Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

A young Russian team led by Seda Tutkhalyan and Evgeniya Shelgunova did themselves proud today by performing their way to a team gold medal and a clean sweep of the individual AA medals at the 4 Nations Trophy in Turin against rivals Italy, Romania and Colombia. Without too many major errors the team looked well prepared and confident.  Their overall score of 224.85 would have placed them fourth in qualifying at the 2014 World Championships, ahead of Britain but just behind their own senior team.  Sokova's superb beam routine, which earned a 14.8 thanks to strong execution, would have been Russia's highest beam score at that stage of the competition.  Tutkhalyan's 57.4 AA score would have placed her 7th in qualifying, or more significantly Russia's second all arounder.   Melnikova and Tutkhalyan both performed steadily to make a case for themselves as up and coming all arounders, with Tutkhalyan surely sealing her place on the team for the upcoming European Games. ...

Head WAG coach Evgeny Grebyonkin has confirmed further details of the Russian team for April's European Championships, reports Allsport. On the basis of their performance at the Russian Championships, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Maria Kharenkova and Daria Spiridinova have been confirmed for the team.  Fighting for the final place will be Alla Sosnitskaya, Viktoria Komova, Maria Paseka and first year senior Seda Tutkhalyan. The Russian coaches face some tough selection decisions as they attempt to balance a relative paucity of all around talent this year with the diverse specialisms of such gymnasts as Spiridinova, Afanasyeva and Komova.  Both Sosnitskaya and Tutkhalyan (whose D score AA of 23.7 ranks third in the international ranks so far this year, behind Simone Biles and Evgeniya Shelgunova) offer potential at both specialist (respectively vault (Sosnitskaya) and beam (Tutkhakyan)) and AA level.  Much will depend on the nerve of the coaches and the way these gymnasts respond in...

Flashback to London 2012: Viktoria Komova The Russian Championships for women gymnasts - junior and senior - begin on the first of April (yes) in Penza, finishing on the 6th.  You can see the schedule here : http://www.sportgymrus.ru/Admin/GetFile.ashx?get=1&id=43065 It is a full competition where the regional teams participate and individuals get a chance to test themselves and their early preparation for the coming competitive season.  This year the top women will be competing for places on the European Championships teams (junior and senior) for Sofia, Bulgaria, later in the spring.  It is expected that we will see Viktoria Komova for the first time in many months - which must be the most anticipated comeback for years.  Aliya Mustafina is also hoped to make a show, as well as Anastasia Grishina and Maria Paseka.  There has been an announcement that Ksenia Afanasyeva will compete vault, and I would also be surprised if we didn't see Maria Kharenkova ...

Anastasia Grishina - a 'butterfly for a day'? Valentina Rodionenko here provides clarification of some of the points made in yesterday's interviews. In a more measured account than her Allsport interview which is summarised as part of yesterday's blog pos t, she emphasises the need to retain and develop gymnasts on the WAG team and says there is a new, smiling, face of the team management, with greater collaboration between personal and lead coaches. Key points are : There is a new atmosphere in the Russian team since London, under new head coach Evgeny Grebenkin.  Everything is OK: everyone is friendly, works hard, there is no shouting and generally 'good human relations'.  'Perhaps because we have worked abroad for a long time, we have never had any desire to humiliate or offend anybody.  We do not use such methods.' Evgeny Grebenkin has brought the personal trainers into the centre of the team, rather than working on the sidelin...

Viktoria Komova at a press conference yesterday.  Courtesy RGF WAG and MAG European Championships for individuals begins one week from today at the Olympiski Stadium in Moscow, Russia, and the Russian Gymnastics Federation has been busy arranging press conferences and interviews to promote the competition and the chances of the Russian gymnasts.  You will be able to read below details of both the men's and women's team composition, as well as some links to important documents.   A news report today suggests that Grishina's competitive readiness may be in doubt. At the same time, youngster Evgeniya Shelgunova, a favourite of head coaches Rodionenko, has recently been elevated to reserve over the injured Dementyeva, and Valentina Rodionenko has been talking up the veteran Afanasyeva's chances of competing in the all around final.  Yet again it is an uncertain situation for the Russians. You will find the latest version of the nominative registrations he...

