Aliya competed this weekend in Ukraine - probably our last chance to see her before Euros in just over two weeks' time. I haven't seen full results yet but even with a fall on floor, Aliya won the all around, with Russia taking gold in the team competition ahead of Ukraine and Japan. Competing with her on the Russian team were Anna Dementyeva...
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Nikolai Andrianov, Olympic Hero
For many years, Collet's socialist bookshop on Tottenham Court Road, London was somewhere I went to find little treasures of Soviet gymnastics. It was a subject that was sparsely, often very cynically treated by the British press, and it is hard to explain how ridiculously...
Mustafina, Grishina, Paseka, Afanasyeva - four for Moscow
Anastasia Grishina at the Russian Championships in Penza earlier this month. Picture courtesy of RGFNominative registrations are now out for the upcoming European Championships in Moscow.Women : Aliya Mustafina, Anastasia Grishina, Maria Paseka, Ksenia AfanasyevaI'm delighted...
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Aliya Mustafina : R Sport interview, 7th March
A nice interview with Aliya from just before the Russian Championships. Key points from the Google translate :She won second place in an R Sport vote for the best Russian sports woman, behind Evgeniya Kanaeva but ahead of Maria Sharapova. She says Evgeniya came first...
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Valentina Rodionenko interview
The evergreen, always opinionated Valentina RodionenkoLupita translates below an interview with Valentina Rodionenko from the 28th February. This was before the Russian Championships had closed, but it provides some useful insights into likely selections for the European...
Russia WAG win Gymnix International Junior Cup
Maria Bondareva, courtesy of RGFRussia's charming young gymnasts, Maria Bondareva, Anastasia Dmitrieva, Polina Spirina and Ekaterina Sokova, knocked out the rest of the competition with their artistry in Montreal this weekend. Bondareva and Dmitrieva shared the all around...
Day 2 EF - MAG, WAG Russian Championships
Olympic medallist Denis Ablyazin was the star this week in PenzaThe spectacular events of beam, floor, vault, parallel bars and high bar took place last week and I am finally updating the blog with these results, which can be found in full on the RGF website (WAG and MAG).They...
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Central beat Moscow again - MAG team finals, Russian Championships
Graceful David Belyavski has been Russia's leading AAer at these championships.Central beat Moscow (a close result again - 259.95/259.6) ... in today's MAG competition. Find the full results here.Kuksenkov, competing for the gold medal winning team, managed a 15.25 on pommel...
Monday, March 4, 2013
Central beat Moscow in WAG team final!
Central team veteran Anna Pavlova is still competing well.Central beat Moscow in tight team final ... 166.85 to 166.75. Paseka scored 15.75 on vault for Moscow with her best Amanar!Afanasyeva is still leading floor efforts with a score of 14.45; Mustafina ahead on bars and beam...
Russia's new champions : Mustafina and Belyavski
A fresh start has been made in the Russian Federation, and yesterday Russia's stars presented themselves anew in their first small steps towards the Rio Olympics in 2016. The team's leading Olympic medallist, Aliya Mustafina, won the all around competition ahead of the unlucky bird of London, Anastasia Grishina. In third position we have...
Artistry versus acrobatics???
Watching videos of this weekend's competitions - the qualification and all around rounds of the Russian championships, medal winners from the American Cup - I am struck, more and more, by the huge difference between the American and Russian schools of gymnastics. It led me to ask the question : do artistry and acrobatics have to be mutually exclusive?(I...
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Russian Championships 2013
The Russian Championships for MAG and WAG begin tomorrow - a good opportunity to judge how training has been going for the gymnasts. Remember that Viktoria Komova is not competing here as she has a nagging back injury, but we will be able to see Aliya Mustafina,...
