Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Gold is standard for a gymnast whose name is appearing regularly now in the headlines of this blog.  Over the last two days, tiny Maria Bondareva took three golds in the Candidate Master of Sport event finals at this year's Russian Nationals.  Whether Bondareva is old enough to compete at the forthcoming Junior European Championships - I don't know.  But I hope she is!!  The full results in Russian are here . Vault Evgeniya Korolkova 13.76 Yulia Starchenko      13.59 Maria Bondareva      13.59 Uneven Bars Maria Bondareva      13.92 Viktoria Kuzmina      13.9 Evgeniya Korolkova  13.42 Beam Maria Bondareva       14.92 Kristina Levshina       14.04 Viktoria Kuzmina       13.96 Floor Maria Bondareva      13.9 Viktoria Kuzmina  ...

Maria Bondareva at last December's Voronin Cup Junior national team member Maria Bondareva confirmed her class yesterday with a convincing win all around at Canada's Gymnix Junior Cup. Bondareva, 12 years old, won bars and beam in the junior competition at last December's Voronin Cup, and took the all around junior title at Hungary's Eva Kanyo Cup. With 14 year old Evgeniya Shelgunova , Bondareva is leading the current charge of Russian juniors. She has been selected for the Jesolo Cup later this month, and (assuming she is age eligible) looks likely to be on the roster for the upcoming Junior Europeans in Brussels. Bondareva competed alongside Russian junior national team mates Anastasia Dmitrieva, Evgenia Korolkova and Daria Mikhailova.   Full results are available here .  Event finals take place today Maria Anatolyevna Bondareva , born 28th November 1999 (12 years old). Trains under U V Pursheva and Y N Bachurin at Fryazino (Moscow Oblast).   ...