Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Lovely montage from Maria Kharenkova for World Champions in the uneven bars, Daria Spiridonova and Viktoria Komova.  Molodyets!  You were the champions of beauty! 

Molodyets!  Congratulations to Maria Paseka, World Champion on vault!  #glasgow2015 My best wishes to Giulia for a good recovery.

'Our judges have yet to reach perfection' Leonid Arkayev, 1989, when asked about the number of ties in gymnastics.  

Today's start list #glasgow2015 http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000002FFFFFFFFFFFFFF01

Congratulations to all the medalists, including Simone, who wins for the third time winning, Gabrielle, who has completed a comeback after a break since Olympics, and Larissa who overcame a mountain of disappointment after qualifications. Russia's promise, Seda, had quite a good first AA competition, but fell on beam and lost rather a lot of marks.  But she is still one of the world's top gymnasts and will do better next time! http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000101FFFFFFFFFFFFFF03

World and Olympic Champion, Aliya Mustafina, will travel back to Moscow on the 2nd November, ready for surgery on an injured meniscus in her right knee on the 3rd, head coach Valentina Rodionenko said today in an interview with R Sport .  Aliya tore the ACL in her left knee in spring 2011 and recovered from surgery to win gold in the London Olympics in 2012. The injury is not serious and it is expected that recovery will take six to eight weeks, allowing Aliya to begin training for Rio in early January, all being well.  'It's just a strain', said Rodionenko, adding that medical advice suggested it would be better for Aliya to have the surgery than suffer the pain. Aliya made the decision herself to have the surgery in Russia this time, rather than in Germany.   She will make her recovery at Round Lake (the national training centre) and if she is well enough will travel to Israel on the 10th, to participate in the rehabilitation camp with the rest of the national te...

http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000101FFFFFFFFFFFFFF02 Davai, Seda! 

Viktoria wrote some hasty words last night in the heat of the moment.  We all have such times, when hurt feelings lead us to behave uncharacteristically.  It is not important what she said; it is important that Vika has reflected and wants us all to read this message which she published on VK.com this morning. "Dear friends! I want to apologize for my statements about American girls, about drugs, all my words were spoken on emotions. Of course I haven't any proof and didn't really mean it and so on... I am so sorry. I want to apologize for my character to all of you". Vika, we are still with you every step of the way.

Newcomer Seda Tutkhalyan did well to improve her floor performance for her team. It was a tough competition today for Russia.  Put simply, they fell too much for a better outcome.   The girls were on a swell following a great vault performance and two top class bars exercises.  Next, however, returning champion Viktoria Komova went for an extra dimension on one of her pirouettes - and fell.  It was a domino effect that ran through to first time World championships gymnast Seda Tutkhalyan on beam, and carried over via Kharenkova, back again to Komova. 4.5 points were lost as the checkers tumbled one after another.  In the end, Moscow's Maria Paseka steadied the boat with her fluent floor exercises, and Tutkhalyan held things together with a routine that was much improved since Monday.  Afanasyeva topped things off.   At the end of the comp, the girls were all cheers and smiles.  But there were glum looks behind the ironic smiles.  I think that...

WAG start list, tomorrow 18.39 start #Glasgow2015 http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000103FFFFFFFFFFFFFF01 GOOD LUCK TO ALL!

There is a really good comment on my post 'Maybe it's the end'.  It is from Cami, and I didn't want it to remain relatively hidden at the bottom of the post as it is full of ideas for discussion.  Thank you, Cami ...  Cami says -  'You make excellent points, about how the identity of artistic gymnastics is changing. that’s the nature of sport though. i feel artistic gymnastics is still unique from any other branch because it is gymnast and apparatus, and nothing else. they are artists with their own bodies (no balls/hoops/or partners). a gymnast must be entirely focused on their physical, emotional, and mental self-awareness.  but if you are to give a gymnast a numerical score, there must be objectivity. in hockey, soccer - all goals are worth the same regardless of how much style they have. in basketball, “easy” shots are 2 points and “hard” shots are 3, regardless of whether they’re jumpshots or layups, half-court or right at the 3point line.  Gymnastics ...

