Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

As you may have read earlier, Russian team contenders Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka are scheduled to compete at this World Cup competition over the weekend.   Their compatriots Maria Stepanova and Diana Sapranova are also on the roster. For Maria Paseka especially, this could be an important test for selection for the World Championships. I will be updating results early next week, but in the meantime Double Front has some information on the competition and there is a website here.

Gymnastics No Ceiling has confirmed the full competitor list for this September's Ghent Challenger Cup (3-4 September).  Competing for Russia will be Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka, Diana Sapronova and Maria Stepanova. Given Alexandrov's recent announcement that this event could be used as a minor selection, I find this rather interesting.  In my opinion, Komova's place on the team is probably fairly safe.  Paseka, Sapronova, Stepanova may be competing for a place on the team.  Paseka's strength is most definitely vault. That leg strapping looks quite heavy to me, but she looks fit and strong otherwise.  Stepanova took a bronze medal on floor at this spring's Russian national championships. At present, Komova and Sapronova are slated to compete bars and beam only, with Paseka and Stepanova appearing on floor and vault.  It's still early days, though ...