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| Today's podium ... Max Whitlock (silver), David Belyavski, Oleg Verniaeiv |
Friday, April 19, 2013
Belyavski European Champion
WAG, MAG All Around finals - links to live streaming and more
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| Courtesy of the RGF/Elena Mihailova |
Aliya Mustafina, David Belyavski, Anastasia Grishina and Nikita Ignatyev today represent the Russian Federation in the all around finals of the first major competition in the gymnastics calendar since last year's Olympics, the European Championships. It is time to suspend all speculation: only what the gymnasts do in the Olympiski stadium, Moscow, in the next hours will have any bearing on the outcome of the competition. All four of them have demons to overcome, unleashed during the qualification rounds earlier this week. Mustafina in particular must overcome a psychologically bruising encounter with the balance beam (two falls), the piece on which she may begin today's competition (start lists still to be confirmed at time of writing). As reported by International Gymnast, however, she dismisses all thoughts that her performance today might be compromised by negative thoughts of her hesitant beginning :
"I feel good, and before the performance on balance beam I didn't feel any strong emotions, no nerves. Everything was going as usual. In general, I see no reason for disappointment. Qualification is qualification, and in the final everything starts over."
It is basically just a question of wait and see now - so here are a few links to help you follow the competition. I will not being doing Facebook updates during the competition today as there is live streaming available, but you will be able to read titbits there, and daily reports of the action on this blog.
Live streaming will be available via the UEG.
Start lists and results will be available from the Longines website.
Those of you in the UK or who receive BBC TV - don't forget the BBC2/online coverage this afternoon, Friday 19th April 1.00-4.30 pm - this includes live coverage of the WAG all around, and highlights of the MAG all around.
MAG begins at 1.00 pm Moscow time, WAG at 5.30 pm.
Good luck to all the gymnasts!!
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Russia prevails, against the odds
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| Maria Paseka in flight Courtesy of the RGF |
Regardless of the reality of their everyday training, the picture presented of their lives in sport is far from ordered. For Mustafina, there has been an unsettling circumstance surrounding the status of her personal coach, Alexander Alexandrov, a man she last year called her 'second father', but who this year was quietly removed from the team roster at the last minute without explanation. The strongest competitor that Russia has had for many a year, its only Olympic gold medallist in the discipline, has been labelled as 'difficult' and 'lazy'. For Grishina, there has been a change of personal coaching arrangements and a barrage of public criticism from the Head Coach of the Russian team. For Afanasyeva, new ambitions have been hyped beyond reasonable belief. It is almost as though the words have become more important than the deeds, a good story for the press more important than the gymnastics. You would think that the main thing would be that every gymnast prepared and performed to the best of her ability, wouldn't you?
Who knows whether the many changing stories surrounding their training influenced the results of today's qualifying competition. Certainly, the level of expectation of the girls always seemed unrealistic to me. The results certainly aren't disastrous. Russia vaulted very well. Paseka, the only team member not exposed to some form of verbal assault this year or last, delivered to, and perhaps exceeded promise with places in both vault and bars finals. Afanasyeva tumbled brilliantly on floor to finish there in first place. Grishina recovered from a poor start to pull out what was least expected of her in the form of a solid floor exercise and qualification to the all around and beam finals. Mustafina looked as though she was holding it all together, just as she always does ... until that awful beam exercise where she suffered the indignity of not one, but two falls, and looked somewhat discombobulated to boot. With a mark in the 11s to carry, she squeezed into the all around final as Russia's second representative behind the much maligned Grishina, but was also the top qualifier on bars, and third on floor. All four Russians have qualified to event finals; they lead the standings in two pieces, and have three gymnasts in the top five individual ranks from qualifications.
Yet all three qualifications all arounders suffered errors and at times looked to lack fitness, at a time when the sport demands more and more of its practitioners in terms of reliability and athleticism. Choreographic passages were omitted from floor exericses to preserve energy for the tumbles. Afanasyeva still performed with ambition and commitment on this piece, but a fall to her side on bars dismount, not surprisingly, led to a dispirited beam outcome. All three all arounders suffered falls in their programmes. I expect that the two qualified gymnasts (Grishina and Mustafina) wlll do better in the all around, and I so would like to see Afanasyeva win floor, but then I am an optimist.
