Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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...