Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Thanks to the RGF who have now published competitor lists for the Russia Cup, which begins tomorrow.  My best attempt at transliterating the names, some of which are unfamiliar, is given below.  Women Anna Pavlova Yuna Nefedova Yulia Chemaryeva Marina Nekrasova Yulia Inshina Kristina Kruglikova Yulia Tipaeva Daria Elizarova Yana Popova Kristina Sidorova Anna Rodionova Polina Fyodorova Olga Bikmurzina Irina Andreeva Yelena Shcherbakova Anastasia Grishina Maria Paseka Alla Sosnitskaya Anastasia Marchuk Tatiana Nabiyeva Diana Ravdina Anastasia Cheong Ekaterina Kramarenko Lilia Akhaimova Alla Sidorenko Men Maxim Khodkin Andrei Perevoznikov Kirill Prokopyev Anton Neyudakin Mikhail Simakov Alexei Bogdanov Maxim Semagin Andrei Matucheshkin Alexander Balandin Matvei Petrov Nikita Ignatyev Grigori Zyrianov Daniil Kazachkov Andrei Lagutov Alexei Byikov Andrei Sovenko Pavel Russinyak Pavel Pavlov Sergei Stepanov Villyam Katyn Mikha...

Anastasia Grishina at the Russian Championships in Penza earlier this month.  Picture courtesy of RGF Nominative registrations are now out for the upcoming European Championships in Moscow. Women : Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina, Maria Paseka, Ksenia Afanasyeva I'm delighted to see Afanasyeva on the team - to me, she is the natural selection over the still developing Evgeniya Shelgunova, whose selection could really only be justified on developmental grounds - and perhaps this could be seen as rather indulgent given the current competitive climate in world gymnastics.  Afanasyeva really adds clout to what is a mature and classy Russian team.  She was also looking on good acrobatic form at the French International recently - perhaps less focussed on her dance, but then since when did this really matter to the scores? Aliya Mustafina is reportedly competing at the Stella Zakharova Cup in Ukraine this weekend so we shall have a chance to see how her preparatio...