Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Viktoria is in the news in Russia at the moment.  There is this TV interview in which she discusses her injury, the future, and her team mates.  Can anyone translate?   https://youtu.be/kgKnkP-HY0g Our kind Anonymous contributor tells me that Vika says she has " Грыжa и протрузия позвоночника"  which I think means she has a herniated, or bulging, disc in her spine.  Ouch. In an interview with Albert Starodubtsev, Valentina Rodionenko says that Viktoria is travelling to Munich on 20th July.  Viktoria says that if the doctors say they cannot help her, she will retire.   Source -  http://tass.ru/sport/3445591 Other news Maria Kharenkova is back training in Lake Krugloye, again thanks to Anonymous.  The 2014 European beam champion has been suffering leg pain. I am also told by a private (unofficial) source that Tatiana Nabiyeva is back training on the national team again.  After her improved performances at Russia Cup, this is well deserved....

    Eremina in 2016 St Petersburg has a tradition of great gymnastics - from 1980 and 1988 Olympic Champions Alexander Detiatin and Elena Shushunova, to this year's Junior European Champion, Elena Eremina via  World Champion Tatiana Nabiyeva and European beam champion Evgenia Kuznetsova. And we shouldn't forget St Petersburg as a home of great innovation.  Elena Shushunova's half blind change to Markelov was astonishing in its time.  And then, we come to possibly my favourite single gymnastics element - the straight Tkachev, which Nabiyeva performed at the 2010 World Championships. The legacy and heritage continues, and now 14 year old Elena Eremina is practicing the same skill in training.  You can see a video of this at her coach, Vera Kiryashova's Instagram account ( https://instagram.com/p/BGsMgtNnqSk/ ).  Vera and her husband Alexander also coached Tatiana Nabiyeva. Coach Vladimir Zaglada, who has held senior coaching roles in the USA, Russia and ...

2012 Olympic silver medallist, and multiple European medal winner in her native city of Moscow in 2013, Nastia Grishina, has retired, confirms head coach Valentina Rodionenko in an interview with Albert Starodubtsev of Tass. 20 year old Grishina, a beautiful beam and floor worker who was once considered to have significant all around potential at world level, married recently.  She has been studying journalism at a Moscow University. Rodionenko wasted no time in ascribing Grishina's waning as an international star to her changing coaching arrangements since the Olympics.  Regular readers of this blog will know that Sergei Zelikson, whose tenure as Grishina's personal coach was terminated suddenly in 2012, was recently re-appointed to the national WAG team as tumbling coach.  'The leaders of the Moscow Gymnastics Federation made a fatal mistake a few years ago, when they decided to transfer Grishina to a different coach', said Rodionenko.  'You couldn't take Gris...

Contemplating her future - Tatiana Nabiyeva Extracts from an interview with Natalia Plekhanov of All Sport -  http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=94780 'If the Russia Cup does not work out I will finish my career and move on to coaching' - I have not been training, until July 25, I have a little break.  Then I'll start to train in St. Petersburg. I haven't been invited to centralized training with the Russian national team at the training base,  "Round Lake".  My health is all right. Sometimes, I have back pain, but I'm used to it (laughs). I have had back problems for ten years, I put up with it. - I did terribly at the Russian Championships in March!  After last year's World Championships in China, where we won the bronze medal in the team competition, I, unfortunately, relaxed a great deal, put on some weight. I was supposed to compete at a tournament in France, but couldn't. I stopped training, and until mid-February hardly went to the gym ...

Well, they seem to be all over the place ... First of all, at Lake Krugloye, in the deep winter snow Sosnitskaya, Spiridinova, Shelgunova, Fyodorova, Kharenkova, Bondareva, Tutkhalyan and Kramarenko get some much needed daylight in this picture shared by Ekaterina Kramarenko.  Incidentally, you will be pleased to hear that Aliya Mustafina is also there.  Aliya will travel to Munich later this month for a check up on her back, after which coach Sergei Starkin will take some decisions about when she can resume full training. But where is Tatiana Nabiyeva? In this Instagram from her Pushkin (St Petersburg) home, Tatiana says that, 'better late than never', she is beginning her personalised 'Nabyiki' training programme for the upcoming (February) Russian Championships. She will compete there for her home team alongside such gymnasts as Nastia Cheong. Finally, Pottsville Gymnastics have posted a lovely, short video of a happy Nastia Grishina to their Facebook page.  Let us k...

