Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Thanks to Alan who alerted me to this English language radio interview with Head Coach of the Russian team, Andrei Rodionenko. Rodionenko has a lot of thinking to do before the London Olympics.  Picture courtesy of the RGF .  Rodionenko's key points were as follows : For the Russians the Europeans were a control test for a young inexperienced team rather than the endpoint.  Sometimes the Europeans are the most important competition but this time round we have the Olympics in plain view and the main goal was to collect information to help decide what kind of team to take there.   He was h appy to see the Romanian team so good and taking gold. This was not the final team that will go to London; Afanasyeva and Dementyeva were both sick, and in London Mustafina will perform on all four pieces of apparatus.  The fact that she competed on only three pieces in Brussels significantly affected her psychological preparation. Will the team be ready in tw...

Hard-working Anastasia Grishina was the top Russian senior gymnast of these Championships.  Picture courtesy of the UEG . As a senior team, the Russians obviously did not perform to expectations - even Alexandrov in his interview for Championnat .ru (English language translation here ) admitted as much.  Watching Sidorova, Mustafina and Grishina all make errors in their qualification floor routines was a pretty discouraging experience for a die-hard Russian fan, let alone their long term, long suffering coach.  Then, the shaky start on beam - for which Komova must take as much responsibility as Sidorova - meant they began with a finals deficit that proved impossible to overcome. Hopefully, Alexandrov has a strong heart. In his latest interviews Alexandrov has avoided discussing the likelihood of team success in the London Olympics - almost as though he wants to give the impression that the thought had never occurred to him in the first place.  His strongest ver...

You can find a link to PDF files of the results of the competition here .  But here are images of the most important Russian results - and you will find juniors on an earlier post. We also have LaVoix555 to thank for videos of the BBC's live coverage of team finals: Part 1 and Part 2. Still haven't found Part 3 with that amazing bar routine from Mustafina, though ... A disaster for the Russians, particularly on floor where they ended up without an individual representative in the event final.  The further significance of this finish is that the Russians had to start on beam in the team final. A shaky start on beam handicapped Russia, who never caught up with their confident and energetic rivals from Romania. Big girls win vault these days.  Grishina's execution is better than the scores show.

A surprisingly happy team at Brussels ... Anastasia Sidorova, Maria Paseka, Viktoria Komova, Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina Of course, the main story of this week’s WAG European Championships has been the resurgence of the Romanian team as a dominant force in world gymnastics.  Of the five gold medals available here, Romania took four.   Three out of their five gymnasts have gone home with individual gold medals, and the team underlined their strength on beam and floor where they also took silver.  The only apparatus on which they did not excel was bars, Russia’s particular eyrie of the past few years, where we even had a flashback moment with a clean sweep from the republics of the former Soviet Union (Russia, Russia, Ukraine).    With China and the USA on a similar level,  the FIG will have some worrying moments in London if they want to give the impression that the sport has a wider geographical spread of excellence than in former year...

First year senior Anastasia Grishina is the Russian team's leading all around gymnast at these Championships.  Picture by kind permission of the RGF . I have to give credit to Romania today - they recalled Romanian teams of the past and performed with confidence and energy to beat Russia to first place in qualifications.  Ioana Iordache leads the unofficial all around with a display of light and precise acrobatics that must position her as a favourite for the individual Olympic title if she can reproduce her form of today once more, on that much anticipated July day in London. This was a strong, perhaps the strongest possible, Romanian team, drawing on Olympic champions past and, maybe, future.  As I had predicted, Iszbasa, Ponor, Iordache, Bulimar and Haidu pulled out all the stops to give their best and take first place against a somewhat below-power Russian team.  It remains to be seen whether the Russians can turn their form around in two days flat and co...

There are some unexpected recurring themes in my gymnastics holidays: bad food, inappropriate men, funny friends and brilliant Russians.  As this is a diary of my Brussels experience as much as a story about the European Championships, I will provide you with an update of how Tracey and I are getting on here, as well as some links to interesting information about today's junior team competition, which the Russians won quite brilliantly. First of all, let me show you a picture. Snack acquired at Le Roy d'Espagne, Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium Let me take my earlier statement a little further, and propose the hypothesis that bad food and inappropriate men precede brilliant Russians.  We first established this possible link in Stuttgart, when an order of lasagne turned out to be the worst culinary disaster of our lifetime.  (I have never had to carve pasta before or since.)  Secondly, in Athens, a self-described 'very bold, very audacious' Georgian gentleman pr...

