Russia Cup will be a qualifying competition for the Russian MAG and WAG teams for the Antwerp World Championships, due to take place late in September. Gymnasts pre-selected for the team due to their participation in Europeans and the Universiade will not be required to compete, so we will not be seeing Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Denis Ablyazin, Nikolai Kuksenkov, Emin Garibov and David Belyavski. This seems a good strategy designed to protect these gymnasts from over exposure. There are strong rumours on the internet that Viktoria Komova will not appear here. This would have been Vika's first major competitive appearance in over a year, and her only real opportunity to test herself before Worlds, so is disappointing and a little worrying. There is no official news from the RGF about it so, for now at least, we can only speculate and hope that things turn out for the best by the World Championships. In Komova's absence, Anastasia Grishina must be fr...
Reporting and analysing Russian gymnastics since 2010. Includes original and exclusive interviews with leading coaches and gymnasts, and historical issues dating back to the Soviet Union. The first blog to report extensively on the sport using Russian language sources. I read, I argue, and I have opinions. Be warned.