Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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 ;-)

The All Around Gymnastics News site reports the final results of the second day of competition in Japan. Beam : 1 Mitchell, 15.2   2  Mustafina 15.15   3 Sui Lu 14.975  Dementieva came 7th with 12.775 following two falls and two large balance checks.   Such a pity - competing to full potential, Dementieva should have been able to beat this field on beam. Floor: Equal first = Sui Lu and Aliya Mustafina, 14.625  3 - Jiang Yuyuan, 14.175.  Dementieva came 5th with 14 points.  Albert reports that she had problems landing her final triple twist. This was a fairly good competition for the Russians that underlines their growing strength in depth.  Thanks to Mustafina's efforts, they took half the gold on offer, in addition to two silvers and a bronze medal.  All three Russian girls medalled, and Russians collected medals on every piece of apparatus.  Out of 12 possible medals, they took five. The Chinese didn't do ba...

A running commentary on the Toyota Cup can be found at the Japan Gymnastics official blog .  A whole new experience for me, reading Google translates of Japanese gymnastics reports! Edited 12 December - The All Around Gymnastics news site as ever has an excelent comprehensive report on this competition, men and women.  So far, the women's competition has resulted in three medals for the Russian ladies present, with beam and floor to come tomorrow. Vault - 1 Mustafina, 14.287; 2 Rie Tanaka, 14.05, 3 Ekaterina Kurbatova, 14.037 Bars - 1  Jiang Yuyuan 15.475 2 Anna Dementieva 14.375 3 Minobe Yu, 14.325 Mustafina competed bars but took 2 falls - hope she is OK. Men's results can also be found at the above link

Results of the Glasgow Grand Prix can be accessed here . Australia's Lauren Mitchell dominated this competition, taking golds on beam and floor. Russia's Ekaterina Kurbatova, the only gymnast to qualify to all four event finals, took gold on vault but finished outside the medals elsewhere. Well done, Katya! Anna Myzdrikova unfortunately finished outside the medals on her specialist piece, floor. In the men's competition, Alexander Balandin took gold on the rings.

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...

And finally, the anthem of gymnastics has been played in honour of the Russian team at a World Championships. Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Dementieva, Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Semenova and Ekaterina Kurbatova fought like titans to win Russia's first ever world team gold medals, at the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam today. Detailed results are available at http://www.longinestiming.com/sports/gym/ag_wc2k10w/C73D_ResultsTeam_GA%20Women%20Senior_Concours%20IV.pdf And there is the most gorgeous short video highlights on Youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ZfaGLIcJQ Have the soundtrack turned up, and handkerchief at the ready. I wanted this significant victory to be recorded on my blog as quickly as possible. The least I can say is that I am very, very pleased. And Happy 18th Birthday to Ksenia Semenova!!! More to follow.