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| Evgeny Grebyonkin and Aliya Mustafina. Courtesy RGF |
Yevgeny Grebyonkin, head coach of the women’s gymnastics teams, gave an interview to Sovetski Sport about the thriller that took place today after Aliya Mustafina’s performance who became World Champion.
Two inquiries were submitted at the same time by the Russian delegation and by the USA. Russia tried to challenge Mustafina’score, whose D score was downgraded for some unclear reason. The Americans challenged Ross’ score.
'Our inquiry was taken, although the score was not changed. Yet Ross’score was changed. Why was it so? I don’t know. Nobody explained anything to us. Generally they don’t explain anything, they take the inquiry, and if they agree on the complaint, it is posted on the board. We didn’t see any changes in Mustafina’s score.'
It didn’t have any consequences, because Iordache, the favourite, fell off beam. If Iordache had not fallen and had performed at her level, Aliya would not have won gold?
'Yes, unfortunately.'
Why was the Japanese inquiry at the Olympics accepted? Uchimura had fallen off pommel horse. Aliya didn’t fall, but our inquiry is not accepted. Is it possible to do something to fight against those double standards?
'The Japanese inquiry was taken because a member of the committee was Japanese. No member is Russian. I don’t know what can be done. I am a coach.'
'We knew that the Romanian Iordache is very strong; she is very dangerous, as well as one of the Chinese girls. This is why we targeted a bronze medal, considering it would be a success. But on beam any forecast may vanish at any moment. I used to say that the beam is like a checkpoint. You never know if you will be allowed to pass or not.'
Coming back to the inquiry: how could the judges downgrade the D score?
'Aliya has a very good routine created for her by Raisa Ganina. Yet, after Worlds, we will go over it and modify it because some connections can be interpreted in different ways, giving different scores! The routine should be modified in order to prevent those differences. We’ll work for that!'
Ed's note : Speaking elsewhere, Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko has announced his intention to speak to the FIG about the standards of judging at this competition, and in particular to query the consideration of appeals raised in this final.
Ed's note : Speaking elsewhere, Head Coach Andrei Rodionenko has announced his intention to speak to the FIG about the standards of judging at this competition, and in particular to query the consideration of appeals raised in this final.