Media link to Voronin Cup all around and team results/pictures of recent Russian Gymnastics Federation conference ;-)

Einselka at the all around forum provides this link to details of the all around and team results at the Voronin Cup.

In the meantime, the Russian Federation has found time to revamp its website which is now far more colourful than before.  I am particularly excited to see a page of pictures of a recent conference at which the Federation President, Andrei Kostin was re-elected.  Everyone looks very worried in these pictures, and I am tempted to invite a caption competition for pictures number 4 and 8. Have they cut Rodienenko's head off? 

There are second and third pages of these pictures, including some which are temptingly labelled with officials' names.  However, for some reason the site refuses to play with my computer tonight and I have been unable to refer to them a second time to enable any form of comment.  I blame the weather, but then surely Russian websites should be able to cope with a little snow?

It is clear that Russian sports are very male-centric at the administrative level, despite the predominance of their female gymnasts in world sport, and the fact that many of the girls' coaches are now women. 

I also feel forced to raise the important question, whatever happened to Alexei Nemov's dress sense?   Is he going the same way as Alexandrov?

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Media link - Valentina and Andrei Rodienenko interview in Sovietski Sport

There is a long and interesting interview with the Rodienenkos in Sovietski Sport today. 

The Google translation is rather difficult to make complete sense of but the interview addresses the prospects for the Russian team at the 2012 Olympics (they are targetting six medals: two golds, two silvers, two bronzes); discusses the reasons for the Russian team's improved performance and the different rates of recovery between the men's and women's teams; and relations with Leonid Arkayev, who apparently is much more relaxed and happy now.  When discussing the performance of Aliya Mustafina, Rodienenko emphasises that her immediate future revolves around training and competing, not celebrity performances and modelling!

They were keen to emphasise that they returned to Russia as they were, fundamentally, homesick.  Alexandrov's family has remained in the United States and he now has an American passport.  The coaches do not work in Russia for the money, but because they wish to contribute to something larger.

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Viktoria Komova named Voronezh athlete of the year

Albert of the All Around Forum reports that Viktoria Komova has been named Voronezh region athlete of the year.  A local news site gives the details, and explains that thanks to Vika's achievements the Government has agreed to build a new school gym in the region.

The page also shows links to other news stories and interviews with Vika.

Congratulations Viktoria!  Well deserved!

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Mustafina collects another gold, silver at Toyota Cup; dominates world scene in 2010

The All Around Gymnastics News site reports the final results of the second day of competition in Japan.

Beam : 1 Mitchell, 15.2   2  Mustafina 15.15   3 Sui Lu 14.975 
Dementieva came 7th with 12.775 following two falls and two large balance checks.   Such a pity - competing to full potential, Dementieva should have been able to beat this field on beam.

Floor: Equal first = Sui Lu and Aliya Mustafina, 14.625  3 - Jiang Yuyuan, 14.175.  Dementieva came 5th with 14 points.  Albert reports that she had problems landing her final triple twist.

This was a fairly good competition for the Russians that underlines their growing strength in depth.  Thanks to Mustafina's efforts, they took half the gold on offer, in addition to two silvers and a bronze medal.  All three Russian girls medalled, and Russians collected medals on every piece of apparatus.  Out of 12 possible medals, they took five. The Chinese didn't do badly either, collecting 4 medals overall. 

Given the roster at this competition which was a little like a mini World Championships I think it's fairly plain that Mustafina is currently dominating the world scene.  In Japan she again demonstrated her competitive grit and consummate technical and artistic ability.  Had she not slipped up on bars she would have medalled on all four pieces, and the margins on beam indiciate it's arguable she could have taken gold there, too. Competition organisers seem to like to spread the gold around a little if they can.



The Russian team performers did a fairly good job, Kurbatova surprising no one as usual and achieving a solid result.  Anna Dementieva is Miss Potential Waiting For It All To Turn Out Right.  Had she performed to her full ability, she could fairly easily have achieved another gold in addition to her silver on bars.  This girl makes too many mistakes at present, but she has grit and ambition, and I would love to see her do her talents justice and shine on the world stage alongside the other Russian girls over the coming year.  She looks like a girl for the big occasion, to me.

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Toyota Cup - results, day 1 - Gold, silver, bronze for Russian girls!

A running commentary on the Toyota Cup can be found at the Japan Gymnastics official blog.  A whole new experience for me, reading Google translates of Japanese gymnastics reports!

Edited 12 December - The All Around Gymnastics news site as ever has an excelent comprehensive report on this competition, men and women. 

So far, the women's competition has resulted in three medals for the Russian ladies present, with beam and floor to come tomorrow.

Vault - 1 Mustafina, 14.287; 2 Rie Tanaka, 14.05, 3 Ekaterina Kurbatova, 14.037

Bars - 1  Jiang Yuyuan 15.475 2 Anna Dementieva 14.375 3 Minobe Yu, 14.325

Mustafina competed bars but took 2 falls - hope she is OK.