The gymnasts have posted photographs of themselves at their destination in their respective Instagram sites.  They have arrived safely, and all look happy. It is night time now in Nanning (Saturday, 3pm BST, 10pm Nanning) so I hope the gymnasts are trying to get some sleep. Udachi, Rossiya! 2 pictures via Tatiana Nabiyeva on VK.com Nikolai Kuksenkov and Ivan Stretovich, via Ivan's Instagram account. Thanks to all the gymnasts for being so friendly and generous with their pictures.  It really makes Worlds seem real to those of us who can't travel to China.

Veterans Ksenia Afanasyeva and Tatiana Nabiyeva face a race against time to see who will be better prepared to compete in Nanning.  As things stand at present, both will travel to China and the final team selection will be made right before the Championships.  Pictures courtesy of the RGF. Valentina Rodionenko today provided an update of Russia's team selection, highlighting that Viktoria Komova has been deemed unready to compete at the coming World Championships following a doctor's examination.   The team Valentina said will travel to Russia also differs slightly from the nominative registrations published on the FIG website, as Tatiana Nabiyeva has apparently replaced Maria Paseka.  Paseka is assumed to be suffering a foot or ankle injury after pictures of treatment recently appeared on her personal Instagram account.  Nabiyeva and Afanasyeva will compete for the final spot on the team that also includes Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Daria Spiridinova, A...

The event finals will take place on Saturday and Sunday.  Thank you to the Gymnastics group on VK.com, where I obtained these screen captures. Vault : Paseka, Sosnitskaya, Akhaimova, Nabiyeva, Cheong, Kruglikova, Bikmurzina, Vanyushkina, Scherbakova, Elizarova Uneven bars : Mustafina, Spiridonova, Komova, Kramarenko, Nabieva, Rodionova, Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya, Elizarova, Sidorenko Beam : Kharenkova, Mustafina, Fyodorova, Spiridonova, Sosnitskaya, Bikmurzina, Cheong, Elizarova, Kramarenko, Rodionova   Floor : Elizarova, Mustafina, Paseka, Fydorova, Sosnitskaya, Akhaimova, Spiridonova, Bikmurzina, Kharenkova, Cheong  

Veteran Katya Kramarenko is working on an individual programme of training following her hospitalisation with pancreatitis earlier this year . Russian journalist Natalia Kalugina has visited Lake Krugloye in the last few days and has updated her Facebook page with some information on how training is going for the Russia Cup, which takes place later this month.  Unfortunately, it doesn't sound incredibly promising. Ekaterina Kramarenko is still recovering from the serious illness she suffered earlier this year.  There is still a long way to go, judging by Natalia's reaction, but she says that if every gymnast showed as much commitment as Katya, nobody would be able to beat the Russians! Tanya Nabiyeva is at camp, and Natalia had a short chat with her.  Tanya is preparing for the Russia Cup, and was invited to train at Krugloye as the team needed her.  She doesn't know if it was necessarily the right thing, but time will tell.  Tanya is very much enjoying working ...

Senior team members Daria Spirodonova, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka enjoy some Sunday fun in Moscow.  Picture courtesy of Viktoria Komova on Instagram The women are at training camp at present, preparing for the upcoming, late August, Russia Cup.  The outcome of this competition will determine who is selected for October's World Championships.  There will be six team members competing in qualifications (6-5-4 format) and the usual 6-3-3 in team finals. The faces that I can spot missing from these photographs (see below for a fuller group shot)  are Aliya Mustafina (the only lock to this autumn's team, assuming she recovers well from her surgery, and remains in good health) and Anastasia Grishina, about whom there has been an ominous silence since this spring.  As a reminder, Nastia has had an operation to her knee, as a consequence of an injury sustained on the floor in the Russian Championships.  The Munich clini...

Picture of Aliya Mustafina, courtesy of RGF Valentina Rodionenko has provided some updates on the Russian teams and how their preparation for Worlds (Nanning, China, 3 to 12 October) is progressing, via Allsports (http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=84328) - The teams are now at camp in Italy, in two small towns close to Milan, by the sea, where the girls travelled on 29th June and the men on 1 July.  The athletes aren't only training, they can also relax. - Komova is working out at Round Lake, she didn't go to Italy.  We will see how she does at the Russia Cup, which will be held late August in Penza. Tatiana Nabiyeva is looking good in training and the other girls are also working.  Ksenia Afanasyeva won't have time to prepare for Worlds, and Anastasia Grishina's participation is also in doubt, we just don't know if she will qualify for the team.   We have hopes for Aliya Mustafina.  As always, she is our number one.  It would be great if there were t...

