Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

  You announced that you "unofficially" retired from athletics. How do you rate it? What achievements are you most proud of? To what extent did you realize your full potential? Were there any career moves you regret? I haven't yet mentally accepted the fact that my career is over. I understand that my chances are slim due to the personal sanctions imposed on me and my personal schedule. I work three jobs, and sometimes I don't have time to train, let alone take care of my personal needs. I have a lot of responsibility for projects and the team. I'll likely make my official retirement announcement next year, but I still want to compete somewhere, to "shake off the old days." I regret that my professional career ended so early and abruptly. I still have, as we say in sports, "something left in me." In many ways, I could have pushed a little harder, been more disciplined in my training, found a new approach... For example, the Youth Olympic Games ...

 

 

 From Match TV:  Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics Nikita Nagorny has withdrawn from the individual all-around at the BRICS Games in Kazan. Earlier, Nagorny announced on his Telegram channel that he had decided not to continue competing in the individual all-around due to an injury and would compete in the qualification only in individual events. 💬 Life is already hinting to me that it’s time to hang up the pads (laughs). In fact, I was well prepared. I tore a blister on the first element, I wanted to jump off while performing the elements, but this is an international competition, you can’t do that, Nagorny said on Match TV. 💪 Today I lost, I admit, you need to be able to lose. I know how to do it. Perhaps a gold medal in the BRICS Games in the all-around would have given me a reason to end my career, but now I will stay until the Friendship Games. I hope I will have two more opportunities to please the fans. Now I will try to prove myself in the vault and floor exerc...

Bronze on rings and silver on vault were Denis's reward for hard work, earned today in Rio. Interviewed by Sportbox after the event, Denis said he would take a break after the Games to treat and rest a 'very sore shoulder'.  He plans to return to competition with his most complicated routines, not watering down, as that 'is not my way'.  He pointed out that he was better prepared for Rio than he had been for London; by implication I wonder if we can take that to mean he'll be better still in 2020?! Russia's other qualifier to vault final, 19 year old Nikita Nagorny, performed well to finish in fifth position.   In the women's competition, the graceful Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands won gold with a beautiful and original beam routine after expected gold medallist Simone Biles bobbled on this precarious apparatus.  Wever's win was the first Olympic medal in gymnastics for a Netherlands woman. Today's finals were notable for the high standard of co...

The atmosphere surrounding the Russian male gymnasts at this year's European Championships was noticeably relaxed and happy as they made their way to their various medals.  This reflects not only a more stable competition performance, but also a refreshed dynamic within the team.  First, some background .  Russian sport finds itself under unprecedented pressure at present following serious doping allegations and positive tests which have led the International Athletics Federation to propose that Russia's entire track and field team be barred from the Olympics.  Other sports are implicated, and even gymnastics has not emerged unscathed, as senior team member Nikolai Kuksenkov tested positive for trace elements of meldonium in the spring.  Kuksenkov has now been given a pardon and actually competed in Bern, but it seems likely that artistic gymnastics, with its ultra-clean record internationally, has the potential to win medals for Russia at the Olympics with...

Aliya Mustafina and team candidate Seda Tutkhalyan - both from Moscow Five days left before the MAG European Championships open in Switzerland, and Russian gymnast Nikita Nagorny is posting videos of himself practicing a full twisting Roche vault - I wonder if he will compete it in Berne?  The men's team seems fairly well prepared and ready to travel as announced some weeks ago - Kuksenkov, Belyavski, Ignatyev, Nagorny, Ablyazin.  But the composition of the women's team, who will travel to their first major competition of 2016 next week, seems somewhat undecided.  Will Natalia Kapitonova make her major senior debut in June, or will Seda Tutkhalyan, her dynamic yet unpredictable rival, grace Russia's team?  Or will other gymnasts be brought into play; will further, unexpected, changes be made? If head coach Valentina Rodionenko's recent announcement is to be believed, it is a simple case of replacing the injured Maria Paseka (a vault specialist) with Natalia ...

The top seven gymnasts at Penza will compete for the six places on the Russian team for Euros, confirmed head coach Valery Alfosov today to Allsport. On the basis of the results of the national championships, the following gymnasts are in contention:  All Around : David Belyavski and Nikolai Kuksenkov Denis Ablyazin : floor, rings and vault Nikita Nagorny : floor and vault Mattvei Petrov : pommel horse Nikita Ignatyev : rings, p-bars and high bar Mikhail Kudashov : rings (he has a D value of 6.8 but was unable to show his best as he was still recovering from the effects of flu) At present, the reserve is Dmitri Lankin, who has potential on floor and parallel bars. As with the women, other gymnasts will be training for the competition and new names may still be added to the roster according to the results of control competitions. Alfosov stressed that almost the entire team had performed below par in Penza thanks to the effects of a nasty flu bug.  With another four weeks of tr...