Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Anastasia Grishina - will the Rodionenkos treat her fairly and give her a chance to try for the team? Just a few loose ends to tie up since I last spoke to you post Russia Cup. Go-Tribe is fabulous! Visit her site for full transliterations of almost all the Russia Cup results, including the men's competition. Andrei Rodionenko is talking about the Russian team selections for Worlds again, and the complications that Komova's illness has brought to the team.  She mentions Paseka as a possible team member but says it is a real conundrum given the lack of indicators of Komova's readiness, inevitable because of her illness, and the fact that Paseka's strongest apparatus, vault, coincides with that of two members of the team already, Mustafina and Nabiyeva.  Hold your horses, Andrei - aren't you forgetting that there is another gymnast to be considered - Anastasia Grishina!? Nominative registrations close on the 27th August but the team can make changes till ...

Lupita provides a great translation of an interview with Anastasia Grishina, from the VTB 's sports page. Anastasia Grishina on beam at the recent European Championships.   Anastasia Grishina (16) In spite of her young age, Anastasia is not shy when she talks to journalists: “I’m often surrounded by people older than me. I have three older brothers. The oldest is a Master of Sport in boxing, the second one used to practice football and the youngest played chess. I also played chess. Our parents took us to gymnastics for our development. My brothers don’t do gymnastics any more and they even tried to convince my mum not to take me to the club. Yet, I liked it very much. I wanted to prove that I was able to do something”. Anastasia Grishina’s route in sport was not a bed of roses from the start: “First, my parents took me to skating, but the coach said I was too old. I didn’t know if they would take me in any sporting discipline at all. I was lucky. Olga Sikkoro, my first...

I'm pleased to confirm that the Russian Gymnastics Federation is providing live streaming for the important Russia Cup competition.  Go to the RGF website and follow the link, which will be in red when the transmission is live (if you can read Cyrillic the word you are looking for is 'translatsya').  The second session of the women's competition (tomorrow) will begin at 2.45 Penza time. Start lists for today's competition (MAG) and tomorrow's (WAG) have been released at the website also.  I am providing an image of the WAG Olympic selection squad's working order below.  Of particular note is Anastasia Grishina, who will be performing on bars only due to leg pain.  Thus with the exception of Grishina,  Maria Paseka and Tatiana Nabieva, who will both present on bars and vault only, all other national squad members will compete all four pieces of apparatus.  Head coach Andrei Rodionenko has said that at the Olympics the WAG selection strategy will focus...