Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Putting aside worries about injuries, we have seen this year how the deselection of certain gymnasts from competition rosters can influence competition outcomes and delay the often simplistic conclusions we gym fans want to draw.  Komova's lack of appearance on the senior front leaves us completely befuddled and Mustafina's sudden withdrawal from the European Championships beheaded Russian, European and, arguably, World gymnastics.  We are unsure whether these two gymnasts can possibly make it back to their former level and Dementyeva now appears as the poster girl of the forthcoming Russian Cup competition.  However, she might as well have a giant question mark over her head for all the credit she is given for her achievements. Similarly, the recent EYOF was without its top contender (Anastasia Grishina) and her closest domestic rival (Anastasia Sidorova), leaving us wondering how the results would have been affected if the Russian team had included those we consider t...

Three Russian men emerged at these games - Grigori Zyrianov, Andrei Lagutov (referred to elsewhere as 'Logutov') and Sergei Stepanov.  Here are their biographical details as listed on the Russian Federation's website. Grigori Zyrianov - born 22nd January 1996 (15 years old) trains at the Dynamo club in Kemerova with coaches N A Kotyakhov, L G Kotyakhova and A V Bekov Andrei Lagutov - born 14th October 1995 (15 years old), trains in Leninsk-Kuznetsk with coaches D D Chunasov and T V Popova Sergei Stepanov - born 26th May 1994 (17 years old), trains in Cheboksary with coaches I A Rudyanu, G F Stepanov and A S Vasilyev.

Larissa Iordache dominated the EYOF women's competition this week, taking the all around title at the European Youth Olympic Festival, followed by two golds and two silvers in the apparatus finals. Italians Fasana and Meneghini finished in 2nd and 3rd respectively in the all around competition, with Fasana establishing herself as the second gymnast of this competition, with a silver medal on floor, and bronze medals on both vault and bars.  Germany's Janine Berger took vault gold, with Hungary's Noemi Makra making gold on bars with 13.525, the lowest winning mark of the apparatus finals.  Iordache's score of 15 on beam is somewhat below par for her, but underlines her clear superiority as she achieved the top three scores across all the competitions at these Games The Russians performed better in the all around finals than their team showing would have suggested, with Shelgunova finishing a close 4th (only .05 behind Meneghini) and Rodionova 5th. Their sole medal in...

The 2011 Universiade takes place in Shenzhen, China, from the 12th to the 23rd August this year, with gymnastics opening on the 13th August.  A full schedule of events, and details of working order, can be found at the event website. 13th August      14.30-20.20       WAG team 14th August      10.00-18.20        MAG team 15th August       15.00-16.20       WAG all around                           19.00-20.20       MAG all around 16th August        16.00-20.00       Apparatus finals, MAG and WAG The Russian Gymnastics Federation has just released details of its teams here . MAG : ...

International Gymnast carries as full a set of results from this competition as I can find anywhere, here .  The Couch Gymnast also has some links to videos. The Italians apparently performed excellently to beat out the Romanians, leaving the Russian team in 4th place.  The gap between Italy and Romania was but .4, driven principally by superior scores on vault and bars, and a true team challenge based on a very even performance by all gymnasts.  While the Italians managed to finish in 2nd, 3rd and 5th places overall, the Romanians had to rely on their top performer, Iordache, to carry them through - Gheorghe finished 11th and Badea a distant 18th.  I very much hope that both the Romanians and the Russians can raise themselves from this somewhat disappointing outcome to perform their best in the all around and apparatus finals.  The all around competition takes place today. This result changes the all around prospects quite significantly, with 2 Italians (F...

Since the girls are so very young and new to the international scene, I thought it worth providing some details (available from the Russian Federation website). Anna Rodionova - born 21st November 1996 (age 14), trains at the Dynamo club in Yoshkar-Ola, capital of the Mari El republic with coaches G A Fomenko and L G Tiulkina. Kristina Sidorova - born 22nd June 1996 (age 14) - trains with Rodionova under the same coaches at the same gym! Evgeniya Shelgunova - born 8th August 1997 (age 13) - trains with coaches Liudmilla Marinova and Nadezhda Tikhonova in Alatir, Chuvasia Republic. You will be able to read outline details of an interview with Shelgunova here .

NOTE : FOR AN UPDATE OF THE FULL, FINAL RESULTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE . So far, the full results are not available, but Italy came first with a score of 110.95, narrowly ahead of the Romanians who had 110.55.  Germany took the bronze, with Russia in 4th place.  I didn't see the final subdivision, but did manage to catch the online coverage of subdivision 3.  The Romanian team (Iordache, Badea, Gheorghe) was excellent overall and in particular on beam, where they recorded the top three scores of the competition.  The Russians were a very young team hand-picked from the 1996/1997 generation.  Anna Rodionova, Evgeniya Shelgunova and Kristina Sidorova - all of whom have featured in recent domestic competitions in Russia - suffered a few disasters, not least a very nasty, head first fall on beam from Shelgunova, who admittedly has mentioned it as her bogey piece.  The team had started on beam, so this must have been a nervey experience for her.  Kristi...