Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

The winning Moscow team at this year's Russian Championships.  L to R : Anastasia Grishina, Maria Syrnikova, Anna Myzdrikova, Maria Paseka, Maria Chibiskova, Aliya Mustafina Moscow completed a convincing win ( see results ) in the national team championships yesterday, taking the title by more than four points over their rivals from the Central District.  Moscow came first on all apparatus except beam, where Central headed the field with strong performances from Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Pavlova, and Yulia Inshina. There is an excellent report on The All Around , who have transcribed the results seen below: In the unofficial all around, 2008 Olympics veteran Ksenia Afanasyeva came first with an impressive 59.733, ahead of Anastasia Grishina who managed a score of 59.1 despite a fall from beam. Third placed Yulia Belokobylskaya redeemed herself somewhat from the previous day's competition, improving her performance by almost three points to score 56.967 including a 14.6 ...

Thanks to Emerald who alerted me to this Russia 2 report on the Russian women's successes at the Universiade, including short interviews with Myzdrikova and Polyan. I'm afraid I don't speak Russian so cannot translate - would anyone like to comment on anything significant that is said here? You can link to them on Youtube , also.

The Universiade event finals took place yesterday, with Japan's Yu Minobe taking two golds (bars and beam).  The Japanese women put on a strong showing here, taking a total of nine medals throughout all stages of the competition (seven in the event finals, team gold and silver in the all around (Yamagishi)). Russia showed their class on vault and floor, taking three medals in total.  Alena Polyan, who shone at this spring's Russian Championships, dominated floor, taking the top score on this event each day of the competition.  Along with her bronze all around and on beam, she has a good collection of medals from this event.  2010 European team champion Anna Myzdrikova took silver on vault. St Petersburg's Irina Sazonova performed pretty much as she did in qualifying on bars, finishing in sixth place, Ekaterina Skorodumova took a .6 penalty on floor to finish 6th there also.  Yulia Lozhecko was the only Russian woman not to qualify to any final. In the men's ...

The women's team final of the World Student Games took place yesterday, with Japan (accompanied by former Ukraine internationals Alina Kozich and Sergei Butsula) winning gold, a lively Ukraine team the silver, and Russia bronze.  Ukraine had been well in the lead till the final round when a relatively poor showing on vault (4th as a team) opened the door for Japan , who stepped up and took gold on their best piece, bars.  The Russian team, comprising retired internationals (Myzdrikova, Lozhecko) and outstanding senior gymnasts (Polyan, Sazanova, Skoromudova), led the field on floor and vault but couldn't keep up the standard on bars and beam. Alena Polyan, who came third overall at the Russian national champinships this February, qualified to the all around as the highest scoring Russian individual and also leads floor despite a distressing fall on her first tumble (a very clean double layout) which left her in floods of tears.  In second place on floor is her Volga Dis...

The 2011 Universiade takes place in Shenzhen, China, from the 12th to the 23rd August this year, with gymnastics opening on the 13th August.  A full schedule of events, and details of working order, can be found at the event website. 13th August      14.30-20.20       WAG team 14th August      10.00-18.20        MAG team 15th August       15.00-16.20       WAG all around                           19.00-20.20       MAG all around 16th August        16.00-20.00       Apparatus finals, MAG and WAG The Russian Gymnastics Federation has just released details of its teams here . MAG : ...

Albert and Nora at the All Around Forum have kindly provided a link to the roster for the above competition. For Russia, Anna Dementieva, Aliya Mustafina and Ekaterina Kurbatova are so far posted to compete. This weekend, Ekaterina Kurbatova and Rotterdam reserve Anna Myzdrikova compete in Glasgow at the Grand Prix (World Cup competition). I will provide links to results for all these competitions once they are complete.

The Russian girls have been busy - and very successful - this weekend! All seven gymnasts from the national team (including reserve Anna Myzdrikova) are scheduled to compete by the end of this month. Massilia Cup The wonderful TATIANA NABIEVA competed alongside her team mates KSENIA SEMENOVA and KSENIA AFANASYEVA in Marseille this weekend at the Massilia Cup, and achieved gold medals in the team, all around, bars and vault events. Tanya also took the bronze on balance beam. KSENIA AFANASYEVA took gold medal on floor and silver on beam behind France's Aurelie Malaussena. A fuller report can be found at The Gymnastics Examiner . The Italian Grand Prix World Champion ALIYA MUSTAFINA competed here alongside Youth Olympic Champion VIKTORIA KOMOVA. Aliya won beam and came fourth on bars, while Viktoria took the gold on bars and silver on beam. Full results, and a video of Aliya's performance on beam can be found at Aliya's official website . DTB Cup Promising young ANNA DEME...