Just a quick note to say that the Russian Gymnastics Federation has now published lists of the national teams.  As usual, JAS has transcribed these in full at her blog  here . Don't be confused too much.  These lists are changeable, and sometimes out of synch with reality.  In the past, retired gymnasts have appeared on these lists for up to a year after their withdrawal.  Nabieyeva's name still appears here, for example. Given the chance that people may change their minds, keeping the list flexible probably isn't a bad strategy. JAS tells me that Ekaterina Baturina has decided she does not want to compete internationally any more, and that Anastasia Sidorova is still at home recovering from that back injury, but determined to make it back into the national team.   As expected, Maria Kharenkova and Viktoria Kuzmina have joined the senior ranks.  It will be interesting to see how they both progress. Viktoria Komova is back training...

The post-Olympic year has been interesting, and occasionally dramatic, for Russian gymnastics.  An eventful and very busy year for RRG , including a first, but hopefully not last, visit to Russia.  The Russian team participated in three major competitions - Europeans, Universiade and Worlds - two of them in their home country.   The women's team confirmed themselves as Europe's leading gymnastics force.  They were supreme and unbeatable amongst the mature competition at the Universiade, held in the Tatar capital of Kazan.  Even with only one of their leading gymnasts competing - Aliya Mustafina - they managed to finish in second place in the medal count at Worlds in Antwerp this autumn - including that brightly shining gold on beam.  The men's team looked promising, but in the generally stronger international field of play, are locked in a fierce battle for bronze with Germany, USA and Britain.   Russia lost a jewel in its crown when WAG coach, Alexand...

Alan Owen has confirmed via Tatiana herself, as per the Facebook page of Tatiana Nabieva Online, that Tatiana is retiring from competitive gymnastics. As one door closes, another opens and I feel sure that Tatiana will continue her involvement in the sport as a coach, first of all at home in her home city of St Petersburg where she is studying at he Lesgaft Institute, but then, who knows where. Tatiana has competed internationally at all levels from friendship to World Championships, from a very early age.  She has made friends everywhere she has travelled in the world, and is well known for her spontaneous and emotional character, a very likeable gymnast who seems to love people as much as she loves her sport.  Her feisty competitive spirit and fierce support for her friends and team mates were a missing ingredient on the Russian Olympic team in 2012, but she made a believable comeback in 2013, contributing to the Russian team's domination of the Universiade in Kazan. ...

Tatiana Nabiyeva has fuelled rumours this weekend of her retirement with a number of indirect postings on social media sites.   But nothing she has said at present is clearcut or official, and for me to say more would be mere speculation. Wait and see is the best policy.  Russia might still need Tanya - I hope so. If and when I hear anything more certain, I will post the information here.  In the meantime, Happy Christmas to one of Russia's best competitors of the last four years, a stalwart team mate, great friend and entertaining gymnast.

Tatiana Nabiyeva celebrates her golden week in Penza Tatiana Nabiyeva shone this week in the Russia Cup, taking five of the six available gold medals (all around, team, vault, uneven bars and beam; she withdrew from the floor competition for which she had qualified), thereby establishing herself as the current spiritual leader of Russia's gymnastics team.  This is a dramatic turn around for the 18 year old from St Petersburg.  Before this summer's Universiade, Nabiyeva's last all around competition of any note had been the 2010 World Championships, where she finished in seventh place.  Since then, she has battled chronic back pain, a significant growth spurt and a drubbing from Russia's head coach Valentina Rodionenko for what she called her 'obesity', sitting out last year's Olympics as reserve before digging herself out of a rather doubtful place in Russian gymnastics' history to a hopeful position as we approach the 2013 World Championships. As a...

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...

The RGF has posted a gallery of pictures from the Universiade, a few of which I'll share with you here, along with some videos of the competition. Did you realise that every member of this Russian team has a chance of winning medals at this Championships?  Possibly even, gold?  There is hardly the competition here that there will be in Antwerp later this year, but I hope the team takes encouragement and motivation from this rare opportunity to shine. With the exception of Afanasyeva's fall from bars (apparently she has ripped hands - 'not many people would even have the courage to compete', says Rodionenko) the team performed without major errors.  Even in Rotterdam 2010, where they took the team gold medal, there were two falls, so this is an important improvement, even if they were not performing full difficulty. The team will take a short holiday soon, from the 12th July, before heading back to Krugloye to begin preparations for Worlds.  That is a mere twelv...