WAG, MAG event finals day 1, Russian Championships

Tatiana Nabieva is working hard to prepare for this summer's Universiade, and performed a strong routine today.  Photo : courtesy of the RGF.

Full results are now available at the RGF website - I'll transcribe below.

WAG Vault

1  Maria Paseka   13.475
2  Kristina Kruglikova  13.4
3  Anna Pavlova  13.05
4  Olga Bizmurkina  12.75
5  Alyona Polyan  12.625
6  Maria Smirnova  12.225
7  Anna Myzdrikova  12.175
8  Ekaterina Tsvetkova   11.30

WAG Uneven Bars

1.  Anastasia Grishina  15.10
2.  Tatiana Nabieva  14.625
3.  Aliya Mustafina  14.55
4.  Anna Dementyeva  13.975
5.  Evgeniya Shelgunova  13.625
6.  Kristina Goryunova  13.525
7.  Alla Sosnitskaya  13.5
8.  Maria Paseka  11.725

Rodionenko clapped his hands in dismay and turned his back on Maria Paseka when she had the fall on bars.  I guess this means she has made his job difficult in terms of selecting who competes at Europeans - her vault score in finals didn't live up to the promise of the previous day and perhaps Afanasyeva will provide a better chance of gold, on floor (please God ...).  Aliya Mustafina had a large form break in her routine while Nabieva performed her exercise as well as she possibly could have, for the well deserved mark of 14.625.  Anastasia Grishina showed her competitive mettle with an excellent routine, for the gold!  Davai Nastia!

Denis Ablyazin looks likely to be the big star of these Championships, with two golds already in hand and a potential gold on vault tomorrow.  Picture courtesy of the RGF.

MAG Floor

1.  Denis Ablyazin  15.35
2.  David Belyavski  15.1
3.  Daniil Kazachkov  14.65
4.  Andrei Cherkasov  14.33
5.  Kirill Prokopev  14.25
6.  Dmitri Stolyarov  13.98
7.  Igor Pakhomenko  13.18
8.  Filip Chuglasov 12.98

MAG Pommel Horse

1.  Matvei Petrov  15.68
2.  Andrei Perevoznikov  15.33
3.  Emin Garibov  15.3
4.  Nikolai Kuksenkov  15.28
5.  David Belyavski  13.83
6.  Dmitri Gogotov  13.5
7.  Grigori Zyrianov  12.88
8.  Pavel Russinyak  12.78

MAG Rings

1.  Denis Ablyazin   15.88
2.  Nikolai Kuksenkov  15.3
3.  Nikita Ignatyev  15.00
4.  Daniil Kazachkov  14.95
5.  Alexander Balandin  14.95
6.  Pavel Pavlov  14.9
7.  Nikita Lezhankin  13.93

In my opinion competition for places on the MAG team is intensifying as gymnasts like Ablyazin, Garibov and Belyavski mature and begin to show their strength.  Selection for Euros will involve the coaches in making difficult decisions.  At present of the top gymnasts only Belyavski is competing in the all around.  I suspect that in Moscow, the Russian men will begin to show their class at international level - and may well outshine their female counterparts over the coming four years.

Russia has apparently improved its performance on pommel horse with four incredibly close scores at the top of the apparatus rankings.  Newcomer, former Ukraine national team member Nikolai Kuksenkov has already integrated into the Russian team, placing fourth on pommels and achieving a silver medal on rings.  His eligibility for Euros depends on his Russian nationality coming through in time.

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Russia's plans for 2013 : target Worlds, Europeans, Universiade; change the rules!

2010 World team champion Tatiana Nabieva should compete in Kazan this summer

National coach Valentina Rodionenko has given two interviews recently about Russia's plans for the future.

Here, she explains how next March's Russian Championships will be used as selection for the four gymnasts who will compete at the individual European Championships in April. It's a heavy year's competition with Europeans in the Spring, the Universiade in July, and the World Championships in the autumn.  Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva and Krystyna Goryunova have already been announced as being in contention for the Universiade, which Rodionenko says Russia are treating as a highly important competition and which will take place on home ground in Kazan.

Next year, two juniors will progress to senior level - Evgenia Shelgunova [who will have full competitive eligibility for senior competition] and Maria Kharenkova [who will train alongside the seniors in 2013, but still compete at junior level until 2014].

In a radio interview she adds that the team expects to strengthen itself by adding three or four newcomers in time for the Olympics in 2016.  Many regional and national competitions will take place to try to identify upcoming talent. 

Amendments to the Code of Points have been partly favourable, in particular the downgrading of the Amanar vault and improvements to the beam marking, meaning that fine execution will receive a bonus.  However, Valentina criticises new approaches to rewarding artistry in the floor routines: there is much confusion between judges and coaches as to its meaning.  The new Code has identified 'nicely performed acrobatics with stuck landings' as artistry, but the Russians feel that it is more about quality of performance, eg pointed toes and good lines, than acrobatic connections.  They intend to write a letter to the FIG in the near future to try to persuade them to change the rules as they pertain to floor exercises. 

And I don't blame them. 

You can find the new WAG Code of Points here.

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Media links - results of this weekend's competitions

The Russian girls have been busy - and very successful - this weekend! All seven gymnasts from the national team (including reserve Anna Myzdrikova) are scheduled to compete by the end of this month.

Massilia Cup

The wonderful TATIANA NABIEVA competed alongside her team mates KSENIA SEMENOVA and KSENIA AFANASYEVA in Marseille this weekend at the Massilia Cup, and achieved gold medals in the team, all around, bars and vault events. Tanya also took the bronze on balance beam. KSENIA AFANASYEVA took gold medal on floor and silver on beam behind France's Aurelie Malaussena. A fuller report can be found at The Gymnastics Examiner.

