Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

It's about time someone wrote something about this talented gymnast.  Despite the common perception that she's leading the Russian team only by default, I consider this jewel of a gymnast to possess unusual strength and artistry.  My blogging colleague Kristal at Double Front has similar ideas.  Perhaps the hardest worker on the Russian team (according to Alexander Alexandrov in May's IG) will soon get the full recognition for her beautifully performed routines - I certainly hope she doesn't risk injury or compromise the balance of her presentation by over inflating the difficulty content of her routines. The Russian Gymnastics Federation website has an English language translation Moscow News interview with this enigmatic gymnast.  Anna speaks here of her mother's interest in sport and of her relationship with her coach, Yelena Zhiganova.  It adds just a little colour to a picture of a rather under-rated gymnast who I hope will continue gracefully and add...

Apparatus finals day 1 start lists Apparatus finals day 2 start lists Women's judging assignments, apparatus finals note we have a Swiss head judge on vault Longine's directory of results

On the occasion of International Women's Day the Russian Gymnastics Federation kindly presented an English language interview with 2000 Olympic All Around Champion Alexei Nemov, now Vice President of the Federation and organiser of his own gymnastics show. He has the ambition of opening his own gymnastics school and is also president of the Moscow Fitness Festival. Nemov shares many of his thoughts about the importance of family (with his wife Galina he has three sons, Evgenyi (19 years old), Alexei and Dmitri (the youngest, 18 months)), the relationship between sport, fitness and health and the importance of a healthy diet. He even provides us with his own tasty salad suggestion! Alexei's two eldest children aren't involved in elite sport, although he seems to think that Dmitri may be a budding gymnast! However, he does suggest that his two elder boys like to keep fit and practice sport for fun. Like Rodionenko, he regrets the diminishing sports infrastructure in ...

The Russian Federation has updated its photo report of the women's all around competition.  For those of you with an interest in looking to the past as well as future, there are some good pictures of the judging team, including a radiant Elena Zamolodchikova accompanied by Leysira Gabdrakhmanova. The men's competition is covered here .

Maxim Devyatovski won gold yesterday in Penza, ahead of Pavel Rusinyak and Nikita Ignatieva and Alexander Demin (tie for third place).  Full results can be found here and there is also a full transliteration of the results at the International Gymnast news site . Maxim Devyatovski        87.9 Pavel Rusinyak               87.0 Nikita Ignatiev                86.1 (this is according to IG Ignatiev's first important medal; he scored highest on P-Bars - 15.1 Alexander Demin            86.1 Dmitri Gogotov               85.6 Andrei Cherkasov           85.5

Alan Owen has provided a video link on his gymnast websites to a news story relating to Dementieva's victory at the Russian Championships.  You can link to it here . There are brief Q and As with Mustafina, Dementieva and Pavlova and a short shot of Komova's bars (including a shot of the score board which rather confusingly shows 16.00, not the 16.7 reported in the results ...

Link to the Russian Gymnastics Federation website to view some photos of the all around competition!  Enjoy!

Anna Dementieva has been crowned national all around champion of Russia!  Full results are available here . Anna won by dint of being the most consistent gymnast around, performing strongly on bars, beam and floor, and pretty much predictably on vault, her weakest apparatus.  Anna took the highest score on the floor exercise (15.1) the third highest on bars (14.65) and the second highest on beam (14.35).  The highest bars score - 16.7 - was registered by Viktoria Komova, who had an otherwise difficult competition, finishing in 35th place after disappointing outings on beam and floor, and a final withdrawal from vault.  I hope she isn't injured.  Tanya Nabieva came second on bars with 15.05, and is second on vault with 14.85, behind none other than Anna Pavlova (14.9).  Leading the stakes on beam is Yulia Belokobylskaya (14.55). The top six placings are as follows: Anna Dementieva 58.05 Anna Pavlova       56.2 Alena Poly...

Link  here to the Federation's official pictures of podium training, featuring Tanya Nabieva in typically powerful flight on bars and floor, Anna Dementieva looking longer and even more delicately elegant on beam, and a radiant Ekaterina Kurbatova practicing floor.  You will also be pleased to hear that we see Anna Pavlova working on beam and vault.  I couldn't work out if Viktoria Komova features in any of these shots, but her mother, Vera Kolesnikova, is seen so I guess her daughter was somewhere around ;-)

Albert at the All Around Forum has provided a link to photos of the opening ceremony of this competition here .  They are pretty bog standard ceremonial photographs at this stage, I recognise some of the dignitaries including Rodionenko but can't see any of the main gymnasts I know.  This is a link to the Burtasy school of gymnastics in Penza where the competition is taking place, so it may prove to be a good spot to pick up quick results if the Russian Gymnastics Federation's site updates take a while to come through.  I'll keep an eye on how things are developing and let you know results as soon as I can.  It's the women's all around competition today and from all accounts Komova and Dementieva are likely to be the main competitors - Nabieva has opted to compete individual apparatus only, Mustafina, Semenova and Afanasyeva are not planning to compete (though this may change on the day for all I know), and Grishina is competing at the Jesolo Cup.  Anyway, l...

I don't often highlight gymnastics from other countries here, but I do respect the Chinese gymnasts for their skill and courage, and Chinese Gymnastics is one of my favourite specialist blogs.  Visit this post for a video of some of the incredible combinations and skills the Chinese perform.  Forget the controversy re their respective ages.  The gymnasts can't help this, and most people seem to agree that the age limit rules are rather silly, anyway. If they are the best, why shouldn't they win? Rules are rules, I suppose. Such a pity though that the Chinese authorities have saddled their team with a bad reputation on the basis of contravention of a rule that almost everyone seems to think is wrong.  Why not just lobby for fairer rules? Russian national championships are shortly upcoming.  I will post results here as soon as they become available.  Not forgetting those regional championships results which I'll do as soon as I get a free day.  I p...