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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Media link - Sovietski Sport interview with Aliya Mustafina

A fascinating interview is available to view here : http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/418471

Includes some relatively detailed discussions surrounding the apparently sudden departure of Dina Kamalova (Aliya's coach during her years as a junior competitor) to America, the role of CSKA head Galina Stepanova in helping link Aliya to her new coach, Alexander Alexandrov. Fargat Mustafin also discusses Aliya and her sister Nailya.

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Media links - Sports Express interviews with Rodienenko, Komova and Mustafina

A press conference was held at which Rodienenko, Mustafina and Komova discussed the recent world championships and their plans for the forthcoming year. Rodienenko also makes reference to the state of men's gymnastics and to the state of University gymnastics in Russia.

Video conference (one hour long) is available here : http://www.tatar-inform.ru/video/1369/
Gennady Elfimov, Komova's personal coach, was also present.

Andrei Rodienenko : http://summer.sport-express.ru/gymnastics/reviews/9195/

Aliya Mustafina and Viktoria Komova : http://summer.sport-express.ru/gymnastics/reviews/9194/

With thanks to Nora and Albert at the All Around Forum for posting these links.

I intend to post a round up of the best coverage of worlds by the middle of next week, identifying key themes and questions for the future. I will include video links.

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Moscow Regional Competitions - Master of Sports/Candidate Master of Sports - results

Albert at the All Around Forum alerts us to some results from the Moscow Regional Championships, held 26-29 October 2010 and posted at http://www.sport-gymnastics.ru/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=2425&sid=31ec44c5dfd1f31ba0f4e286fd04f553. Some of the scores noted, in particular those for Maria Paseka, Anastasia Grishina and Viktoria Malikova, appear to be those they achieved for the Russian Nationals earlier this year. I understand that these key results can be re-used for team competition purposes, in order to avoid over-competing key gymnasts who are preparing for higher profile competitions. This compromise allows the �home� club to gain appropriate recognition for the achievements of their gymnasts.

I will transcribe here some of the key competition results with a view to registering some new names. Of particular interest are the achievements of Naila Mustafina, Aliya Mustafina�s younger sister ;-)

Candidate Master of Sports (girls born 1996-1997)

1. Maria Mager (1997) 53.3 + 53.8 (high score vault = 14.2; floor = 13.7)

2. Anastasia Belova (1997) 49.4 + 52.1 (high score beam = 13.8; floor = 13.8)

3. Anastasia Marchuk (1996) 50.65 + 50.75 (high score vault = 13.9)

Aliya Mustafina�s sister Naila (1996) competed here also after an absence due to injury and achieved 5^th position with a total of 98.7 over two days (49.2 + 49.5). Her results in the apparatus finals of 2^nd in beam (13.6) and first on floor (13.65) suggest she could have the potential to improve her placing a little.

Also performing hors de competition were a number of younger gymnasts born in 1998. I shall mention Maria Palamar who at the tender age of 11 or 12 achieved a mark of 13.3 on beam.

Winners in the individual apparatus were

Vault : Anastasia Marchuk, 13.45

Bars : Maria Mager, 13.15 (Belova must have been favourite for this with an all around bars score of 13.8, but fell and achieved a score of 11.1 in the final, ending up in 4^th place)

Beam : Anastasia Belova, 13.7. Second place to Naila Mustafina, 13.6

Floor : Naila Mustafina 13.65

There was a further competition held for girls born in 1998, although I am unable to translate what it was (anybody able to clarify? The title is ???????? ??????).

Apparatus final results included

Vault : Viktoria Kuzmina 13.625

Bars: Yana Vlasova 13.2

Beam: Elizabetta Yemelyanova 14.4 ;-)

Floor: Ekaterina Bryanchina 14.2

Youth results of the Master of Sports competition (men born 1989-1993) are also provided, with Alexander Klochkov (1990), Konstantin Chalov (1992) and Vycheslav Veselov (1992) sharing the main medals overall. All three seem to share vault as a strength, with scores in the 15s on this apparatus.

I always think it is nice to file these results away and remember the names to see how gymnasts progress. I love it if one of my juniors makes it to senior or even international level!

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Lake Krugloye - rewarding the gymnasts and coaches/considering the future

A flurry of activity at Lake Krugloye: first, on the 1st November, Russian minister of Sports, Tourism and Youth Policy Vitalyi Mutko visited the training base to congratulate the women's team on their victory in Rotterdam, and also to present awards to various gymnasts and coaches:

Merited Master of Sport medals were given to Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva and Anna Dementieva (Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Semenova and Ekaterina Kurbatova have already received this honour).

Merited Coach of Russia medals were awarded to National Team Coach Alexander Alexandrov; acrobatics coach Vasily Ivanov; choreographer Olga Borova; technical trainer Evgenyi Grebenkin (he has special responsibility for uneven bars); and Anna Dementieva's personal coach, Elena Zhiganova.

Congratulations to all!!

