Rewriting Russian Gymnastics

'Should Mustafina compete in Glasgow, considering her fragile state of health? - aren't the Olympics more important?' are the key themes of this brief news piece by Elena Vaitsekhovskaya, a top sports journalist who has interviewed Alexandrov, Arkayev, Starkin, Mustafina and Rodionenko in the last five years since Aliya won the World Championships. Elena stresses that this year nothing unusual has happened.  Aliya has worked hard with her new coach Sergei Starkin.  She did a 'great job', demonstrating her work at the European Games in Baku where she won the all around, bars and team events as well as silver in the floor exercise. But, says Vaitsekhovskaya, more important than the medals was the fact that Aliya showed a new technical level, began work on upgrades for the Rio Olympics.  Just competing in one event - the Baku games - could be enough for a veteran athlete of Mustafina's experience.  The body ages in both time - and injuries.  Athletes always respond...

Anton Golotsutskov: Black strip can be takeoff From 30 years old Anton Golotsutskov '23 played sports three times a day. Ten years - from 2002 to 2012 - was a member of the national team. Two-time Olympic bronze medalist in 2008 (in the floor exercise and vault), bronze medalist of the World Cup - 2009 World Championship silver medalist in 2010 and 2011, three-time European champion. After the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing Anton Golotsutskov was a hero of the country: two bronze gymnastics competitions were his. The team captain is configured for success in London suddenly was forced to retire. - After a serious injury was a question whether I will walk at all - he says. Bedridden, who lost all sports revenues ... Anton admits that it's all go for the second time he is unlikely to have had the strength. On the other hand, had it not been a black band, there would be no current Golotsutskova, successful owner of the gym in Moscow and VIP-coach children of billionaires. W...

As quickly as my posts have been published, new stories have emerged.  In my last post - you will need to read it in order to get the full picture - I said we would need to read Aliya's words, and here they are, thanks to RSport and some very vigilant readers of this blog who tipped me off!  The decision to include Aliya on the team is not as definitive as might have been taken from Valentina and Andrei's words, but then we always have the subtleties of translation to deal with. "I do not know for sure, (my performance in the World Championships) is questionable. When I am ready, it can be a statement, but for now it's not possible. I will be looking at my health closer to departure," - said Mustafina by telephone .  She also noted that saying anything concrete about her health is difficult. "While it is difficult to say anything about the state of my health, one does need to start training. We will work in the camp at Round Lake." In turn, the he...

Aliya Mustafina - competitive status has been veiled in mystery.  Photograph is by leading Russian photographer, Sergei Bermeniev The mist surrounding Aliya Mustafina's official competitive status lifted just a little this afternoon as head coach Valentina Rodionenko first announced one set of names for the forthcoming World Championships, then added another to the roster.  'Yesterday, Mustafina decided to clench her teeth and prepare for Worlds, despite her back pain.  We know her condition and cannot force her to train ... We will take seven gymnasts to Glasgow', said Rodionenko.  Later, Andrei Rodionenko added that ten gymnasts will join a training camp tomorrow at Round Lake to prepare for Worlds - and participate in final selection.  Names are given below. We will have to look for Mustafina's own words to provide the definitive account of her miraculous return, and of course the only team that will matter is the team that marches out into the arena in Octob...

Dynamic young Seda Tutkhalyan, a leading gymnast in Penza this week, is finding her feet in senior competition Once again this week the Russian women showed themselves to be vulnerable to errors in the first day of apparatus finals, while the men excelled.  Please see the results below, as ever courtesy of the Russian Gymnastics Federation. On bars, Viktoria Komova performed hors de competition, recording a score of 15.3 - she didn't qualify officially to the final so can't be recorded as champion, but she is consistently now Russia's highest scorer on this apparatus.  Russia are already strong here, and she will need to up her game on other apparatus (Valentina mentioned beam and vault) to qualify to be part of the team in Glasgow. A key fact emerging this week in Penza is the growing strength of Nikita Ignatyev, who for a long time was the unlucky one on the team who would often fall or make unexpected errors.  Gradually Nikita has been improving, until in this...

In Glasgow, MAG could well provide the highlights for the Russian team this time as Nikita Ignatyev's surge towards AA victory has strengthened the team in depth.  The addition of ambitious young blood such as Nikita Nagorny also shows that there is no lack of inspiration in the Russian MAG team, led by Head Coach Valery Alfosov.  Both Russian teams (MAG and WAG) are leading their assault in Rio with strong AA gymnasts.  It seems that the specialists (like Maria Paseka) are being required to develop on at least two (WAG) or three (MAG) apparatus.  Given the various competition formats, it might be difficult for those who are strong on one piece only (eg Mattvei Petrov) to find a place on the final team. In the picture - (clockwise, from top left) - Kuksenkov, Ignatyev, Belyavski, Kudashov, Rostov, Nagorny, Dalolyan.   Valentina Rodionenko has been drawn on the 'virtually decided' membership of the Russian teams for Glasgow (23 October to 1 November) though the i...

Mustafina will not compete at Worlds, says Valentina Rodionenko.  The gymnast will concentrate on her preparations for Rio, says the Head Coach in RSport. http://m.rsport.ru/artist_gym/20150918/864271660.html The readers and editors of RRG wish Aliya the best of health as she approaches the next stage of her career.  Good luck, Aliya!! Updated 17.40 - Mustafina confirms she will miss Worlds to heal her back.  She says she can't predict the future.  http://dolly-z.tumblr.com/post/129352701188/mustafina-to-miss-worlds