Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

The Russian Junior Championships closed today with event finals in beam and floor, and the young Russians in the Master of Sport category demonstrated their fighting spirit, recording some good results and demonstrating that this generation has relative strength in depth - even though there is still a clear weakness on vault. The four event champions are -  Vault - Elena Eremina, coached by Alexander Kiryashov in St Petersburg (5.3/4.6 : 14.134) Uneven Bars -  Daria Skrypnik, who resides in Krasnodar (6.6 : 15.567) First day scores in Russian here -  http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/C-III-final-v-otdel-ny-j-vidah-MS-devushki-.pdf Beam - Angelina Melnikova, from Voronezh (14.767)  http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/MS.compressed.pdf Floor -  Ekaterina Sokova from Vladimir (14.633)  http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/2-list-MS.pdf Melnikova, who had scored 15.6 on uneven bars in the team competition, but who fell on...

Daria Skrypnik, Angelina Melnikova, Ekaterina Sokova - AA medallists at the Russian Junior Championships Master of Sport category. Daria scored 15.433 on bars!  See the full results here - http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/S2-MS-devushki1.pdf In the Candidate Master of Sport category, Angelina Simakova won, followed by Valeria Saifulina and Varvara Zubova.  Varvara took a 14.5 on floor!  Full results -  http://sportgymrus.ru/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/S2-yuniorki-KMS.pdf Molodyets to all the young Russian gymnasts who have worked so hard!  Congratulations!

Coach to Nikolai Andrianov, Founder of the Vladimir School of Gymnastics, Nikolai Tolkachev In the historic city of Vladimir, 200 km east of Moscow, the Nikolai Tolkachev School of Gymnastics has been home to many great Soviet and Russian champions.  Local press has provided a portrait of this famous school which is named after its founder.   In this piece the author, Viktoria Kononova, looks to the future as well as the past.  Gymnastics fans new and old will recognise some of the names and faces. The Tolkachev School of Gymnastics creates champions.  The coaches tirelessly prepare athletes. This  Olympic Reserve School was established in 1961 and, by 1991, at the request of the team, it was named after Nikolai Tolkachev. The School has developed many great gymnasts who have rocked the whole world: Nikolai Andrianov, Merited Master of Sports, a seven-time Olympic champion, multiple World and European champion, winner of the first World Cup in gymnastics; Vladim...

Seda Tutkhalyan, Angelina Melnikova, Daria Mikhailova Angelina Melnikova confirmed her status at the top of the junior Russian tree today with an outstanding performance in the junior championships (Master of Sports category), scoring a total of 58.3.  She was followed by Seda Tutkhalyan and Daria Mikhailova, both Muscovites. Mikhailova trains with Anastasia Grishina under Viktor Razumovsky.  Melnikova with coach Denisovich, from Voronezh In the Candidate Master of Sports category, Elena Eremina came first (55.1), ahead of Gymnix 'veteran' Ekaterina Sokova and the relatively unknown Viktoria Trykina.  Eremina is a team mate of Tatiana Nabiyeva in St Petersburg, and is coached by Alexander Kiryashev.  All of the medallists in today's competition, with the exception of Trykina, who comes from Moscow, are listed as national team members on the RGF website - I publish some of their details below.  Full results of the competition are availa...

Central Federal District gymnasts Ekaterina Sokova and Angelina Melnikova were Russian team mates in Canada earlier this year, are now shining in their country's national championships Central Federal District (drawing on three gymnasts from Viktoria Komova's home town, Voronezh) beat last year's winners Moscow to today's girls team competition.     Volga General District, whose most famous team member is the graceful Anastasia Dmitrieva, took the third team position for a bronze medal, ahead of St Petersburg. There was an outstanding performance  from Voronezh's Angelina Melnikova, who will turn 16 in July 2016 and was a medallist at the recent Gymnix International Junior Cup.  Melnikova scored a competition high 15.2 on beam, and also leads uneven bars and floor with scores of 14.8 and 14.537 respectively.  Muscovite Seda Tutkhalyan delivered the highest vault score of 14.733. Working under the Russian Junior code, Melnikova totted up an impressive all around ...

The winning team on Saturday night: National Junior team coaches Olga Bulgakova and Artem Voinov with Angelina Melnikova, Daria Skrypnik, Anastasia Ilyankova, and Ekaterina Sokova.  Picture courtesy of Sportivnaya Gymnastika on VK.com Event final results are now available at http://internationalgymnix.ca/fr/resultats/resultats-2014/dimanche-9-mars-2014/ and can also be seen below, with the help of a good magnifying glass. Congratulations to all the girls, who competed so well and will have learned a lot from their experiences.  It is so good to see that the team managed to medal in every single competition.

The winning team in Montreal!  Clockwise from top left : Daria Skrypnik, Anastasia Ilyankova, Angelina Melnikova, Ekaterina Sokova, Ksenia Semyonova Russia's newly blossoming youngsters scored a win in Montreal this weekend by taking the team gold in the International Gymnix Junior Cup,  by a narrow margin over hosts Canada.  A tightly contested all around saw Angelina Melnikova take silver and Daria Skrypnik take fourth.  Canada's Woo Rose-Kaying took the gold medal, and her compatriot Olson Shallon bronze. These are excellent results for such tender flowers in one of their earliest international competitions and I look forward to seeing the girls as they grow and develop their skills.  Certainly, they must have the motivation to continue strongly into today's event finals, where at least one gymnast has qualified to every final, and all team members will compete (Vault - Skrypnik, Bars - Melnikova and Skrypnik, Beam - Ilyankova and Sokova, Floor - Skrypnik and...