Secondly, the Russian women's team and coaches held a press conference on the 2nd November at which the results of the recent world championships, and prospects for future development were discussed. Key reference was made to the need for future investment, and development of the numbers of gymnasts and coaches as a pre-requisite to continued and improved success. Credit was also given to the Federation, the Ministry of Sport, and to sponsors VTB. Rodienenko also made reference to ambiguity in the marks awarded to two of the Russian gymnasts. Key points included :

Rodienenko asserted that this was a well deserved victory they had been working towards for more than a year. The Russian team was now recognised as the best team in the world. But Russia now has to prove that this result was not accidental. It is always more difficult to defend a title than to win for the first time. Important factors in the victory this time were the girls' own experience, skill and strong desire to win. The role of their personal coaches, state coaches, and training staff at Lake Krugloye was also vital, as well as that of the Federation and the Russian Ministry of Sports (note: presumably the Ministry are key fund-holders).

Alexandrov thanked supporters of Russian gymnastics and said that the competition at next year's World Championships was bound to be even more difficult than this year.

Valentina Rodienenko mentioned that after a short holiday the girls were now back in training at their improved facilities in Lake Krugloye. From 2011 the senior team will be joined by those girls born in 1995, including Viktoria Komova.

Andrei Rodienenko makes mention of the ambiguity of rules which affected the marking of Mustafina and Kurbatova's (sic) vaults at the World Championships and says a similar problem also affected a Swiss gymnast (note: this was presumably Ariella Kaeslin). The Russians have been proved right, and he is confident that similar problems should not arise again in the future.

As regards the future development of the sport, Alexander Alexandrov highlighted a lack of coaches recruiting young gymnasts in the regions. Pay is poor, and this role is currently left to fanatics of the sport! Additional funds in this respect were needed in order to support improved performance. Mustafina added that if more gymnastics centres were built to accommodate training for greater numbers of children, better results would follow. In this respect, Valentina Rodienenko highlighted the work of Federation chief Andrei Kostin and sponsors VTB. The Federation had been able to give gymnastics equipment to 122 schools. She highlighted the importance of the Academy of Physical Education in Malakhovka (province of Moscow) where a number of young girls and boys between the ages of 9-12, and their personal coaches, undertake training under the guidance of specialist Nikolai Yepishin. A key goal is to educate both the coaches and the gymnasts as a basis for forward development of the sport in the region.

With thanks to the website of the Russian Federation where this and other useful information can be found : http://www.sportgymrus.ru/

Edited 8th November 2010 to include some corrections to the translations, kindly provided by Kyan at the All Around Forum.

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Boris Pilkin - a tribute (media link)

Nora at the All Around Forum kindly alerts us to the following article and short video tribute to the irreplaceable Boris Pilkin.

http://belnovosti.ru/news/society/2010/10/22/belgorod-prostilsya-s-borisom-pilkinym

And see here one of his masterpiece works of gymnastic art.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzSMcTtYkik

Rest in peace, Boris.

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Blog addition - video documentary list

I�ve added a list of links to video documentaries on this page which will gradually be expanded.

The first link is to the documentary �What makes Milo fly� (1996). Lavinia Milosovici, the famous Romanian who won floor at the Olympics in 1992, might not be the most artistic gymnast. But I do remember her with affection. Her fierce competitive attitude and simple acrobatics brought their own form of aesthetic to the sport.

And the documentary really underlines how amazing the most mundane gymnast is. Not that Milo was ever mundane, but hopefully you get my meaning!

Please do add links to any videos you think should be included in the list by means of comments, and I will transfer them to the list.

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All Russian Gymnastics Day

Happy Russian Gymnastics Day!

http://www.sportgymrus.ru/press/news/4755/default.aspx

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Media update, and question re the Code

I'm laid up with a virus at the moment and will update this blog with some 'proper' writing as soon as looking at the computer screen doesn't send shooting pains through my eyes. Oh joy. In the meantime, however, please find below a list of some lovely media coverage about the Russian girls and Mustafina. Sigh.

I have a less lovely question re the code, or rather Rebecca Bross's beam score in the all around. Could any of you clarify you views on this and perhaps enumerate the E score deductions and how the D score would have been affected? How would artistry/posture/line have been taken into account? It just seems to me that 14.1 was rather out of synch with other scores on the apparatus given what seemed to me to be a huge hiatus mid routine that then led to a fall. (Please note: I am a code dissident: I think it tries to formulate the sport out of existence - how can you calculate something that is at least as much art as sport? However, I would be interested to see how this score was justified.)

For those of you with a haughty disdain for such matters, here are a few more bits and bobs of Russian press coverage that are nice to read, and a couple of videos, including this one in German, English and Russian ('what do I have to do to make you smile?' is the final question to Mustafina). With thanks to Nora at the All Around Forum for pointers to some of these.

Interview with Mustafina and Rodienenko: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcEu4qShleQ

Alexandrov: Russian gymnasts - stinkers! http://www.championat.ru/other/news-632596.html

Valentina Rodienenko : We'll appeal! http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/414988

(Seems they are pretty angry about the change in vault valuations)

Aliya - you are now a star! Nice picture of the team with covers of Sovietsky Sport http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/415234

Aliya Mustafina - I can't afford a sip of wine - I'm still a minor http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=44717

Iron Aliya http://www.izvestia.ru/sport/article3147641/

Aliya - Superman! Courage, grace and plastic http://www.sovsport.ru/gazeta/article-item/414904

Team arrives at airport http://www.sovsport.ru/video/gallery-item/2123

Another video http://news.sportbox.ru/Vidy_sporta/...rileteli-domoy

Pics http://sportgymrus.ru/contest/3946/4...3/default.aspx

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