Gymnastics can learn such a lot from ballet.  Imagine beam and FX with such wonderful leaps and turns ... And these are on a hard floor!!  https://www.facebook.com/stpetersburgguide/videos/1063907796967276/

Calculating scores using the 3-3 format of finals produces a slightly different finishing order than today.  China take bronze ahead of Britain, Japan takes fifth ahead of Italy, Netherlands jumps ahead of Canada.  It's a different competition and we will just have to see, but intriguing nonetheless. USA.          46.966 44.649 43.198 44.198.    179.011 Russia.       45.433 45.566 43.432 41.599.    176.03 GBR.          44.865. 42.066 41.699. 43.2.       171.83 CHN.          44.698 43.298 42.033 42.133      172.162 ITA              44.024 40.699 41.699 42.465      168.887 JPN            43.933 41.699 41.599 42.766      169.997 CAN           43.8 41.999 41.516 41.266           168.581 NED   ...

This is what I was thinking as I watched the slow, sad drift downwards of the Romanian team in the rankings.  I hadn't envisaged it happening, and it gave me a feeling of foreboding.  Perhaps Russia would succumb to the same forces as Romania and (relatively) quietly drift out of sight of international gymnastics.  I thought - perhaps this was the end for the old guard of gymnastics?  There has been a power shift and America has emerged the winner, while Romania and Russia, the vestigial remains of European dominance of the sport, have finally lost. So I was very much relieved to see the team put on their game face yesterday and produce a far better showing than I had expected.  Team captain Afanasyeva more than pulled her weight and the other Olympians, Komova and Paseka, made their commitment and experience count.  The youngsters, Spiridonova, Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova, also put on a good show.  In particular Seda Tutkhalyan, whose first World C...

I just had to share this.  Courtesy of the RGF whose picture galleries give us so much. So glad Viktoria is back.  It takes a lot of courage to revive yourself in the public eye.

Molodyets, team!   The Russian girls have achieved their aim of qualifying for Rio, the main objective of the World Championships this year.  I think it is true to say that they performed somewhat better than expected.  At present the team leads vault, bars and beam but is in sixth place on floor ... Russia has to begin to address its problems there, but that is a longer term issue and the girls should be pleased with how they performed overall. Paseka and Tutkhalyan are in first and third places respectively on vault; Spiridonova, Komova and Paseka occupy the first three places on bars; Komova, Tutkhalyan and Kharenkova are in 2nd, 3rd and 4th on beam and on floor Afanasyeva is in 2nd.  But to illustrate Russia's lack of depth there, their next gymnast is Paseka, 22nd.  Young Seda Tutkhalyan avoided major errors in her first senior competition and has clearly qualified to the AA final in 2nd.  But for Spiridonova a place in the competition is in doubt - 11...

Available here.   http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000E0001000100FFFFFFFFFFFFFF00 As Valentina said, only Spiridonova and Tutkhalyan do AA in this model. Although things can always change ...

Ksenia Afanasyeva in podium training yesterday Reserves are confirmed at this stage as Dmitri Lankin and Evgeniya Shelgunova. Competing AA will be - WAG - Daria Spiridonova and Seda Tutkhalyan; MAG - Nikita Ignatyev, David Belyavski and Nikolai Kuksenkov It will be tough for the men's team as the top six are extremely competitive.  To be realistic, the men are not likely to finish in the top three.  The American men are very strong, also the Chinese and Japanese, other teams - she mentions Brazil. The women can compete for one of the top places.  Of course the Americans are out of reach but they are on the same level as the Chinese and Romanians so there is a chance.  But they will have to be clean. On the AA, it's another picture; the gymnasts can compete for a medal.  For the men, David Belyavski and Nikita Ignatyev.  It will be harder for the women as both Daria and Seda do not yet have extensive international senior experience. It is expected that Vikto...

