Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

Just a quick note to say that the Russian Gymnastics Federation has now published lists of the national teams.  As usual, JAS has transcribed these in full at her blog  here . Don't be confused too much.  These lists are changeable, and sometimes out of synch with reality.  In the past, retired gymnasts have appeared on these lists for up to a year after their withdrawal.  Nabieyeva's name still appears here, for example. Given the chance that people may change their minds, keeping the list flexible probably isn't a bad strategy. JAS tells me that Ekaterina Baturina has decided she does not want to compete internationally any more, and that Anastasia Sidorova is still at home recovering from that back injury, but determined to make it back into the national team.   As expected, Maria Kharenkova and Viktoria Kuzmina have joined the senior ranks.  It will be interesting to see how they both progress. Viktoria Komova is back training...

Hard-working Anastasia Grishina was the top Russian senior gymnast of these Championships.  Picture courtesy of the UEG . As a senior team, the Russians obviously did not perform to expectations - even Alexandrov in his interview for Championnat .ru (English language translation here ) admitted as much.  Watching Sidorova, Mustafina and Grishina all make errors in their qualification floor routines was a pretty discouraging experience for a die-hard Russian fan, let alone their long term, long suffering coach.  Then, the shaky start on beam - for which Komova must take as much responsibility as Sidorova - meant they began with a finals deficit that proved impossible to overcome. Hopefully, Alexandrov has a strong heart. In his latest interviews Alexandrov has avoided discussing the likelihood of team success in the London Olympics - almost as though he wants to give the impression that the thought had never occurred to him in the first place.  His strongest ver...

The UEG's website gives a full set of results for the competition, but I'm sufficiently obsessed to provide images of the key ones to the junior Russian gymnasts here.  There will be a separate post of images of the senior results also. Please note, there was no official team competition at this event - however, the winners of this competition (RUS/ITA/ROM) were presented with medals. A close fight in this final with the mature and powerful Scheder ending up in first position following a .3 upgrade of her SV thanks to an appeal from the Germans  - uplifting her finish from bronze to gold. The first of two gold medals for Kharenkova on the final day.  Here she increased her SV from 5.8 in qualifications to 6.1, the highest of any gymnast on any apparatus in the whole of the junior competition. Kharenkova's floor was the routine of the competition for me, both senior and junior.  Even with a .1 penalty for going out of the area she looked by fa...

There are some unexpected recurring themes in my gymnastics holidays: bad food, inappropriate men, funny friends and brilliant Russians.  As this is a diary of my Brussels experience as much as a story about the European Championships, I will provide you with an update of how Tracey and I are getting on here, as well as some links to interesting information about today's junior team competition, which the Russians won quite brilliantly. First of all, let me show you a picture. Snack acquired at Le Roy d'Espagne, Grand Place, Brussels, Belgium Let me take my earlier statement a little further, and propose the hypothesis that bad food and inappropriate men precede brilliant Russians.  We first established this possible link in Stuttgart, when an order of lasagne turned out to be the worst culinary disaster of our lifetime.  (I have never had to carve pasta before or since.)  Secondly, in Athens, a self-described 'very bold, very audacious' Georgian gentleman pr...

Gold is standard for a gymnast whose name is appearing regularly now in the headlines of this blog.  Over the last two days, tiny Maria Bondareva took three golds in the Candidate Master of Sport event finals at this year's Russian Nationals.  Whether Bondareva is old enough to compete at the forthcoming Junior European Championships - I don't know.  But I hope she is!!  The full results in Russian are here . Vault Evgeniya Korolkova 13.76 Yulia Starchenko      13.59 Maria Bondareva      13.59 Uneven Bars Maria Bondareva      13.92 Viktoria Kuzmina      13.9 Evgeniya Korolkova  13.42 Beam Maria Bondareva       14.92 Kristina Levshina       14.04 Viktoria Kuzmina       13.96 Floor Maria Bondareva      13.9 Viktoria Kuzmina  ...