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Midsummer madness - high season gymnastics 2013

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Anastasia Grishina at this spring's European Championships.  Courtesy: RIA Novosti
It seems to be a long time since the Russian team has had such a prolonged quiet time in training.  All I know is that currently, the teams are taking a short break before returning to Lake Krugloye.  There was a control competition at the end of the last training camp, around the 25th May, but no results.  This is quite normal and I hope the silence continues, if it means that everyone is just getting on with their work.  Evgenyi Grebyonkin's recent interview was the epitome of controlled information release, apparently telling a lot whilst revealing very little.  We have a few names to put against the competition roster, but a team's early competitive plans are always open to change.

Valentina Rodionenko is taking a well earned break from her media responsibilities, judging by her recent absence from the Russian gymnastics PR scene.  So we don't know which girls are being the most annoying at present, or which of the gymnasts is having an argument with her coach.  There has been an official announcement from Andrei Rodionenko saying that there will be no announcement about the composition of the team for the University Games yet.  We do know that Viktoria Komova and Anastasia Grishina are not in the mix, but considering neither is a University student at the present time this news isn't going to challenge our understanding.  So far, this information is all on a par with news reports of a small earthquake in China.

But this is pretty much the calm before the storm.  This summer is one of the busiest competitive schedules for the senior and junior teams in a long time.  For the sake of organising your summer break, here are a few dates:

June 17th to June 21st      Olympic Hopefuls Cup, Penza
June 21st to June 23rd      Portugal Cup, Anadia
July 6th to.July 17th       Universiade, Kazan (gymnastics 7th to 10th July)
July 14th to July 19th        European Youth Olympics, Utrecht (gymnastics starts 16th July)
August 15th to August 21st   Russian Cup, Penza
September 30th to October 6th  World Gymnastics Championships, Antwerp

I was surprised to see how relatively early the World Championships are this year.  I wonder what competitions the Russians will use to test the team's preparations for Worlds - and if senior team members competing in Kazan will be excused from competing at the Russian Cup.

Good luck to all the Russian team, MAG and WAG, preparing for these competitions!

(If, like me, you follow tennis, Wimbledon conveniently sits in the middle of this summer madness, from 24th June to the 7th July.)




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  1. lilianamichelena28 May 2013 at 16:31

    I do follow tennis! And Roland Garros has already started, so madness has already begun :-)
    Back on topic, I wonder if they would put Mustafina to rest for Worlds (if they want, if she wants). It looks like she hasn't stopped since she came back after the ACL tear. I'm not exactly familiar with how much rest gymnasts need compared to other sports, but Mustafina was limping at Euros, is injured with a bad back, and she's got quite a heavy load. And then Universiade. Resting may be the best choice for the long run (but, of course, one can't expect Aliya to just quit). Just wondering...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rie28 May 2013 at 18:06

    I agree. However I think they will make her do universaide. Universaide is their biggest home competition and it is important for the federation to do well. A lot of funding is based on if they impress at Universaide, and noone impresses more than Musty (I don't remember where I read this but someone please correct me if I'm wrong!). Hopefully she can skip the Russian Cup. Or just do bars.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Christian14 June 2013 at 00:32

    Slightly confused about the Universiade dates - so the gymnastics is over before the rest of the competition begins?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Queen Elizabeth14 June 2013 at 07:40

      Thanks for spotting the deliberate mistake :-) I have amended the dates of the Universiade - the gymnastics comp dates were correct but the other dates did not make sense at all ...

      Delete

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