Twitter the Europeans : #Brussels2012 I am on my way to Brussels and will be providing a daily diary of all the excitement from the point of view of a well seasoned gymnastics traveller who loves the Russians.  These Championships are one of the most keenly anticipated of any I have attended in the past 25 years.  In the coming days we should expect to discover : Who of the latest crop of juniors are likely to be fighting for spots on the senior teams in coming years? How are the Russian team's preparations going for the Olympics? Which of Russia's first time seniors will be in the fight for places on the team for London? Can the Romanians pull off a surprise and win lots and lots of gold? The Russians have brought a very young team to Brussels; of the five gymnasts nominated three are first time seniors.   Some bright person noted that this is in fact the 2010 European Junior Championships team, with Aliya Mustafina in the place of Violetta Malikova. I cann...

The UEG has now published nominative registrations for Europeans, which begin two weeks today. I'm pleased to see junior Evgeniya Shelgunova lead a strong junior team which also includes the very young Maria Kharenkova. The senior team list will no doubt be adjusted in the next few days to reflect a replacement for the unfortunate Ksenia Afanasyeva. I'm expecting the Romanians to be very strong at this competition, and the medal count to reflect their array of impressive event specialists. Do not be surprised to see the Romanians take a significant medal count here, even perhaps the lion's share. Note that a key national coach listed for the senior team is specialist bars coach Evgeny Grebenkin - perhaps reflecting the Russians' understanding that bars is their best shot for gold.  Juniors   Evgeniya Shelgunova  Maria Kharenkova  Yulia Tipaeva  Ekaterina Baturina  Viktoria Kuzmina   Seniors Aliya Mustafina Viktoria Komova ...

Ksenia Afanasyeva is officially now out of the running for the European Championships thanks to a nasty case of tonsilitis, reports national team coach Alexander Alexandrov via Sports .ru The three core gymnasts now progressing towards places on the team are Anastasia Grishina, Viktoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina, with the final two spots open for a decision over the coming week.  My guess is that Anastasia Sidorova, Maria Paseka and Anna Dementyeva are in the running for the two spots, with the two younger gymnasts probably being favoured to give them experience.  Dementyeva looked a little tired in Switzerland and was limping quite heavily after almost every exercise.  The Europeans are the final big step on the way to the Olympics for the Russians and I don't expect they will show everything of which they are capable.  Russia Today has released the following news video shot at the recent press tour of Lake Krugloye.  It includes brief interviews with Ale...

The Russian team of Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Dementyeva,Sidorova and Paseka won the tri-meet this Friday relatively easily, with a total team score of 177.30, almost two points higher than they achieved at last October's World Championships, although comparison is somewhat distorted as the competition formats were different.  Aliya Mustafina, performing only a portion of her full difficulty, won the all around with a score of 58.95 ahead of Grishina with 57.7 and Dementyeva at 56.55.  Observers (Maddie at the All Around forum and Trudi at the IG Forum) noted in particular the excellence of Mustafina's double twisting Yurchenko (15.2 with an execution score of 9.4).   Komova, performing only on bars and beam, acquitted herself well with a 15.85 on bars and a 15.2 beam.   Dementyeva's contribution of a 15 on beam should also not go without note. Maddie has posted videos of every Russian routine on her Youtube channel and you can read a report at the Couch G...

    On Friday we will have a chance to see how the Russian women's team is progressing, when they compete in Switzerland (Sporthalle Lindenhof in Wil) against the British and Swiss. Relatively little is confirmed yet; all the information on the website other than the time and place of the competition is subject to change.  But the Russian women's team is planned to include : Aliya Mustafina Viktoria Komova Anastasia Grishina Anna Dementyeva Maria Paseka Anastasia Sidorova Details of the other teams can be found here .   The competition begins at 5.00 pm local time and finishes with the awards ceremony at 9.15. Good luck to all the girls competing!

Viktoria Komova at last week's press day.  Note the background banner advertising sponsors VTB.  Photo by Elena Mikhailova, by kind permission of the RGF The Russian gymnasts and coaches are busy preparing for the London Olympics, and barely interrupted their regular training to make time to speak to journalists at the Russian National Training Centre in Round Lake ( Krugloye in Russian). Photographer Elena Mikhailova was on hand to record proceedings.  As ever, the reticent Russians do not reveal over much about themselves - what is said could probably have been intelligently guessed anyway, on the basis of results and other reports.  Nevertheless, it's helpful to hear how the girls themselves are feeling about their preparations and to see how happy and healthy they look in the pictures.  Alexandrov gives some details of their travel plans to London and Valentina Rodionenko reveals a framework for the national team composition, suggesting it revolves aro...

Since my somewhat disastrous attempts at forecasting the national team for the 2011 World Championships, I have decided to steer clear of predictions. But the Russians have just published details of their official squads for 2012 so we do have some information to chew over. This is the first in a series of blogs where I will present the names of the national team members : women, men, the various junior ranks, and the coaches. It's still early days, and who knows who will survive the precarious path towards fitness for the Olympics. Oh my goodness, how I would like to see them ALL in peak condition by the time of the Olympics. At the present time, it is clear that the American women's team is by far the strongest and deepest in the world. John Geddert's recent Facebook declaration (19th January) that 'the USA looks better than ever' demonstrates the confidence that makes them almost inevitable winners in London. The Russian team will challenge strongly, though...