Meanwhile, the two gymnasts from Romania (Iordache and Bulimar) looked full of life. Either Bulimar or Iordache would be worthy all around champions this year, and they also look likely to sweep balance beam, a final with only one Russian qualified, Anastasia Grishina, thanks to the withdrawal of Britain's unlucky Gabby Jupp. Russia managed to qualify six spots in event finals from a bank of four competing athletes. Romania 'only' managed to qualify to five berths, but from a team of just two. All members of both teams will compete again this week at least once.
Yet I am left with an uncomfortable feeling about the Russians. After all the talk, all the rearrangement of coaching, and the appointment of new specialists like beam coach Marina Bulashenko, you would expect them to look better prepared for this competition, the first home European Championships for Russia since 1998. After all, other gymnasts have faced the rigours of Olympic preparation, are looking forward to a busy summer, and seem to have reached a better pitch of readiness.
Tomorrow, we will see what the gymnasts can do. I still feel convinced that a Romanian will take gold and that the Russians will have to wait for event finals if they want to be champions. This competition has, put simply, come a little too early for them. They will all, surely, be better prepared for the big competitions of the summer and the autumn. They will have to be. In their second home competition, the Universiade in Kazan, the Ministry of Sport is demanding results.
Find links to the scores here.
All around qualifiers
Vault qualifiers
Bars qualifiers
Beam qualifiers
Floor qualifiers
WAG qualifications, final subdivision
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| Anastasia Grishina this morning. Courtesy of the RGF |
Current individual standings are as follows:
Grishina's performance in the first subdivision of the day wasn't that bad; she had falls on beam and bars, but went on to perform reasonably on floor (a landing error and long wait before her final tumble) and excellently in her one vault (double twisting Yurchenko). With so many gymnasts yet to perform, we will have to wait and see if she will make a final.
Maria Paseka did an outstanding DTY and a good second vault, and delivered to promise on bars. She was one of only fifteen gymnasts presenting two vaults at this Championships, so I expect she is reasonably well assured of a place in the final there, and will probably contend for a medal.
Let's see how things go ...
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Women's qualifications - some useful links
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| Aliya Mustafina projects that mystical charisma, while Europeans team mate Ksenia Afanasyeva looks on at last year's Russian Championships. Courtesy RGF |
The Couch Gymnast has put up some extensive reports on women's podium training from yesterday as a preparation for tomorrow's competition - read them. It is the age old story of Russia looking tired and off form with Romania soldiering on. No, better than that, shining at the first major competition of the year. Russia normally shake themselves down in time for the actual competition, but can they pull off another revival again this time? It must take so much energy overcoming all the emotion of a poor warm up performance ... the pre-competition publicity, spun by Valentina Rodionenko, does not make them sound a happy ship. Has Russia lost its passion for artistic gymnastics? I hope not. Let's see how qualis go first, then finals.
Here is the start list for tomorrow's competition, and a link to the judges' assignments.
Here is a TV report of podium training featuring Maria Paseka and Anastasia Grishina.
Go to RRG's Facebook page for comments on the Russian and Romanian performances, tomorrow from 10.30 am Moscow time.
European Championships 2013 - men's qualifications
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| David Belyavski's hard working and rather elegant hand. Courtesy of the RGF |
In Europe, at this present time, it seems to be a fight between three countries - the ambitious and competitive Ukraine, determined to vindicate the disappointment of a fourth place finish in London; relative newcomers Great Britain, whose steadiness and strength in depth point to a bright future; and Russia, the team who will perhaps always seem slightly disappointing, compared to their mighty past under the aegis of the far larger, far more confident Soviet Union. (At this competition Germany did not present its strongest face - we will have to wait and see if this is training strategy or a downturn in their fortunes.)
The British team qualified the highest number of gymnasts to event finals, six, while Ukraine managed to match Russia's five. I mentioned before that Russia lead three out of the six apparatus finals. Ukraine and Britain share one lead each (the remaining apparatus, pommel horse, is still the domaine of Hungary). Russia's efforts rely on only three gymnasts out of their six nominated performers, as do Ukraine's, but Britain qualify four. Britain qualified no gymnasts to parallel bars, rings or vault finals, while Russia's real bug bear, as ever, was the pommel horse, on this occasion a highly competitive final with no score of less than 15 in the top 13 places. Britain did in fact score highly enough to finish in the top eight on vault, but only one of their gymnasts presented two vaults, Theo Seager, who fell on his second attempt. Ukraine's real strength appears to be parallel bars, where their gymnasts stand in 1st and 3rd position with some stunning and original work.
