Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

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...

Evgeniya Shelgunova, courtesy of the UEG Russia's women gymnasts took gold at two different competitions this weekend, showing an interesting level of development across the generations.  Veteran Anna Dementyeva competed with significantly improved form at the Joaquim Blume Memoria l, hitting a 14.75 on beam, while at the annual Massilia Cup in Marseille, France, emerging senior (eligible 2013) Evgeniya Shelgunova led her team to first place, taking the all around title for herself.  Youngster Maria Kharenkova added an exclamation mark to the Russians' performances with an emphatic gold in the floor exercise. The Russian team's performance was enhanced by tiny Viktoria Kuzmina's silver medal on uneven bars.  The team cumulatively took first place on every piece of apparatus but vault, where their fifth place underlines an urgent need to make improvements.  Even the revaluation of the Amanar vault will not overcome such a deficit whilst competing against a rela...