Men's results can also be found at the above link

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Voronin Cup, Moscow, 17th-18th December 2010

The Russian Gymnastics Federation reports that the 18th Voronin Cup competition, run by Dynamo Moscow, will take place on the 17th and 18th December, including gymnasts from around 20 countries.  This is a competition for men and women. 

It is expected that Viktoria Komova will compete.  Watch this space for updates as they become available.

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Media link - report and results on the Tournoi Pas de Calais (previously named d'Arques in this blog)

The Gymnastics Examiner provides some context and background to this interesting competition.

Full results have been provided by International Gymnastics magazine.

Vintage Tanya video here of Nabieva's competition at the Tournoi in 2007.

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Siberian Open Cup 2nd-4th December 2010

The Siberian Open Cup has been taking place in Leninsk-Kuznetzk.  In its 10th year, previous winners have included Anna Pavlova, Evgeny Podgorny and Maxim Devyatovski.  Competitors from Russia, Mongolia and Kazakstan this year participated.

Anastasia Ovipova from Novosibirsk took first place in the girls' competition (Candidate Master of Sport level), ahead of home gymnast Ekaterina Ilyankova, who won the competition last year.  The senior competition (Master of Sport level) was won by Valeria Sviridova.   Full results of this competition can be found here.  Sviridova also won bars in the individual apparatus finals, which were otherwise dominated by Irina Andreeva who had come third in the all around final.

The men's competition was headed by Igor Pakhomenko, followed closely by fellow Leninsk-Kuznetsk native Nikita Ignatiev.  In third position was Andrei Cherkasov.  The men's field also included Youth Olympic Daniil Kazachkov, so there was a strong representation here from the Russian team, many of whom appear to be residents of Siberia.  Full results are here.  Ignatiev and Pakhomenko took two golds each in the apparatus finals.  Pluzhnikov took rings gold, and his Siberian team mate Igor Skvortsov was first on high bar.  The Candidate Master of Sport competition was won by Andrei Logutov. 

There are multiple press releases about this interesting competition, including some pictures, available on the excellent website of the Russian Gymnastics Federation.,

The Federation also reports that the government of the Siberian Federal District this week honoured its sportsmen and women.  In gymnastics, the work of Daniil Kazachkov and Ivan Stretovych merited mention.  Kazachkov said that in the coming year it was his aim to compete for the senior men's team.  Coach Alexander Konvisser, who has coached many gymnasts on the Russian national team, was also recognised.  

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Tamara Lazakovich

I felt I had to start a new post to offer reverence to this wonderful gymnast whose website I found by chance when trying to identify a gymnast in an old Soviet newsreel.  Viewing the website has been a little like dusting off an old book you read years ago and loved, but had almost forgotten existed.  It is a fan site and the design is unsophisticated, but there are photographs and a short biography, including a press cutting of Tamara's obituary from a publication entitled Physikulturnik Belarusy (24 November 1992).  A daughter of Tamara has also provided a picture for the site.

There are even videos of Tamara's floor and beam routines.  When you watch them you really get a feeling for the time that has elapsed since she was competing.  The videos, in black and white, don't have sound on my computer and are even a little blurred round the edges, like old family photographs.

A further link for those interested in this era is here. 

To think that the sound on these videos might be irretrievably lost, makes me feel incredibly sad.  I do hope that someone, somewhere, is archiving all this history.

The beautiful Tamara Lazakovich, 1954-1992.  

European AA champion 1971
Olympic Team Champion 1972
Olympic AA bronze medallist 1972

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Nabieva wins more gold in Arques

Tanya Nabieva won two more golds today at the international tournament in Arques, taking the top step of the podium in both the asymmetric bars and floor finals.  She also won bronze in the beam final, behind China's Zhang Zelinzi and Zhang Qing.

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Tanya Nabieva wins all around competition at Tournoi d'Arques :-)))

Tanya also led the Russian team to victory in this competition which featured gymnasts from 13 countries.  There was a live stream yesterday which was rather difficult to follow as no scores were given out and full routines were not always covered - the apparatus finals will also be free to view this afternoon from 2.30 pm Central European Time (ie in Britain this means 1.30pm).  Tanya was accompanied by her personal coach, Alexander Kiryashov of St Petersburg.

I do not have the full statistics to hand as yet, but WenShuli at the All Around Forum confirms the rankings, via the French gymnastics board:


Team competition :
1. Russia (Nabieva /Cheong)
2. Belgium
3. Great Britain
4. Switzerland
5. Russia

Juniors :
1. Terri Grand'ry BEL
2. Chiara Gandolfi ITA
3. Johanna Dejardin BEL
4. GBR (I think this was Billy McKenzie)
5. GBR

Seniors:
1. Tatiana Nabieva RUS
2. Zhang Yelinzi CHN
3. Ekaterina Krilova RUS
4. Olga Zemskova RUS
5. AUT

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2010 Khorkina Cup, Belgorod - link to results

Find results of this competition on the International Gymnast website.

Promise I will be back soon with some commentary!

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