Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

In an interview with sport 24, head coach Valeri Alfosov reflects on the MAG team and how the gymnasts performed in Sochi. After the men's all-around competition, senior coach of the men's team, Valery Alfosov, spoke to Sport24 correspondent Anastasia Loginova about his plans for the World Championships and summarized the results of the all-around at the national championships. ❓ How would you rate the boys' performance? 💬 It's hard to give a definitive answer. The national team performed brilliantly on the parallel bars and high bar, and they performed beautifully. The end of this competition was interesting; there were many mistakes today, and the boys were battling it out. Everyone had the same scores until the fifth apparatus, and the champion only emerged on the sixth. Of course, these performance shortcomings need to be addressed in preparation for the World Championships, because our level of difficulty is high, but our execution is significantly lacking. ❓ Spea...

Exclusive interview with the first Russian athletes to arrive in Rio Translation by Liubov Baladzhaeva Athletes are escorted throughout the airport so that they can get to the Olympic village without delays. There are a lot of soldiers with assault rifles for security reasons. The first training for the gymnasts starts  at 9:00 , they usually take a bus to the gym although it’s walking distance from their accommodation. Journalists are not allowed into the Olympic village. Aliya talks about their rooms and the village: they didn’t really have time to walk around, because they train twice a day and have to rest in between. The rooms are on the smaller side, but cozy. She’s happy with the living conditions, no complaints. Denis Ablyazin will turn 24 in Rio. He’s one of the Russian MAG hopes for a gold medal, which they didn’t have since 2000.   Asked about who are his main competitors, he says that he sees every single gymnast in Rio as a competitor. Other than that they j...

The atmosphere surrounding the Russian male gymnasts at this year's European Championships was noticeably relaxed and happy as they made their way to their various medals.  This reflects not only a more stable competition performance, but also a refreshed dynamic within the team.  First, some background .  Russian sport finds itself under unprecedented pressure at present following serious doping allegations and positive tests which have led the International Athletics Federation to propose that Russia's entire track and field team be barred from the Olympics.  Other sports are implicated, and even gymnastics has not emerged unscathed, as senior team member Nikolai Kuksenkov tested positive for trace elements of meldonium in the spring.  Kuksenkov has now been given a pardon and actually competed in Bern, but it seems likely that artistic gymnastics, with its ultra-clean record internationally, has the potential to win medals for Russia at the Olympics with...

Head coach Valery Alfosov has unreservedly supported Russian AA champion Nikolai Kuksenkov, naming him to a group of ten gymnasts eligible for participation in Rio even though the gymnast's selection for international competition is currently impossible due to a positive drugs test. The RGF is employing Swiss lawyers to defend Kuksenkov's 'honour and innocence'.  Russian gymnasts stopped taking meldonium last August 2015 although the drug is known for remaining in the system for long periods of time.  Other gymnasts have shown traces of the drug in their samples, but Kuksenkov's was 'scanty' but minimally over the limit.  No Russian gymnast should have this problem, says Alfosov. (Rodionenko earlier pointed out that gymnasts only take those supplements and medications given to them by the team doctor; they are not even permitted to buy over the counter cold medications or to self medicate at all). Alfosov said that five gymnasts would travel to Rio, and two ...

Russia's leading male all around gymnast, David Belyavski, with head coach Andrei Rodionenko As the first big competition of the year approaches for Russia's male gymnasts - the national championships in Penza, which begin in just three days' time - Irina Stepantseva of MK.ru has focussed on the team's preparation, with a visit to Round Lake.  There she interviewed many of the gymnasts, and head coach Andrei Rodionenko.  You can view the full piece in Russian here .   The context : As I have said before, Russian sport has been hit hard by all the doping bans, particularly in track and field athletics.  RUSADA, the national anti-doping agency, has been accused of falsifying documentation.  Tennis has taken a hit, with Maria Sharapova testing positive for the controversial drug Meledonium, and now swimming appears to be being targeted.  I think we can probably expect that all Russian sport will be under the microscope for months to come.  It'...

Head MAG coach Valery Alfosov has confirmed that the Russian team will be missing two of its key players in Glasgow this winter - Emin Garibov and Alexander Balandin.  As reported on this blog two days ago, Emin will compete at the Russia Cup but will work on three apparatus only.  Alfosov has added that Emin doesn't yet have enough difficulty for Worlds.   Alexander has suffered complications following surgery for a shoulder injury and is only now getting back to training after an absence of more than a year.  Both gymnasts are expected to be ready to contend for the Russian Olympic team for Rio. Source -  http://tass.ru/sport/2244743

The top seven gymnasts at Penza will compete for the six places on the Russian team for Euros, confirmed head coach Valery Alfosov today to Allsport. On the basis of the results of the national championships, the following gymnasts are in contention:  All Around : David Belyavski and Nikolai Kuksenkov Denis Ablyazin : floor, rings and vault Nikita Nagorny : floor and vault Mattvei Petrov : pommel horse Nikita Ignatyev : rings, p-bars and high bar Mikhail Kudashov : rings (he has a D value of 6.8 but was unable to show his best as he was still recovering from the effects of flu) At present, the reserve is Dmitri Lankin, who has potential on floor and parallel bars. As with the women, other gymnasts will be training for the competition and new names may still be added to the roster according to the results of control competitions. Alfosov stressed that almost the entire team had performed below par in Penza thanks to the effects of a nasty flu bug.  With another four weeks of tr...

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...

Nikita Ignatyev competes this spring at Russian Championships.  Picture courtesy RGF Key points of interview with men's head coach Valery Alfosov  http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=82847 - The team is at the final stages of preparation, undergoing control competitions.  Training is very good, he is satisfied with the gymnasts and their routines (elsewhere, Kuksenkov says the men have upgrades to show, his on high bar and pommels).   http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20140508/744508287.html - Their team is in 'perfect working condition', and working to peak for competition at the end of May - in time for Euros.  His only slight worry is Ablyazin's second vault - but there will always be these worries when you want to win medals.  'We can only hope for the best'. - 'The most dangerous competitors - the UK, Germany, France, Ukraine and Romania.' - ' We want to win medals. But we understand that our rivals are very strong, do not stand still, and are d...

Personal and national coaches working together : Ksenia Afansyeva's personal coach, Marina Nazarova, celebrates with  Russia's successful women's team at the London Olympics, with bars coach (now team coach)  Evgeny Grebyonkin The RGF has published its full team list again.  It has already been released once, and you can find a review of the gymnasts of the senior men's and women's teams here . For now, however, I wanted to publish in English the list of the national coaches of the senior team.  I will look at the coaches of the junior and youth teams in another post. This list is clearly an official document, bearing the stamp of the RGF and the signatures of several dignitaries, Andrei Rodionenko included, but it most likely will change over the coming months.  It may well be produced more for administrative purposes than for public consumption, so read with caution.  There is some meaty information all the same.  What may be of note is that...