Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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...