The Italian Grand Prix

World Champion ALIYA MUSTAFINA competed here alongside Youth Olympic Champion VIKTORIA KOMOVA. Aliya won beam and came fourth on bars, while Viktoria took the gold on bars and silver on beam. Full results, and a video of Aliya's performance on beam can be found at Aliya's official website.

DTB Cup

Promising young ANNA DEMENTIEVA competed this weekend in Stuttgart alongside World Student Games veteran IRINA SAZONOVA. Anna had a few mistakes, but performed well to compete in each final in this, perhaps the most serious competition of this weekend. She collected bronze medals on bars and beam as well as a silver medal on the floor exercises. This competition was noteable for Lauren Mitchell's top level performance but I believe Anna should also feel pleased to have medalled across three apparatus in one of her first senior competitions. Full results can be found on the IG website.

Oh and I should perhaps add that Russians won the gold and silver medals in the Rings event - congratulations to Alexander Balandin and Konstantin Pluzhnikov.

EKATERINA KURBATOVA and ANNA MYZDRIKOVA are scheduled to compete in the Glasgow Grand Prix soon.

All in all, the Russian girls are demonstrating their increasing strength in depth and one hopes this is a sign of ever improving things to come.

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Is Nabieva a revolutionary? Towards a classification of Soviet and Russian gymnastics

This weekend my friend Tracey said to me that she felt that Nabieva�s stoop Tkachev-Pak combination, performed on Saturday at the World Championships for the first time, was quite possibly the most revolutionary moment in gymnastics history since Korbut stood on the top rail of the asymmetric bars in Munich and premiered her unique loop.

Those of us of a certain age will remember Korbut�s impact on the sport and the tidal wave of admiration and affection she evoked. Most speak of her amazing ability to communicate and perform, of the unique charm and charisma she projected through her floor routine, of the astounding back somersault on beam. But it was perhaps on bars where her genius shone most brightly. Here she was an amazing innovator and risk taker. The trajectory of that loop is still imprinted in my brain and I have a visual image of it as I speak to you now. Few have had the courage to attempt it since; Mukhina, of course, added a twist, but that was more than thirty years ago.

The loop added a different way of doing things; a large, flighty swoop that challenged the physical constraints of the apparatus and reached out into space in a way that had never been conceived before. It was like an earthquake resounding across the landscape of a previously rather polite sport that had emphasised grace and expression more than power and acrobatics. The loop represented a shift in the perception of the possible. It added dimensionality to the sport, created airtime, defined the large and spectacular. It was a new way of thinking about things, a revolution in gymnastics. And Korbut, then, was most definitely a revolutionary.

Korbut belonged to a tradition of Soviet pioneer � artists, sportsmen and astronauts among them � who characterised the spirit of grand adventure and heroic endeavour as represented in Soviet propaganda of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. She also, still today, stands for something in gymnastics � something wild and crazy that makes you ask: how is that possible? It�s implausible, impertinent, outrageous. Where does the courage come from? And as I watch Nabieva sky rocket above the high bar, standing vertical in nothing but (very thin) air and barely touching the apparatus as she flies from somersault to somersault, I get to thinking: Tracey is right: Nabieva is a revolutionary, too.

And I would like to christen this kind of gymnastics. I would like to name it Bolshoi Gymnastika, literally translated �big gymnastics�, but also named for the ballet company and the traditions behind it, large and spectacular, powerful and impressive. Now Bolshoi Gymnastika has been practiced by quite a few proponents over the years. I would say Produnova�s handspring double front was one example. Strazheva performed floor in a Bolshoi Gymnastika style, all angular and flighty. Shushunova was a Bolshoi gymnast, fearless innovator and fierce competitor. These gymnasts were all pioneers. (The men were Bolshoi gymnasts, too. Liukin�s triple back on floor was a revolutionary moment, and so was Tkachev�s flight on high bar.)

There is also Kirov Gymnastika � lyrical, expressive, languid. Kirov Gymnastika lives today in the body, and spirit I hope, of Anna Dementieva. The movement includes such performers as Ilienko and Khorkina. I would like to suggest that all the best Russian and Soviet gymnasts can be placed along a spectrum of gymnastics from Kirov to Bolshoi; some share aspects of both. I have to consider these classifications in more depth as their characteristics inter-mingle across personality, physique, musical and gymnastic dimensions. It becomes complicated when you consider that there is also a folk tradition, as personified by Omelianchik and Lobaznyuk. It may be a question of developing diverse family trees of gymnastics to trace heritage and background of gymnastics, rather than the individual gymnasts. For now I�ll be content with the idea of a spectrum of gymnastics, from Bolshoi to Kirov.

I am going to add a box of video links to the key gymnastics mentioned in these posts.

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Alexander Alexandrov shows confidence in Russian team for Rotterdam

Russian team coach Alexander Alexandrov has expressed some optimism about the Russian women's prospects at the upcoming world championships.

http://www.sportgymrus.ru/press/news/4066/default.aspx

He feels that Mustafina is a good prospect for the all around; and makes special mention of Nabieva's straight Tkachev-Pak combination as 'unique and historic'.

And I have to say, Tanya Nabieva is quite probably the fastest improving gymnast I have ever seen - hope she will do well in Rotterdam.

If, like me, you struggle to read Russian and find Google translations somewhat bizarre, try International Gymnast online for a better translation.

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