Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

A link here to the full results of this competition held over last weekend. In summary, Nikita Ignatiev appears to be arguably the most successful gymnast at these games because in addition to his bronze all around he also managed gold on P-Bars and bronze on High Bar.  Hopefully this means a good future for this young gymnast.  Team mate Pavel Russinyak, in addition to his silver all around, also managed bronze on P-Bars and a silver on High Bar, while Devyatovski couldn't medal in either of his finals, again P-Bars and High Bar.  The Russian team is full of event specialists it seems, with all arounders rather thin on the ground. Results summarised below. Floor 1   Anton Lobachov            14.775 2   Andrei Cherkasov         14.775 3   Dmitri Gogotov              14.65 Pommels 1      ...

Russian nationals has closed with impressive shows of strength and skill from now established national team members.  A new star also shone for the first time this weekend.  Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementieva  strengthened their positions on the Russian team by becoming dual gold medallists, Nabieva taking gold on vault and bars, Dementieva a further gold on beam to complement her all around win.  And with silvers on bars and floor, Dementieva must surely be considered Russia's top female gymnast of these championships.  First time senior Yulia Belokobylskaya took floor gold and silver on beam. Full results are available at the Federation website .  It's unclear what implications these championships have for European team selections as the results ask so many questions, in particular regarding the form of Viktoria Komova, who has clearly faltered somewhat here.  The gymnasts' competitive schedules are busy over  coming weeks, with Mustafina ki...

The Russian Gymnastics Federation website again gives us English language access to a brief summary of some media coverage of the women's all around final, this time from Penza State TV.  Worth a read for the brief comments from Aliya Mustafina, Anna Dementieva and Anna Pavlova!

Full results can be found here . Once again, I have uncovered a mysterious Russian practice, with Viktoria Komova double agenting for both the victorious Central and second placed Moscow team AND Anna Dementieva also doubling up for the winning Central team and the 3rd placed PFO (Volga Federal District??) team. The results are as follows : 1   Central  (Komova, Pavlova, Inishina, Dementieva, Kruglikova, Stepanova)  174.95 2   Moscow  (Mustafina, Komova, Myzdrikova, Novikova, Syrinkova, Chibiskova) 171.132 3   PFO (Volga Federal District?)  (Dementieva, Telitsina, Skorodumova, Polyan, Lavrushina, Smirnova)  164.4 4  St Petersburg  (Sazonova, Nabieva, Sapronova, Terenteva, Krylova, Zemskova (did not compete)) 162.6 Aliya Mustafina apparently won the battle of those competing on all four pieces of apparatus, except for that she didn't perform at all - please see below for an explanation.  In her absence, Deme...

Full results are available here . In summary, 1    Moscow    (Olennikov, Garibov, Gogotov, Bondar, Stolyarov, Ablyazin)    261.55 2    Siberia       (Devyatovski, Pakhomenko, Ignatiev, Cherkasov, Golutsotskov  259.85 3   Central       (Barkalov, Nyudakin, Markelov, Perevoznikov, Bondar, Ignatenkov   255.00 Interesting - Mikhail Bondar appears to have competed for two teams simultaneously here - Moscow and Central - not sure how this works but quite pleased with myself for noticing it ;-)  Only his high bar score counted for the Central team.  One of the wonderful mysteries of Russian gymnastics.  Hopefully we'll have the women's team results later.  And perhaps I'll discover something even more wondrously mysterious there.  Who knows. 

Alexandrov comments on the Russian Federation website on the results of the all around competition : 'Aleksandr Aleksandrov said: "These results cannot be called surprising. Anna Dementyeva competed well and earned her spot. Aliya Mustafina will compete in the World Cup qualifier in Jacksonville in the USA in a few days. It would have been physically difficult for her to compete in two meets essentially one right after the other and so the Federation made the decision to allow her to not compete in Russian Championships. Tatyana Nabiyeva only competed on two events and Viktoria Komova is recovering from an injury, and we hope that she will be in good shape in a month for European Championships. Anna Pavlova is an experienced gymnast, but she is competing after a long break. In light of the situation, she had a good chance to win a medal and she made excellent use of that. Alyona Polyan showed an excellent result, and we are now considering her for the University Games in Ch...

