Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

The RGF has posted a video interview with Viktoria Komova on its YouTube channel.  Many thanks to Olesya Mikheeva who has translated it for you!   "I'm very happy, honestly, I didn't expect to beat Aliya.  I figured she'd win because she's been competing for so long. It was only a lead of one tenth, but I'm still very happy that I won?  I have  been waiting for this a while and hopefully this will be a push for me to continue on." "We congratulated each other.  Aliya said "finally you came out, competed, and won". "Honestly I never thought I'd be this *famous/good gymnast* because I couldn't do anything and at about 12 years old I wanted to quit and said 'no, I'm done with this' but everyone else was supportive and told me to come back and I came back and everything got better." "Right now I'm at Lake Krugloye training, the only thing we had energy for is to sleep, maybe read a book, but not for a perso...

Courtesy of the RGF Penza Pravda has reported Aliya's superb showing at Russia Cup, and includes a few words from the Champion. 'Everything turned out, as I had conceived it!' While other star performers on the team - eg Ablyazin and Komova - could only manage partial appearances thanks to injury, 'only  Aliya Mustafina appeared before the spectators in all her glory' ... The audience gave Aliya a standing ovation - this was a performance to match her work at the Olympic Games - it was evident that she is a 'gymnast in a great mood'. 'I was practicing new connections for the World Championships.  We also needed to make the girls feel like a team.  It wasn't my intention to win medals here.' She won four gold, and a silver.  The 'Prima of the Russian team confirmed her star status'.  http://www.pravda-news.ru/topic/53878.html

Head coach Andrei Rodionenko today confirmed that, by hook or by crook, Denis Ablyazin will travel to Nanning and participate in World Championships.  Ablyazin missed key finals in last week's Russia Cup, and has been suffering severe knee pain.  He is undergoing investigations in Munich at present.  An announcement about the nature of his injury is expected in the next few days. Rodionenko said he would be ready to take Ablyazin for his rings exercise only, where the Olympian has a realistic medal chance.  He also suggested that vault might be a possibility - 'even on one leg'.   In a report in Pravda, Rodionenko is also reported as saying that the knee injury was 'nothing serious'. Source : http://www.temapenza.ru/news/sports/item/7997/

The Russian Gymnastics Federation has opened a YouTube channel - such a positive development.  One of the videos you will find is an interview with rising star Maria Kharenkova; she is a lovely, light hearted girl in person, energetic and smiling, different to the serious face she puts on in competition :-).    There is also a news piece on the Russia Cup which I think is quite important as it makes clear that the team selection will not take place until late before the World Championships (I believe they are travelling 27th September), thus giving Viktoria Komova time to work up a contributing beam routine, and, f what team captain Aliya Mustafina says is right, possibly a vault!  Many of you will have seen that Vika took gold on uneven bars at this morning's Russia Cup event finals, ahead of all around champion Aliya Mustafina and European medallist Daria Spiridonova and it will be great to see her take encouragement from this success. You will find the original vi...

The event finals will take place on Saturday and Sunday.  Thank you to the Gymnastics group on VK.com, where I obtained these screen captures. Vault : Paseka, Sosnitskaya, Akhaimova, Nabiyeva, Cheong, Kruglikova, Bikmurzina, Vanyushkina, Scherbakova, Elizarova Uneven bars : Mustafina, Spiridonova, Komova, Kramarenko, Nabieva, Rodionova, Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya, Elizarova, Sidorenko Beam : Kharenkova, Mustafina, Fyodorova, Spiridonova, Sosnitskaya, Bikmurzina, Cheong, Elizarova, Kramarenko, Rodionova   Floor : Elizarova, Mustafina, Paseka, Fydorova, Sosnitskaya, Akhaimova, Spiridonova, Bikmurzina, Kharenkova, Cheong  

Nikita Ignatyev with the top six gymnasts at Russia Cup this year.  Left to right - Roman Suetin (6th), Ivan Stretovich (5th), David Belyavski (2nd), Nikita Ignatyev, Mikhail Kudashov (3rd), Daniil Kazachkov (4th).  Courtesy RGF Nikita, a promising all arounder who has built his strength gradually from one competition to the next, is a repeat national level champion, having won the spring Russian Championships in 2012.  His win here was earned thanks to consistent performance.  His nearest rival, the occasionally brilliant David Belyavski, made too many mistakes to take the gold.   1991 born Mikhail Kudashov from Chelyabinsk, in third place, is one of Russia's 'reserve' gymnasts, unlikely to make the final line up for Nanning thanks to the prevalence of event specialists on the team. A noteable newcomer to the all around line up is fifth placed Ivan Stretovich, 1996 born and so due to progress to the senior team in 2015 alongside such youngsters as Artur Dalolya...

I am still waiting for the publication of full results (for some reason the RGF files are missing names, at least when viewed on my IPad) but some of us were awake very early this morning to see Aliya Mustafina confound predictions of her future specialist status, overcome her recent recovery, and win the all around at Russia Cup.  Highlights were her uneven bars routine and a beam where she presented her best combinations with vigour, recording a good mark despite a fall, but she also leads the vault, floor and bars scoring amongst the all arounders eligible for inclusion on the team for Nanning.  (Elizarova scored higher on floor, but is unlikely to be selected as she does not train with the team at Lake Krugloye and has only one strong piece.) Second placed Kharenkova was absolutely outstanding on beam. 1 Aliya Mustafina 14.833/15.4/14.6/14.3 = 59.133 2. Maria Kharenkova  14.1/13.867/16.2/13.667 = 57.834 3  Daria Spiridonova 13.833/15.033/14.233/13.7 = 56.799 4. A...

The Russian MAG and WAG teams take their preparation for World Championships in Nanning one step further this week, as key players compete in the annual Russia Cup in Penza.  There will be team, all around and event finals. The WAG team Last year the gymnasts were rather depleted and suffering the effects of injury; this year the national squad is still short of some of its top members, but has greater diversity and experience up and coming into the ranks, so it will be an interesting time.  Last year saw St Petersburg gymnast and fan favourite Tatiana Nabiyeva lead the all around, ahead of Alla Sosnitskaya, Anna Pavlova, Anna Rodionova, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Polina Fyodorova.  With the individual-only World Championships up coming in Antwerp, I remember writing that Russia might well decide to send a team of only three gymnasts, such was the paucity of available talent.  The final reckoning saw Russia fare a little better than this, although performance ...

Veteran Katya Kramarenko is working on an individual programme of training following her hospitalisation with pancreatitis earlier this year . Russian journalist Natalia Kalugina has visited Lake Krugloye in the last few days and has updated her Facebook page with some information on how training is going for the Russia Cup, which takes place later this month.  Unfortunately, it doesn't sound incredibly promising. Ekaterina Kramarenko is still recovering from the serious illness she suffered earlier this year.  There is still a long way to go, judging by Natalia's reaction, but she says that if every gymnast showed as much commitment as Katya, nobody would be able to beat the Russians! Tanya Nabiyeva is at camp, and Natalia had a short chat with her.  Tanya is preparing for the Russia Cup, and was invited to train at Krugloye as the team needed her.  She doesn't know if it was necessarily the right thing, but time will tell.  Tanya is very much enjoying working ...