Viktoria Komova receives her team medal at a ceremony last week. Speaking in an interview on the Russian Olympic Association's website, Andrei and Valentina Rodionenko put forward their thoughts on the potential of their teams in Glasgow.. - A key theme of the interview was the refreshment of the teams who both have a young contingent. - Three very young girls come to the podium, and all that is expected of them is that they avoid mistakes.  Their routines are complex and ready for the Rio Olympics - they do not have to do any more. - The girls will fight, but ' it will be difficult without Mustafina' - Glasgow should really be considered as Komova's first serious start since her comeback.  Yes, she competed in Baku - but she was very nervous there ('trembling'); she has become more confident since, and they hope that she will compete for a medal on the uneven bars where she has a very strong routine.  She may compete on three pieces of apparatus.  She has grown...

Russia 2 correspondent Dmitri Zanin with Russia's WAG  line up (+ Mustafina and Sosnitskaya) at today's press event at Lake Krugloye.  The team flies to Glasgow tomorrow.

In a report in Stadium.ru, Russia's head coach Valentina Rodionenko has revealed that Aliya Mustafina will travel to Germany post-Glasgow for surgery on her knee ligaments.  The extent of the injury is unclear but Rodionenko says that it was during a period of rest that the problem became evident.  Aliya is in good spirits and it is expected that she will be ready to compete in Rio if not at the Europeans.   Of perhaps more immediate concern is the health of Russian team captain Ksenia Afanasyeva who has been suffering from a kidney infection recently. Her participation at Worlds will be dependent on how she feels. Good luck to all the girls, and our best wishes to Aliya and Ksenia for a full recovery!   Source - http://www.stadium.ru/reportsandcomments/interview/person/1653/15-10-2015-glavnie-konkurenti-na-chempionate-mira-kitai-ssha-yaponiya UPDATE - Andrei Rodionenko 16/10 has confirmed Aliya has a torn meniscus, will have surgery immediately after Glasgow ne...

1997 born Dmitri Lankin, a rising star on the men's team The FIG has now updated the nominative registration listings so you can have fun perusing them and seeing who are on the latest teams - there have been plenty of changes across the world. One alteration - which has almost gone unnoticed so far - is the substitution of Vladimir-based gymnast Alexei Rostov with the up and coming youngster, Dmitri Lankin.  Rostov finished fifth in the Russia Cup all around, but his selection for the Worlds team was a small surprise as his name does not even appear on the national team listings on the RGF website. 1997 born Lankin, on the other hand, has been tipped by Valentina Rodionenko as a shining light amongst the promising ranks of the Russian team.  His strongest pieces are floor and parallel bars, where the Russians are already relatively strong.  Often when a youngster is substituted in at this stage, it indicates that the gymnast has earned it in training, and is con...

    Dmitrieva in training this summer  The Russian Worlds team line up changed today as Valentina Rodionenko announced via Tass that Aliya Mustafina would be replaced in Glasgow by Anastasia Dmitrieva.  Aliya withdrew her place in the team as she was not ready to compete, but will travel to Scotland as a guest of the Russian team.  'Her support is crucial to our girls in such an important competition', said Rodionenko (source - http://tass.ru/sport/2325851). Dmitrieva's strengths are on floor and beam.  At best, her flighty double layout on floor, together with elegant presentation, make her a natural for a spot on the senior national team.  If she were to compete at Worlds it would be an opportunity to develop her competitive maturity.  Second place on both beam and floor at the Rusudan Sikharulidze International tournament are her best senior international results so far, and domestically she appears regularly in finals.  At the Russia...

Denis Ablyazin - coach Sergei Starkin confirms that his preparations are going well Keep your eyes peeled over the coming days and weeks for news of the Russian team.  Offical nominative registrations were published by the FIG over a week ago, but it is almost inevitable that there will be some changes to the team line-ups. Sources close to the Russian team hint that this year it may be their men's team, and in particular specialist Denis Ablyazin, who has the best chance of shining on the podium in Glasgow.  And personal coach, Sergei Starkin, has indirectly confirmed that Aliya Mustafina may well not participate in this month's World Championships, the latest turn in a long round of statement-and-counter-statements made by the Russian team about their Olympic star. As usual there remain significant question marks over the readiness of the women's team.  Journalist Natalia Kalugina visited Lake Krugloye yesterday and her reports indicate that there is still room...