The historic Moscow Dynamo club, home to champions past and present including Emin Garibov, Sergei Kharkov, Natalia Ilienko, Olga Mostepanova, Tatiana Groshkova, Maria Goryunova and Nadezhda Ivanova, is being forced to transfer its operations for a minimum of three years to temporary facilities at the Olympiski stadium. Dynamo's old building is being replaced by a brand new sporting facility funded by Russian sports sponsor, bank VTB, but the status of gymnastics within the new building is unconfirmed to date.
This temporary arrangement is far from ideal. At present it seems likely that the Club will not be able to stage the annual Voronin Cup which has become such an important part of the international gymnastics calendar. Removal arrangements seem highly informal, with the club asking parents to help transfer equipment from the old gym to the Olympiski stadium. The facilities at Olympiski are incomplete and unsuitable for a developed club like Dynamo, and much of the spirit and body of the club is now homeless. Dynamo's elite gymnasts will transfer to train at Lake Krugloye, and the club will suspend recruitment of new gymnasts for three years while the new facilities become available.
There has been an excellent blog on this subject by Natalia Kalugina. There will be a longer piece on Dynamo Moscow shortly after the Universiade.
With many thanks to Vladimir Zaglada.
Svetlana Boguinskaia has given an excellent - hour long - interview to Gymcastic - make time to listen, it is fascinating. Boguinskaia talks about her life in gymnastics past and present. How did she intimidate the gymnasts she trained alongside as a tiny little girl? What part did candy play in her training? What was the difference between training in the Soviet Union, and America? All of this is discussed - and there are some very interesting revelations about the reasons for Alexander Alexandrov's departure from Moscow.
On which subject, I should turn my attentions to the Russian WAG latest outing to the Anadia Cup in Portugal. The Couch Gymnast has a full summary of the all the results of which the key one for Russian gymnastics watchers was a gold on bars from Anastasia Grishina.
This seems rather paltry reward for a young team so rich in talent and, one would assume, ambition. The composition of Grishina, Rodionova, Baturina, Sosnitskaia was undoubtedly a B team led by a potential A teamer (Rodionova) and a potential World Champion (Grishina). to come away with only one gold, against a field that did not include any of the main American contenders for the World Championships, was surely a little disappointing.
I wonder if it was all about the gymnasts? I think some of the E scores were rather harsh - particularly the one for Grishina's floor qualification (7.675) which along with her lower D score of 5.7 led her to position behind Romania's Larissa Iordache, who had a fall. With a composite of moderate deductions for a few smaller errors throughout the routine, Grishina ended up out of the final while other gymnasts progressed.
She does not look as bad as her score to me. However, I would question why a gymnast of Grishina's calibre would need to take such a long rest before her final tumble.
You can find many more excellent videos at Piibunina's channel, including Grishina's beam routine (outstanding line, marred by two falls which apparently in both cases (Alexei Mikhailov advises) are caused by the positioning of the hands before the skill. Rodionova's bars are worth a look for the clear quality of the swing and line she shows - but does this gymnast have any competitive urges at all?
A disappointing outcome in Portugal for the Russian team, I think. Grishina and Rodionova both have the potential to do much better.
But if, as Boguinskaia says, Valentina Rodionenko is replacing their conditioning sets with a walk in the park and a cup of coffee, they never will do much better.
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