Russia are back!

19 year old Denis Ablyazin, from Penza, qualified to three event finals

Five young men of Russia have confirmed their return to the top level of artistic gymnastics by putting in a spirited performance, without a backward glance to their country's somewhat changeable achievements over past years .David Belyavski, Emin Garibov, Denis Ablyazin, Alexander Balandin and Igor Pakhomenko seem to have turned the tide of decay in the Russian gymnastics programme, presenting solid, occasionally brilliant, often beautiful gymnastics to finish in 2nd place as a team, just ahead of a British team who were at times equally stirring in the emotional intensity of their presentation.  Yes, both teams, and the USA who finished in first place, were helped by the unaccountably bad days experienced by both Japan and China, long time leaders of the sport worldwide.  I expect that Japan at least will improve significantly on Monday and give the rest of the field some problems in maintaining their current positions.


But Russia look strong and feisty.  In the team final, on Monday, things won't go all their way - no, that is not the nature of gymnastics.  The oldest member of the team, Balandin, is 23.  No other team member is older than 19.  And they will fight.  Remember this when you watch Russia - they are a developing power in the world of gymnastics.  And watch the coaches too - assisting 59 year old Valery Alfosov, a veteran coach of Soviet days, is 30 something Sergei Starkin, personal coach to Denis Ablyazin and evidently a rising star on the Russian coaching scene, trusted sufficiently to appear on the podium at this critical competition.  The Russian programme is looking to the future and a new generation is taking over.

Wednesday's all around final promises to be interesting, with David Belyavski qualified in 2nd place, and Emin Garibov in 8th.  Again, these positions have been helped significantly by the unexpectedly poor performance of gymnastics God Kohei Uchimura.  A great signifier of the health of the Russian team is that they have qualified at least one gymnast to every competition in the men's gymnastics:

• Ablyazin managed to squeeze into floor final in 8th place despite a .3 penalty when he stepped out of the area ... and was there a time penalty as he struggled to finish all that difficulty in one routine??
• Belyavski qualified to pommel horse final in 7th place ... what a turn up for the books, Russia is notoriously poor on this piece
• Balandin and Ablyazin qualified to rings in 3rd and 5th place, respectively
• Ablyazin goes to vault final in first place.  He was quite brilliant here.
• Garibov progresses to parallel bars final in 4th place
• Garibov also qualified to high bar final in 6th place

In all cases, the margin between first and 8th qualifier is so small that almost any gymnast could win the final.  I'm beginning to believe Valentina Rodionenko ... it looks as though Russia has halted the decline of its gymnastics programme, and more ...

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