Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

A surprisingly happy team at Brussels ... Anastasia Sidorova, Maria Paseka, Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina Of course, the main story of this week’s WAG European Championships has been the resurgence of the Romanian team as a dominant force in world gymnastics.  Of the five gold medals available here, Romania took four.   Three out of their five gymnasts have gone home with individual gold medals, and the team underlined their strength on beam and floor where they also took silver.  The only apparatus on which they did not excel was bars, Russia’s particular eyrie of the past few years, where we even had a flashback moment with a clean sweep from the republics of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Russia, Ukraine).    With China and the USA on a similar level,  the FIG will have some worrying moments in London if they want to give the impression that the sport has a wider geographical spread of excellence than in former year...

Evgeniya Shelgunova, second placed in tonight's Junior Europeans All Around competition.  Picture courtesy of the RGF. A good competition today, with our two Russians performing well to expectation.  Shelgunova was extremely happy to land her full twisting Yurchenko after Wednesday's disappointment (two crashed vaults left her out of the running in theoretically one of her best events) and went on to complete her bars efficiently (a couple of form breaks but a good double layout dismount).  She also delivered strong routines on beam and floor where she looked very solid on both days.  Italy's Enus Mariani competed to her predicted form and took gold, just over a point ahead of Shelgunova and third placed Romanian Andreea Munteanu. I shall reserve a small gasp of delight for the second placed Russian on the team : Maria Kharenkova really performed tonight and finished in sixth place; is it academic that she missed 5th by only .067 of a mark?  What is less...

Twitter the Europeans : #Brussels2012 I am on my way to Brussels and will be providing a daily diary of all the excitement from the point of view of a well seasoned gymnastics traveller who loves the Russians.  These Championships are one of the most keenly anticipated of any I have attended in the past 25 years.  In the coming days we should expect to discover : Who of the latest crop of juniors are likely to be fighting for spots on the senior teams in coming years? How are the Russian team's preparations going for the Olympics? Which of Russia's first time seniors will be in the fight for places on the team for London? Can the Romanians pull off a surprise and win lots and lots of gold? The Russians have brought a very young team to Brussels; of the five gymnasts nominated three are first time seniors.   Some bright person noted that this is in fact the 2010 European Junior Championships team, with Aliya Mustafina in the place of Violetta Malikova. I cann...