Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Pictures courtesy of the RGF and Maria Bondareva on Instagram So the news from Lake Krugloye may be a little flat ... But not completely ... we still have reasons to be cheerful.   Not least, these two members of Russia's national junior team, Maria Bondareva and Seda Tutkhalyan, who never cease to amuse me personally, and delight me gymnastically.  Seda is currently preparing to compete at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, from the 16th August. Good luck to these young gymnasts, they are the future!

I love to see a leap performed boldly and with finesse.  The flying type of leap that defies gravity.  Toe point and line come into it, but amplitude is what a leap is really all about; every muscle stretched to its optimum, grace balanced with energy and power, an invisible process of weightlessness propelled not only by the legs but also by the abdomen and, it sometimes seems, the sheer spirit of the gymnast. Ballet understands the forces of gravity and how strength is converted to elegance; a leap is not a bounce, something we all too often see in today's power gymnastics.  A leap hovers mid air.  Landing seems implausible. The gymnast is flighty, airborne. A leap seems simple but is actually incredibly complex, drawing on countless hours of practice and body preparation.  Its execution is a matter of huge skill and courage.   Only the best can make such leaps of faith with artistry.  Coming down to land on the narrow beam, the gymnast often launche...

The Russians have it, in buckets; the gymnasts on this junior team are no different.  In my opinion, this is one of the most talented junior teams the Russians have produced in recent years; I only hope that at least two of them can navigate the choppy waters to senior status, and go on to compete at the very highest level.  Good luck to them all! This is the eighth consecutive year that the Russian junior team has won at Europeans. Pictures courtesy of the RGF Anastasia Dmitrieva Seda Tutkhalyan with coach Ulyankina Seda Tutkhalyan  Angelina Melnikova Seda T, Maria Bondareva and Angelina ... What ON EARTH are they discussing?  Captions please ... Determination - Seda during her vault run up Coach Ulyankina reassuring young Maria Another intriguing discussion between Maria and Seda Shared laughter ... Daria Skrypnik with local gymnastics hero and rings specialist, Bulgarian Jordan Jovchev

Young Russia.  Back row from left to right - national junior coach Bulgakova, ?, national junior coach Voinov, Andrei Rodionenko, ?.  Front row - Maria Bondareva, Angelina Melnikova, Seda Tutkhalyan, Daria Skrypnik, Anastasis Dmitrieva Congratulations to the ambitious young Russians who today won the Junior European team championships in a tight competition, but eventually by a fairly substantial margin.  Britain is the up and coming nation in European WAG, dominating on vault and floor with powerful work, but stalwarts Romania put up a strong fight for bronze, only a very small margin behind.  Their top gymnast, Jurca, will be looking to prove herself in the remaining individual competitions. You can find the full results at  http://www.longinestiming.com/File/Download?id=00000D000001000000FFFFFFFFFFFF02 Melnikova and Tutkhalyan lead Friday's all around qualifying On  vault , Tutkhalyan is an impressively powerful gymnast who could compete with Downie, Ju...

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 ...

Feisty Russian junior Maria Kharenkova worked with purpose and conviction to win today's girls' all around in Utrecht in fine form, avoiding major errors to win a tightly fought competition.   She finished on beam, her best piece, where minor errors tallied up to deprive her of a repeat of yesterday's high scoring.  But the final total matched that of Germany's Kim Janas and the judges had to use the tie-breaker to decide the final positions, giving Maria the gold! There is an archived copy of the entire live stream of the final here . A great week so far for the Russians.  The live streaming did not show any of team mate Maria Bondareva's routines. 1  Maria Kharenkova  54.95 2   Kim Janas, Germany 54.95  3   Tyesha Mattis, GBR  54.85 4   Ellie Downie GBR  54.7;  5   Maria Bondareva 54.2 Maladyets, Maria!!

You will be able to watch Maria Kharenkova and Maria Bondareva compete for the all around title at the European Youth Olympic Festival in slightly less than an hour's time (3.30 pm London time) here . It has been a great competition for the Russians so far, with the boys taking silver in the team competition against a very strong British team on Tuesday, and a bronze for the graceful Ivan Stretovich in today's all around, again against two British gymnasts. Britain's MAG programme is certainly highly competitive at all levels these days and with Russia as their closest rivals, there looks likely to be a fascinating battle between these two teams over the coming years. Russia's girls yesterday took gold in the team competition, ahead of Britain, with Maria Kharenkova sitting in second place in all around qualifications behind Britain's Tyesha Mattis.  The team of Kharenkova, Bondareva and Kuzmina were OK on vault with FTYs, took two falls on bars, but then excel...

Maria Bondareva, courtesy of RGF Russia's charming young gymnasts, Maria Bondareva, Anastasia Dmitrieva, Polina Spirina and Ekaterina Sokova, knocked out the rest of the competition with their artistry in Montreal this weekend.  Bondareva and Dmitrieva shared the all around title.  The team beat Canada and Japan by a narrow margin.  These girls are not yet performing work of outstanding difficulty, but it is a pleasure to watch their gymnastics, particularly Bondareva on beam who has such confidence and authority.  You can find top five AA results below, full results are available at Gymnix International - team results link is not working properly at the moment but you may find them later.  There is a start list for today's event finals - Bondareva and Dmitrieva are qualified to vault, bars and beam, with Bondareva appearing on floor with Sokolova.  Good luck girls, and well done so far! There is a Youtube channel (thanks Lisa!) with good...