A revised roster for the women's competition at next week's Olympic test event is now available. Competing for Russia will be Moscow's Anastasia Grishina, who will turn 16 on the 16th January, and World Championships team member Yulia Inshina. This is a solid selection - neither gymnast has anything to lose, indeed Grishina can only gain from this new competitive experience and exposure.  Inshina's calm competitive attitude can only help her team mate along in what might be a daunting first senior competitive experience.  The 02 arena is huge, and far from my favourite venue for a gymnastics competition.  As a spectator I would go so far as to say it lacks intimacy and involvement; goodness knows what it is like for the gymnasts. We had hoped to see Anastasia Sidorova at this competition, but apparently her wrist injury (sustained during a biking accident last summer) is still causing her discomfort. Grishina has significant respect from Russian team coach Alexa...

Tatiana Nabieva and Russian team choreographer Olga Burova. Here they are with a friend, practising for a caption competition for the RGF website. Advance entries at welcome at this website. The Russian Gymnastics Federation has now published full results of the Voronin Cup, including the senior and junior competitions (team, all around and individual apparatus) and all the judges' assignments.  Interesting to see Anastasia Sidorova take the highest floor score in the women's all around (14.75) and second on vault (14.6).  None of the Russian seniors barring Komova competed in apparatus finals, and all of them steered clear of vault final.  Vault appears to be a relative weakness for the Russian women, and I guess this apparatus may lose them the Olympic team title when considering the overwhelming reliability and power of the US women. Sidorova was the standout of the new generation (NB, in the absence of her close rival Anastasia Grishina who was home with fl...

First year senior Viktoria Komova dominated last week's Voronin Cup, taking gold in the all around, bars, beam and floor.  The competition was also noteable for the return of 2010 World All Around Champion Aliya Mustafina who performed convincingly on all four pieces of apparatus in the all around competition, and also secured a silver medal on asymmetric bars.  Mustafina, who suffered a torn ACL at this spring's European Championships, looked relatively fit and confident and gave notice here of her intention to return to full competitive fitness in time for next spring's Russian Championships.  Welcome back, Queen Aliya! A highly touted Olympic prospect, Anastasia Sidorova, who only becomes eligible for senior competition in January, took the silver medal on floor. In the men's competition, Andrei Cherkasov took gold in the all around, with Moscow's Denis Ablyazin showing strongly in the apparatus finals to take gold on floor (fantastic third tumble of 1.5 twis...

Dear readers, I haven't been able to update my blog much recently, but I want you to know about the Voronin Cup which begins tomorrow!  This is looking to be a very exciting competition.  Kristal at Double Front has posted much of the essential information, and I'll hope to comment on the results once they become available. Much work is underway for this blog and beyond ... oh and I managed to secure tickets for two sessions at the Test Event, at which Russians Igor Pakhomenko, Nikita Ignatyev, Anastasia Sidorova and Anastasia Grishina are listed as competing ... It's a new year soon. PS I really love that on this link here  which I copied from Double Front, there is a row of pretty badges which represent each of the republics of the Russian Federation, and when you link on them you go to the websites of the respective national governments.  I love that kind of thing, but wish I had stuck at my Russian classes.

11 year old Anastasia Sidorova and her coach Olga Sagina give an interview as one of a series of Podcasts to be found on the website of the Bellahouston Gymnastics Academy in Glasgow, recording the visit of gymnasts and coaches from the Olympic Reserve School in Rostov on Don in 2008.  Anastasia provides an outline of the daily working life of an elite Russian gymnast, pretty predictable in its content.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of time for school in her busy schedule! The interviewer points out to Anastasia that her understandably rather stock answers might be influenced by the fact that her coach was standing behind her!  (Never mind the fact that she was only 11 ...)  Coach Olga Sagina, who previously has worked with 2000 Olympian Elena Produnova, added that Anastasia's simple responses were typical of a champion gymnast.  Good attitude and work ethic define success in gymnastics, as much if not more than physical talent.  And while Anastasia is ...

International Gymnast alerts me to this interview with Ludmilla Korolenko, former coach of Ukrainian 1996 Olympian Liubov Sheremeta.  Korolenko now works for the Russian federation as a coach, primarily for the junior team, specialising in beam preparation, and also judges at major international competitions. There is a lot of meat in this interview if you can get past the Google translate.  Korolenko discusses recent changes to the Code, and refutes the idea that judging is subject to deliberate corruption and cheating, preferring to think of controversies such as those surrounding Mustafina's vault valuations as simple errors or misinterpretations, something she says is quite a common occurrence.  She also highlights inconsistencies between rule applications in men's and women's gymnastics.  Errors in women's gymnastics, she suggests, are penalised twice as deductions are made for poor execution and the move is downgraded.  If I read the translation correct...