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| Courtesy of the RGF/Elena Mihailova |
Aliya Mustafina, David Belyavski, Anastasia Grishina and Nikita Ignatyev today represent the Russian Federation in the all around finals of the first major competition in the gymnastics calendar since last year's Olympics, the European Championships. It is time to suspend all speculation: only what the gymnasts do in the Olympiski stadium, Moscow, in the next hours will have any bearing on the outcome of the competition. All four of them have demons to overcome, unleashed during the qualification rounds earlier this week. Mustafina in particular must overcome a psychologically bruising encounter with the balance beam (two falls), the piece on which she may begin today's competition (start lists still to be confirmed at time of writing). As reported by International Gymnast, however, she dismisses all thoughts that her performance today might be compromised by negative thoughts of her hesitant beginning :
"I feel good, and before the performance on balance beam I didn't feel any strong emotions, no nerves. Everything was going as usual. In general, I see no reason for disappointment. Qualification is qualification, and in the final everything starts over."
It is basically just a question of wait and see now - so here are a few links to help you follow the competition. I will not being doing Facebook updates during the competition today as there is live streaming available, but you will be able to read titbits there, and daily reports of the action on this blog.
Live streaming will be available via the UEG.
Start lists and results will be available from the Longines website.
Those of you in the UK or who receive BBC TV - don't forget the BBC2/online coverage this afternoon, Friday 19th April 1.00-4.30 pm - this includes live coverage of the WAG all around, and highlights of the MAG all around.
MAG begins at 1.00 pm Moscow time, WAG at 5.30 pm.
Good luck to all the gymnasts!!
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