Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

The Russian women won the gold medal today in the team competition at the Universiade in Gwangju, ahead of the Japanese and Korean teams.   The picture is Alla Sotnikova's gold medal ... from her Instagram account - thank you, Alla!  Congratulations! It was a fantastic team effort, highlighted by Polina Fyodorova's stable performances on bars, beam and floor, Maria Paseka's powerful vaulting (strong Amanar) and bars work, and Kramarenko's bars.  I loved the way that Fyodorova's technique on bars looked so effortless (wonderful 1.5 turn on the top of the high bar), the expressiveness of Sidorenko's floor work, and the power and emphatic charm of Elizarova.  This is not to ignore the great efforts of Kramarenko and Paseka, but we see these two often on the international scene and their gymnastics is familiar, and on a different level.   Alla Sidorenko, for example, has not featured on a national team before, and the native of St Petersburg showed her class her...

Polina Fyodorova is now fighting for the final spot on the Russian team As control competitions took place at Lake Krugloye today, Valentina Rodionenko provided an update to the latest selection news, identifying beam specialist Polina Fyodorova as a late addition to the team.    Doctors have also now deemed Ksenia Afanasyeva unready to compete at Worlds as she needs more time to recover from her ankle injury.   Caution is the watchword here as the health of both Ksenia and Viktoria Komova is being preserved for the long road to Rio. Valentina has clarified the status of Maria Paseka, omitted from yesterday's team announcement and the subject of injury speculation.   Maria has suffered an ankle injury recently, and while it is not serious, it has affected the gymnast's confidence.  'The ankle needs time to rest, and bounce back', said the head coach, 'Unfortunately, we don't have that time.  Besides, Maria has doubts that she could perform ... We cannot tak...

Beam medalists today in Penza ... Daria Spiridinova, Maria Kharenkova, Aliya Mustafina Not everything went to plan today for the 'big' stars of Russian gymnastics.  There were signs of some strain and tiredness as the weakened ranks of former Olympians stepped aside and made room for three newcomers to the medal rostrum ... the interesting Daria Spiridinova (coached by Tatiana Fomkina, who formerly coached 1996 Olympian, Elena Dolgopolova), the feisty Maria Kharenkova (who  needs no introduction) and Polina Fyodorova from Cheboksary (highly touted by Sergei Zelikson back in 2013).  Winning on vault was Alla Sosnitskaya, who last year won gold in floor at the Russia Cup. Today's stand out performance was by Maria Kharenkova on beam.  She didn't quite match her strongest performance of the team final, but her beam was on another planet to the others as she zipped through her skills with speed and confidence, minimising a very off balance landing in a layout as if she w...

Photo of Anna Rodionova and Maria Kharenkova, from Anna's official group on VK.com Valentina Rodionenko has given further details of the MAG and WAG participants at Cottbus:  Denis Ablyazin - rings, vault and floor Alexander Balandin - rings and parallel bars Dmitry Stolyarov - floor and vault Matvey Petrov - pommels Nikolai Kuksenkov - pommels and high bar Nikita Ignatyev - high bar and parallel bars Anna Rodionova - bars and beam, though she may miss beam as she has ankle pain Maria Kharenkova - beam and floor Polina Fyodorova - floor and vault Daria Spridinova - beam http://itar-tass.com/sport/1032766

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  ...