Russia could have improved their qualification status if only both David Belyavski and Nikita Ignatyev had not sat down their vaults (the first thing I saw on entering the arena), and if Ablyazin and Balandin had not suffered severe landing errors on floor and rings respectively. (Ablyazin's floor work is astounding for its difficulty but I must question the wisdom of a Code of Points that rewards a floor exercise that is essentially a composite of back to back tumble runs with barely even a second for anything else. Remember the rhythmic, linear work of such greats as Artemov?) At the same time, Ablyazin must be congratulated for his amazing work on vault, a piece which he has been unable to train at full strength since recovering from his injury; and on rings, a new strength of his since the same injury gave him time to work on upper body strength. He leads both these pieces, while Emin Garibov leads high bar.
Friday's all around final promises much, with a top four (Whitlock, Verniaiev, Belyavski, Stepko) who should provide a beautiful podium and a great advertisement for European gymnastics. Nikita Ignatyev adds to Russia's efforts with his seventh place finish in the all around, while Daniel Purvis's 8th place finish means that all but one (Theo Seager) of Britain's men have made a final of some kind or other. The British team are trained by Russians, Andrei Popov and Sergei Sizhanov, and it shows.
Men's all around qualification results
Floor exercise
Pommel Horse
Rings
Vault
High Bar
European Championships 2013 - updates
Greetings from sunny Moscow - it really is a beautiful day here. I arrived last night in one piece, slept well, had a hearty breakfast, and made my way to the stadium this morning with only one slight hiatus that involved a conversation with a Russian road sweeper, who pointed out to me that I had got off the Metro at the wrong stop. This isn't covered in the phrase books and since I do not speak Russian, it took some understanding. He was a very nice road sweeper and I am grateful for his kindness. Hey ho I finally overcame the odds and arrived just in time to see both Belyavski and Ignatyev land their vaults on their tight little bottoms. I'm now wondering if David Belyavski will hang onto his first place all around in the face of an outstanding showing from Britain's Max Whitlock (but which would be less threatening to Belyavski had the Russian actually managed to go six for six).
It's sunny outside, the birdies are tweeting ... and, of course, I am sitting inside a harshly lit arena with my laptop on my knee, watching the gymnastics competition ... this probably confirms what most people who know me already think (yes, I have only one knee).
If you want comprehensive quick hits of all the excitement, you should follow the UEG Facebook page.
I will be updating Russian highlights on my Facebook page as much as possible during qualifications, assuming the battery life of my computer holds out long enough to get me to the end. Each day I am also aiming to upload the key results and links as well as present my own completely biassed account of events and happenings - for you to comment on.
One subdivision to come, starting at 6 pm Moscow time, so let's see how things pan out. I'm hoping we will see the Russian men qualify strongly across the board.
Monday, April 15, 2013
'You can compete after 25 and still win medals' - Valentina Rodionenko
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| Tatiana Nabieva is one of a group of mature gymnasts whom the Russian coaches hope to restore to the team |
Journalist Natalia Kalugina met with Valentina Rodionenko and Viktoria Komova. This live interview was transmitted on the internet for Moscow Echo. Lupita has provided translations of the key points which are summarised below:
Viktoria Komova commented on the new coaching arrangements : 'Grebyonkin wants us to smile.' He is very supportive. 'After the Olympics we gymnasts started to help each other.'
OTHER NEWS (updated 15th April) : There is a brief interview with Ksenia Afanasyeva here : she says that she is practicing the Amanar into a pit, but isn't sure it is ready to compete just yet. After the Olympics, she thought of retiring, but decided that at 21 she was too young to give up something that was still working for her. The youngsters who are up and coming do not yet pose much of a threat.
Also, sadly, Alexander Alexandrov's name has vanished from the list of coaches nominated to be with the Russian team in Moscow. He has been replaced by Raisa Ganina who has coached Mustafina since childhood. It is hard to say what this quiet change signifies if anything. I hope it is not a bitter ending to the charismatic pairing that delivered, and promised, so much for Russia.
