Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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...

Tatiana Nabieva gave a good account of herself today, recording 4th place in the vault final and a creditable silver on bars.  But in an interview with Sports Express, Tanya suggests that her silver could have been gold had she connected two of her special skills - I'm guessing she means her own version of the Tkachev and the Pak somersault. Read a rather stilted Google translation of the article here .

I am grateful to the All Around News page for providing this link which sadly confirms the diagnosis of a torn ligament in Aliya's left knee.  Aliya will undergo an operation in Munich next week, undertaken by one of the best specialist surgeons in this field. This effectively rules Aliya out of the next World Championships; as Alexandrov says, her job now is to get better.  All good wishes to her. Ironically, this now rules out a head to head with her compatriot Viktoria Komova until Olympic year, in all probability ... Alan Owen advises me that the date of the operation will be April 12th.

Apparatus finals day 1 start lists Apparatus finals day 2 start lists Women's judging assignments, apparatus finals note we have a Swiss head judge on vault Longine's directory of results

A fuller version of the story appearing on IG appears now in English language on the Russian Federation's website . Much of the nuts and bolts of the translation regarding Viktoria's injury remains the same, including the fairly confident sounding hope that she will be ready to compete at the Moscow World Cup in May, so fingers crossed.  Valentina Rodienenko also confirms that Mustafina, Nabieva, Dementieva, Golutsotskov, Devyatovski, Ignatiev, Balandin, Garibov and Ablyazin will travel to Paris for this weekend's World Cup.  That's the declared European Championships team, minus Yulia Belokobylskaya who is said elsewhere to be travelling instead to Italy for the Jesolo Cup.  Which makes this weekend potentially interesting gymnastics reading. What is a little different, however, is the translation of the comment regarding Aliya Mustafina's participation in the American Cup this year.  This now reads: "Aliya is very tired after the world cup event. That...

Sports Express today carries a brief interview with Andrei Rodienenko in which the Russian Head Coach confirms that Viktoria Komova will not compete at April's European Championships.  Rodienenko emphasises the need to protect Viktoria's health in the long term at what is a difficult life stage for a gymnast.  It is no great drama; 'we have the Olympics', he concludes. A link to the English language Google translate is here . Edited 10.10.  Further news is also available via Valentina Rodienenko at the IG website. The Russian team for Europeans is confirmed here as Mustafina, Nabieva, Dementieva and Belokobylskaya.  Men will be Golotsutskov ,  Devyatovsky , Ignatyev , Balandin , Garibov and Ablyazin .  Although of course we await official confirmation of this in the nominative registrations due later this month. Rodienenko makes brief reference to the America Cup where Mustafina lost to Jordyn Wieber.  'America is America', she says.  'W...

International Gymnast reports on a Moskovsky Komomolets interview with Valentina Rodionenko.  Rodionenko gives some quite specific information regarding the injury to Viktoria Komova and suggests that she wasn't fully ready for the National Championships which took place last weekend; furthermore, her place on the team for Berlin is under question.  The current line-up includes Dementieva and Mustafina (all around) with Nabieva and either Belokobylskaya or Komova providing specialist back up.  Let's see how things turn out!  Still early days.  A team with Komova providing specialist back up on beam would indeed be very strong ... and quite a good tactical decision, I'd suggest. In the full version of this Russian language interview which you will find here , Rodionenko also discusses the men's team selections.  Maxim Devyatovski is the top all arounder for the Russians at present, and they are hoping for a medal for him.  David Beliavski and Nikita...