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| The Gymnastics Centre, Kazan. It can seat 3,200 spectators. |
Russia's gymnasts have arrived in Kazan and are ready to begin their competition on Sunday, with the WAG team final. The teams travelled there by train, a journey of around eleven hours from Moscow, and the big news is that there is a question mark over the participation of Aliya Mustafina, who has been hospitalised for a short while because of a severe bout of flu. There are mixed reports as to the likelihood of her participation here: head coach Grebyonkin says she has missed some of her training, but has a high chance of appearing on the podium subject to a medical assessment that will take place soon; state coach Valentina Rodionenko seems less optimistic, but says she will be in Kazan to support her team mates. Let's just wait and see.
The WAG team includes captain Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Dementyeva, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Maria Paseka and Ekaterina Kramarenko. Afanasyeva (two vaults), Dementyeva and Nabiyeva will compete all around; Kramarenko will do bars, beam and floor, with Paseka competing vault. The MAG team will be Emin Garibov, David Belyavski, Denis Ablyazin, Nikolai Kuksenkov, Nikita Ignatyev and Mattei Petrov. There are video interviews with Maria Paseka ('Our team is determined to win') and Denis Ablyazin ('This is one of the most important competitions of the year') on Vesti Sport.
There will be live streaming on Sportbox - assuming that all territories can access this coverage, it will be a great way of following the competition. There is also a video hub on the Universiade website - we can see from the schedule there the timing of the transmissions of the various competitions.
Edited 3/7 : Kaleylovesgymnastics (thank you) says that live streaming in the English language will be available here. You will need to register, but it is free!!
Details of the competition schedules (including warm ups and so on) is to be found here. All times are local to Kazan, and subject to change so check regularly.
Sunday July 7th
WAG team, subdivision 1 2.00 pm
WAG team, subdivision 2 3.30 pm
WAG team, subdivision 3 6.00 pm
WAG team, subdivision 4 7.30 pm
WAG team medal ceremony 9.00 pm
Monday July 8th
MAG team, subdivision 1 10.00 am
MAG team, subdivision 2 11.40 am
MAG team, subdivision 3 3.00 pm
MAG team, subdivision 4 4.40 pm
MAG team, subdivision 5 6.20 pm
MAG team medal ceremony 8.00 pm
Tuesday July 9th
WAG all around 3.00 pm
WAG medal ceremony 4.30 pm
MAG all around 7.00 pm
MAG medal ceremony 8.30 pm
Wednesday July 10th
Apparatus finals :
MAG Floor, Pommel Horse, Rings, WAG Vault, Uneven Bars 3.30 pm
MAG Vault, Parallel Bars, High Bar, WAG Beam, Floor 7.00 pm
Good luck to the Russian team and all those participating! DAVAI!!
