches the next stage of her career.  Good luck, Aliya!! Updated 17.40 - Mustafina confirms she will miss Worlds to heal her back.  She says she can't predict the future.  http://dolly-z.tumblr.com/post/129352701188/mustafina-to-miss-worlds

Can the Russians replace frowns with smiles next year in Rio? 'The results we realised yesterday will not be enough to fight for medals in Glasgow' , said Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko in an interview with Allsport  today.  Unfortunately he was probably right.   With the exception of Daria Spiridonova, whose calm, professional approach led her to hit all four routines and achieve her best ever all around result, the main contenders - Maria Kharenkova, Seda Tutkhalyan, Evgeniya Shelgunova and Alla Sosnitskaya - all performed below expectations.  If the same happens on the podium in Glasgow, the team may still manage a silver - but don't expect to see an individual medal in the all around. Alla Sosnitskaya limped off the floor yesterday I suppose that if you were looking for an obvious reason for this failure, you would point a finger at the many errors gymnasts made - and floor was a particular bogey.  Poor Alla Sosnitskaya suffered painful falls to her shins and kn

Spiridonova, Tutkhalyan, Kharenkova - a great finish but with too many errors.  Floor is a real weakness for this team, although bars are good and beam has significant potential ... Poor Sosnitskaya ...  View the bottom section for junior scores, including Melnikova who outscored the entire field!  Skrypnik fell heavily on floor warm up and scratched this final event.

Angelina Melnikova ... Top scorer in the Russia Cup AA competition today.  Daria Spiridonova in second place was the leading senior in the field, followed by Maria Kharenkova. Seda Tutkhakyan in 4th had a fall on floor but would otherwise have finished top.  As Melnikova is junior, this probably means that Spiridonova is Russia Cup AA champion!  An unexpected but well deserved title for this distinctive and well prepared gymnast.  Well done Dasha! congratulations to all the girls - will publish results as soon as they are available.

WAG results - team event - Russia Cup.  Moscow, Central, St Petersburg. Individual qualis - AA - Spiridonova 57.3,  Sosnitskaya 56.367 Kharenkova 55.967, Tutkhalyan 55.766 Shelgunova 54.999 V - Paseka,, Tutkhalyan, Nabiyeva, Afanasyeva UB - Spiridinova, Paseka, Sosnitskaya B - Shelgunova, Afanasyeva,  Sosnitskaya,  Spiridonova F - Afanasyeva,  Akhaimova, Kharenkova, Paseka Both Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova had many errors and would have done much better on a better day.  Melnikova and Skrypnik competed hors de competition - their scores are not shown here but their performances and scores were generally very competitive with this field. MAG results - see  http://www.the-all-around.com/2015/09/16/ignatiev-leads-qualifying-at-russian-cup/

The national team in training for Worlds, with their coaches WAG - http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/spisok-uchastnikov-zhen.pdf Pleased to see all the usual suspects are registered, plus Daria Mikhailova, Anastasia Grishina, Anastasia Sidorova, Viktoria Kuzmina and Tatiana Nabiyeva. As we have read before, Aliya Mustafina isn't competing here. The oldest gymnast competing is Daria Elizarova (1991) and the youngest Daria Skrypnik (2000).  There is a field of 34 women. MAG - sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/spiski-uchastnikov-muzh.pdf In MAG we have a total of 55 gymnasts competing.  29 year old Andrei Perevoznikov is the oldest man present, and the youngest is 1997 born Sergei Kryvunets.  Rings specialist Alexander Balandin is the main omission from the list of competitors - he is having more shoulder surgery this week, so we wish him all the best of luck in his recovery. The competition begins on Wednesday with the MAG and WAG team events.  We very much hop

Ksenia, who turns 24 today, will most likely be team captain in Glasgow, assuming she does well in the forthcoming series of qualifying events for Worlds and makes the team! Ksenia has an impressive list of honours to her name, going back as far as her international senior debut in 2007.  She has won gold medals at World, European and Universiade and has competed at two Olympics so far, winning silver with her team in London 2012. Quiet determination and a strong need to fulfill her team responsibilities seem to fuel Ksenia's continuing improvement.  This stylish and powerful gymnast has an ability to maintain discipline and fitness even during injury down times - a talent that has been essential to her impressive competitive longevity. She is a kind, supportive and inspirational team captain who has substantial moral and physical courage.  Her expressive brand of gymnastics pays respect both to the classical tradition of fine technique, and to the current trend for high level diff

The Russian team is hard at work, seriously preparing for the forthcoming selection for World Championships, and considering the path ahead to Rio.   It is essential that both the men’s and women’s teams finish in the top eight in order to qualify to fight for medals in the next Olympics. The Russia Cup, an important stage in qualification for the senior national team in Glasgow, begins in Penza, next Wednesday, the 16 th September.   Hopefully, there will be live streaming and I will do my level best to keep you informed of all relevant information.   Check my Twitter feed and Facebook page for instant links; it will take me longer to update the main blog. It has already been established that Aliya Mustafina will not be competing here, and rings specialist Alexander Balandin will also be missing.   After more than a year out of action with a serious shoulder injury, we heard today that poor Alexander has to go for more surgery .   It is hoped that he will be able to