Lupita translates here the first interview of any significance with Evgeny Grebionkin, newly appointed senior coach of the Russian WAG team.  The article appears on the press website of the Russian Ministry of Sport.   The gymnastics national team’s head coach, Evgeny Greb ionkin , has talked in an interview to FTP-Press about the changes in the staff, the specificities of the new season and the new Code of Points. - Evg eny Anatolevich, what has changed in your work as the national team’s head coach? - I’ve been working with this team for four years. The thing is that I have more duties now. I used to focus on bars, essentially. Now I follow the athletes on all apparatus. I have to organize the training process right now. - How do you feel about the young gymnasts who have joined the team? - So far it’s difficult to say something specific. Four years ago Mustafina, Komova, Nabieva joined the team the same way. It was to...

Evgeniya Shelgunova, who progresses to senior international eligibility this year and is the only gymnast of her age on the Russian national team. The Russian Gymnastics Federation has been hard at work, updating the list of those who will be included on the Russian national gymnastics teams this year. For the women, it is a transitional year, with many of those who matured at or before the London Olympic Games still on the national team, and no retirements announced.  This year, the Russians need gymnasts for the Universiade (gymnasts age 18+), World and European Championships (16+) and European Youth Olympics (14+).  The expected post Olympic retirements are likely to be postponed until after the Universiade, which is taking place in Russia (Kazan) this summer.  So the team this year appears rich and full of strength in depth, but it remains to be seen how many will continue competing beyond the end of 2013. New to the senior team is 1998 born Maria Kharenkov...

Hard-working Anastasia Grishina was the top Russian senior gymnast of these Championships.  Picture courtesy of the UEG . As a senior team, the Russians obviously did not perform to expectations - even Alexandrov in his interview for Championnat .ru (English language translation here ) admitted as much.  Watching Sidorova, Mustafina and Grishina all make errors in their qualification floor routines was a pretty discouraging experience for a die-hard Russian fan, let alone their long term, long suffering coach.  Then, the shaky start on beam - for which Komova must take as much responsibility as Sidorova - meant they began with a finals deficit that proved impossible to overcome. Hopefully, Alexandrov has a strong heart. In his latest interviews Alexandrov has avoided discussing the likelihood of team success in the London Olympics - almost as though he wants to give the impression that the thought had never occurred to him in the first place.  His strongest ver...

The UEG's website gives a full set of results for the competition, but I'm sufficiently obsessed to provide images of the key ones to the junior Russian gymnasts here.  There will be a separate post of images of the senior results also. Please note, there was no official team competition at this event - however, the winners of this competition (RUS/ITA/ROM) were presented with medals. A close fight in this final with the mature and powerful Scheder ending up in first position following a .3 upgrade of her SV thanks to an appeal from the Germans  - uplifting her finish from bronze to gold. The first of two gold medals for Kharenkova on the final day.  Here she increased her SV from 5.8 in qualifications to 6.1, the highest of any gymnast on any apparatus in the whole of the junior competition. Kharenkova's floor was the routine of the competition for me, both senior and junior.  Even with a .1 penalty for going out of the area she looked by fa...

There are some unexpected recurring themes in my gymnastics holidays: bad food, inappropriate men, funny friends and brilliant Russians.  As this is a diary of my Brussels experience as much as a story about the European Championships, I will provide you with an update of how Tracey and I are getting on here, as well as some links to interesting information about today's junior team competition, which the Russians won quite brilliantly. First of all, let me show you a picture. Snack acquired at Le Roy d'Espagne, Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium Let me take my earlier statement a little further, and propose the hypothesis that bad food and inappropriate men precede brilliant Russians.  We first established this possible link in Stuttgart, when an order of lasagne turned out to be the worst culinary disaster of our lifetime.  (I have never had to carve pasta before or since.)  Secondly, in Athens, a self-described 'very bold, very audacious' Georgian gentleman pr...