Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Today's event finals have taken place, with finals for the women on vault and uneven bars, and for the men high bar, floor and pommels.  The gold medallists are Anna Pavlova (vault), Aliya Mustafina (bars), Ignatyev (high bar), Belyavski (pommels) and Ignatyev (floor). Courtesy of the RGF Vault was especially disappointing for specialist Maria Paseka, hopeful for the Olympics, who for some reason incurred a 2 point deduction on each of her two presentations and finished in last place in that final.  This competition did not feature those who are expected to be strongest in vault by the Olympic Games, namely Komova, Grishina and Mustafina, although it is fair to say that the Russians do seem to have a weakness in depth on this apparatus and are reliant on their three star performers. Both Mustafina's and Komova's bars routines had a start value of 7, with Mustafina performing hers without error.  Komova's bars were good but for sitting down her dismount.  Anas...

All hail Tsarina Aliya Mustafina!  Courtesy of the RGF Just a brief round up of all the information available on the gymternet. First of all, a fab report from Nora who is actually in Penza!!! Secondly, a link to the full official results (I'll do images and a discussion later). And Albert has posted these all around results on the All Around Forum , which I hope he doesn't mind me copying here : 1.Aliya Mustafina 14.667 15.834 14.667 14.167 59.335 2.Viktoria Komova 14.800 16.134 14.000 14.300 59.234 3.Ksenia Afanasyeva 13.267 13.634 14.467 14.067 55.435 4.Yulia Inshina 13.667 13.000 14.500 13.800 54.967 4.Anna Pavlova 14.467 12.700 14.400 13.400 54.967 6.Anastasia Sidorova 14.400 13.334 12.434 14.000 54.168 7.Anna Dementyeva 12.900 14.400 14.867 11.200 53.367 8.Anna Rodionova 13.367 13.634 13.034 12.800 52.835 9.Yulia Belokobylskaya 13.200 12.467 13.767 13.400 52.834 10.Alena Polyan 13.134 12.500 12.767 13.934 52.335 11.Anna Myzdrikova 13.634 11.034 13...

Burtasy School of Gymnastics, Penza, will be hosting the all important Russian Cup competition, due to begin next Tuesday. Penza local boy Denis Ablyazin has already been confirmed as part of the Olympic team travelling to London on the 21st July alongside his fellow European medallists Emin Garibov and Alexander Balandin.  But the final composition of the team has to include two other gymnasts, plus one travelling reserve.  The Russians have some difficult decisions to make over the coming weeks as they try to find a compromise between the potential of such apparatus specialists as Anton Golotsutskov (floor, vault) and valuable all arounders such as David Belyavski and Nikita Ignatiev.  The team is weak on pommel horse and inconsistent on high bar. Whatever decision they make will be a compromise, and is not likely to please everyone.  Data gathered at the forthcoming Russian Cup will be vital, but I doubt will provide a definitive solution. The varying compe...