A fresh start has been made in the Russian Federation, and yesterday Russia's stars presented themselves anew in their first small steps towards the Rio Olympics in 2016. The team's leading Olympic medallist, Aliya Mustafina, won the all around competition ahead of the unlucky bird of London, Anastasia Grishina. In third position we have youngster, first year senior Evgeniya Shelgunova. Of course, the subtext here is that the best of all, graceful, powerful, Viktoria Komova, could not compete thanks to a nagging back injury ... surely she would have beaten the lot of them if she had only been at full strength. On the men's side, David Belyavski confirmed his position as Russia's leading all around gymnast, and joker Nikita Ignatyev gave him strong competition in second place. Many of Russia's leading male gymnasts did not appear in the all around competition, however, preferring to present on their specialist pieces. The most encouraging work came f...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources. I read, I argue, and I have opinions. Be warned.