Gold is standard for a gymnast whose name is appearing regularly now in the headlines of this blog.  Over the last two days, tiny Maria Bondareva took three golds in the Candidate Master of Sport event finals at this year's Russian Nationals.  Whether Bondareva is old enough to compete at the forthcoming Junior European Championships - I don't know.  But I hope she is!!  The full results in Russian are here . Vault Evgeniya Korolkova 13.76 Yulia Starchenko      13.59 Maria Bondareva      13.59 Uneven Bars Maria Bondareva      13.92 Viktoria Kuzmina      13.9 Evgeniya Korolkova  13.42 Beam Maria Bondareva       14.92 Kristina Levshina       14.04 Viktoria Kuzmina       13.96 Floor Maria Bondareva      13.9 Viktoria Kuzmina  ...

Maria Bondareva, Maria Nazarova, Kristina Levshina 12 year old Maria Bondareva proved herself once again in competition on Friday, taking the All Around gold in the Candidate Master of Sport category with a score of 56.867 including a 15.2 on beam.  Bondareva's nearest rivals were (second placed) Polina Spirina  (52.933), who turns 13 in April and comes from Novosibirsk; and bronze medallist Kristina Levshina (52.9), 13 years old, who trains alongside Ksenia Afanasyeva with coach Maria Nazarova in the town of Tula.  Full results are available here . National team member Polina Spirina, who first shone in the 2010 Olympic Hopefuls competition The Master of Sport category competition was won by Polina Fyodorova but with a score almost four points short of Bondareva's total (53.133).  Following on her heels were Yuna Nefedova (52.4) and Irina Yashina (51.533) The junior competitions this year are marked by the absence of key team members who have until very re...

This morning we saw the Junior competitions take place - qualifications for the all around finals, which will take place on Friday, and also the team competitions. The junior gymnasts compete in two categories - Master of Sport; and Candidate Master of Sport. One big surprise is the omission of leading junior Evgeniya Shelgunova. Shelgunova, 15 this year, is training alongside the seniors in preparation for her maiden year at senior level in 2013. It is unclear whether she competed hors de concours as her colleagues Anastasia Grishina and Sidorova did last year, or if she was missing from the field altogether. This competition could be said to give the impression that the generation below Shelgunova lacks depth, but then again Maria Kharenkova and her other Pacific Rim team mates did not perform here. However, at Candidate Master of Sport level we see Maria Bondaryeva confirmed as the leading junior gymnast at this competition, outscoring her elders in the Master of Sport categ...

Maria Bondareva again struck gold in Canada on Sunday, winning three golds on bars, beam and floor at the Gymnix International Junior Cup.  The fullest results available to date are here and I expect full results to be available on the official competition page soon.  Maria's victory in Saturday's all around competition, along with some video, is reported here , and you can find quick hits from both comps at the Gymnastics Examiner . The only event that Bondareva did not win here (and indeed, did not even qualify to) was vault. Relative weakness on vault does seem to be a recurring problem with the Russians at present, and although Maria has plenty of time to make improvements I'm wondering how the seniors are doing. At this rate the Russians will win gold on bars, beam and floor at the Olympics - yet be nowhere on vault.  It's unfortunate that the Code favours the least complex and interesting piece so strongly.  

Maria Bondareva at last December's Voronin Cup Junior national team member Maria Bondareva confirmed her class yesterday with a convincing win all around at Canada's Gymnix Junior Cup. Bondareva, 12 years old, won bars and beam in the junior competition at last December's Voronin Cup, and took the all around junior title at Hungary's Eva Kanyo Cup. With 14 year old Evgeniya Shelgunova , Bondareva is leading the current charge of Russian juniors. She has been selected for the Jesolo Cup later this month, and (assuming she is age eligible) looks likely to be on the roster for the upcoming Junior Europeans in Brussels. Bondareva competed alongside Russian junior national team mates Anastasia Dmitrieva, Evgenia Korolkova and Daria Mikhailova.   Full results are available here .  Event finals take place today Maria Anatolyevna Bondareva , born 28th November 1999 (12 years old). Trains under U V Pursheva and Y N Bachurin at Fryazino (Moscow Oblast).   ...

2012 Olympic prospect Anastasia Sidorova made a successful return to competition this weekend at Hungary's Eva Kanyo Memorial event. Anastasia will turn 16 next 28th September and is coached in Rostov on Don by Olga Sagina, at the same club as former Russian Olympian Elena Produnova. You can find a summary of a 2008 interview with Anastasia here . This was Anastasia's return to international competition following a wrist injury incurred whilst riding her bike in the spring.  It is fairly clear that she is returning to full strength, with a high beam score of 15.166 and an overall total of 56.748, not bad for a gymnast who still struggles relatively on uneven bars (13.366).  The competition was broken down into senior, junior and adolescent (to me, baby), with World Championships reserve team member Alyona Polyan taking the senior competition and youngster (born 28th November 1999) Maria Bondareva winning the youngest division.  Bondareva is a member of the nationa...

A photo report on the recent Spartakiada (held in Penza, 27 June-4 July) can be found on the Russian Federation's site .  This is an opportunity for young gymnasts to make a name for themselves and test their skills ahead of the important international competitions in particular, a competition between Russia and China which is due to take place between 4th and 8th July. Full results of the competition can be found here .  Muscovite Evgeniya Shegulnova emerged as the strongest at this competition, winning both the all around qualifications and finals as well as the finals in vault, floor and balance beam, a speciality of hers (15.075).  Shegulnov was born on the 8th August 1997 and trains in Moscow with coaches Marinova and Tikhonova. In the boy's competition, Andrei Logutov came first all around. Competitions took place in two age categories, with the younger girls' competition being won by Maria Bondareva (strongest on beam, 14.5) and the boys by Ivan Tikhonov. ...