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| Olympic medallist Denis Ablyazin was the star this week in Penza |
The 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 were interesting results : over the two days of event finals, four different women won gold medals (Paseka, Grishina, Shelgunova and Afanasyeva). The absence of Komova from the competition, and the withdrawal of Mustafina and Grishina from beam and floor finals mean that these results cannot be considered to be the comprehensive book on Russian WAG form, but it is good news that the Russians have such plausible champions on each piece of apparatus. I am particularly pleased to see that Ksenia Afanasyeva is continuing at full force - her beam routine was especially interesting.
For the men it was a stunning endorsement of the specialist work being done by the fiery Denis Ablyazin (gold on floor, rings and vault), with all around gold medalist David Belyavski confirming his class on parallel bars with a gold, and newcomer to the Russian team Nikolai Kuksenkov asserting his authority and value with a gold on high bar and a bronze on pommel horse, both apparatus at which the Russian men struggle during team competitions. Kuksenkov's official accession to the national team may come too late for qualification for this spring's Euros, but if he continues in this vein he will be a very useful team member at World Championships in Antwerp. Of the gold medallists only Matei Petrov, pommel horse, had not been on the Russians' team at the London Olympics. His candidacy for Europeans will depend on weighing up his likely consistency and medal winning possibilities on this one piece compared to others who may be able to spread their risk across two or three pieces. Balandin, for example, has potential both on rings and on parallel bars.
There is little room for a fair to middling all arounder on the Russian MAG team these days - most of them are specialists. Nikita Ignatev, who earned a medal in the all around, looks unlikely to make a senior national team at a major competition, except as reserve, as he has no single piece at which he particularly excels. I trust that last year's Olympic team captain, Emin Garibov (injured?), does not fall foul of the same forces this autumn in Antwerp. Internationally, outstanding all arounders such as Kohei Uchimura are becoming increasingly thin on the ground. What a pity.
As we work towards the first major competition of the four year preparation towards the Olympic Games, the men's team looks more interesting and competitive than the women's.
WAG beam
1. E Shelgunova 14.05
2. P. Fedorova 13.9
3. K. Afanasyeva 13.775
4. A. Dementyeva 13.4
5. A. Pavlova 13.275
6. K. Goryunova 13.275
7. E. Kramarenko 12.8
8. A. Polyan 11.725
WAG floor
1. K. Afanasyeva 13.6
2. K. Goryunova 13.525
3. A. Polyan 13.075
4. A. Pavlova 13.00
5. E. Shelgunova 12.9
6. A. Dementyeva 12.625
7. M. Smirnova 11.95
8. P. Fedorova 11.8
MAG vault
1. D. Ablyazin 14.075
2. M. Kudashov 13.525
3. P. Pavlov 13.125
4. V. Kozin 12.075
5. D. Yakubovski 12.00
6. A. Byikov 11.85
7. A. Cherkasov 11.075
8. P. Suetin 10.475
MAG parallel bars
1. D. Belyavski 15.03
2. A. Balandin 14.8
3. N. Kuksenkov 14.7
4. A. Cherkasov 14.7
5. N. Ignatyev 14.68
6. D. Stolyarov 14.5
7. D. Gogotov 14.45
8. K. Ignatenkov 12.9
MAG high bar
1. N. Kuksenkov 14.95
2. N. Ignatyev 14.85
3. D. Kazachkov 14.1
4. V. Kozin 14.03
5. P. Russinyak 13.7
6. E. Garibov 13.03
7. I. Pakhomenko 12.5
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