The Russian Federation has updated its photo report of the women's all around competition.  For those of you with an interest in looking to the past as well as future, there are some good pictures of the judging team, including a radiant Elena Zamolodchikova accompanied by Leysira Gabdrakhmanova. The men's competition is covered here .

Maxim Devyatovski won gold yesterday in Penza, ahead of Pavel Rusinyak and Nikita Ignatieva and Alexander Demin (tie for third place).  Full results can be found here and there is also a full transliteration of the results at the International Gymnast news site . Maxim Devyatovski        87.9 Pavel Rusinyak               87.0 Nikita Ignatiev                86.1 (this is according to IG Ignatiev's first important medal; he scored highest on P-Bars - 15.1 Alexander Demin            86.1 Dmitri Gogotov               85.6 Andrei Cherkasov           85.5

Alan Owen has provided a video link on his gymnast websites to a news story relating to Dementieva's victory at the Russian Championships.  You can link to it here . There are brief Q and As with Mustafina, Dementieva and Pavlova and a short shot of Komova's bars (including a shot of the score board which rather confusingly shows 16.00, not the 16.7 reported in the results ...

Link to the Russian Gymnastics Federation website to view some photos of the all around competition!  Enjoy!

Anna Dementieva has been crowned national all around champion of Russia!  Full results are available here . Anna won by dint of being the most consistent gymnast around, performing strongly on bars, beam and floor, and pretty much predictably on vault, her weakest apparatus.  Anna took the highest score on the floor exercise (15.1) the third highest on bars (14.65) and the second highest on beam (14.35).  The highest bars score - 16.7 - was registered by Viktoria Komova, who had an otherwise difficult competition, finishing in 35th place after disappointing outings on beam and floor, and a final withdrawal from vault.  I hope she isn't injured.  Tanya Nabieva came second on bars with 15.05, and is second on vault with 14.85, behind none other than Anna Pavlova (14.9).  Leading the stakes on beam is Yulia Belokobylskaya (14.55). The top six placings are as follows: Anna Dementieva 58.05 Anna Pavlova       56.2 Alena Poly...

Albert at the All Around Forum has provided a link to photos of the opening ceremony of this competition here .  They are pretty bog standard ceremonial photographs at this stage, I recognise some of the dignitaries including Rodionenko but can't see any of the main gymnasts I know.  This is a link to the Burtasy school of gymnastics in Penza where the competition is taking place, so it may prove to be a good spot to pick up quick results if the Russian Gymnastics Federation's site updates take a while to come through.  I'll keep an eye on how things are developing and let you know results as soon as I can.  It's the women's all around competition today and from all accounts Komova and Dementieva are likely to be the main competitors - Nabieva has opted to compete individual apparatus only, Mustafina, Semenova and Afanasyeva are not planning to compete (though this may change on the day for all I know), and Grishina is competing at the Jesolo Cup.  Anyway, l...

I don't often highlight gymnastics from other countries here, but I do respect the Chinese gymnasts for their skill and courage, and Chinese Gymnastics is one of my favourite specialist blogs.  Visit this post for a video of some of the incredible combinations and skills the Chinese perform.  Forget the controversy re their respective ages.  The gymnasts can't help this, and most people seem to agree that the age limit rules are rather silly, anyway. If they are the best, why shouldn't they win? Rules are rules, I suppose. Such a pity though that the Chinese authorities have saddled their team with a bad reputation on the basis of contravention of a rule that almost everyone seems to think is wrong.  Why not just lobby for fairer rules? Russian national championships are shortly upcoming.  I will post results here as soon as they become available.  Not forgetting those regional championships results which I'll do as soon as I get a free day.  I p...