Russia 4, The Rest 3

Russia has adopted a pragmatic strategy in its battle to seize back the initiative in European gymnastics, and only time will tell if its success is sustainable.  Recognising that today's gymnastics rewards specialist performance more than all around gifts, Russia has opted to exploit certain uniquely gifted individuals to provide the 'shock' events which former head coach Leonid Arkayev identifies as vital to championships winning performances.  At the Olympics two years ago head coach Rodionenko was anxious to make it clear that gymnasts would need to compete on more then one apparatus to make it into the team.  Here, all of the team's individual gold medals came from event specialists. Two gold medals (team and rings) depended on the talents of a one-eventer, Balandin.  

Thus has Russia maximised its scoring potential at these Championships.  A new balance has been found : the light, agile frames of Kuksenkov, Belyavski and Ignatyev provide the all around base of a team topped off by the outrageously strong and fit Ablyazin, whose exercises on floor, rings and vault are eye-wateringly difficult.  Alexander Balandin's rings routine is original and beautiful.  

The depth of Russia's medal haul, which included a silver on parallel bars from David Belyavski, seemed to be rather a surprise to Russia's head coach.  'Five medals were not the expected result', said Valery Alfosov.  'We knew that Ablyazin had the strongest routines in Europe on three apparatus, and that Balandin is strongest in the world with his signature elements.' Ablyazin echoed that on a personal level he too had not expected to win all three of his events, even if he had prepared for it.  

Russia still has to address its weakness on high bar and to develop more depth on pommel horse and parallel bars.  The team missed 2013 European High Bar Champion Emin Garibov, who is currently recovering from surgery to both shoulders.  Alfosov acknowledged that Belyavski's silver medal on parallel bars recognised the gymnast's developing confidence and great preparation there.  On pommels, work is underway.  Kuksenkov, a pommels finalist today, mentioned that he is preparing a 7.1 SV on the apparatus, and only failed to have it credited thanks to some errors.  

In the end, the golden result in Sofia was well deserved.  One gymnast - the brilliant Ablyazin - may have earned more gold than the rest, but his efforts were only possible because of the support of the team, coaches and gymnasts included.  Work will doubtless now continue on post-competition rehab and preparation for Worlds.  Competition to make the Russian team will be fierce and no doubt the results of this summer's Russia Cup will be taken into account.  It will be interesting to see if Russia can assert its claim to leadership at world level this autumn.

In the junior event finals this morning Britain's Nile Wilson put on his own personal show, eclipsing Russia's youngsters and promoting comparisons to the great Scherbo, who dominated similarly at the 1992 Olympics.  For Russia, only the ambitious Nikita Nagorny could show his best work, on vault, where he won the gold medal.  At present, the up and coming British are overpowering Russia's young, and with Nile Wilson acceding to England's senior team for the Commonwealth Games, the British team looks likely to remain resilient and fresh.  Whatever happens, it will be an intriguing fight.

You can access the full results of today's competition at http://www.longinestiming.com/Competition?id=00000D0001FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF&sport=GA&year=2014

Sources - 

Alfosov http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20140525/748238208.html

Kuksenkov http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20140525/748243126.html

Balandin http://www.sovsport.ru/news/text-item/713989

Ablyazin http://rsport.ru/artist_gym/20140525/748225962.html

Rewriting Russian Gymnastics articles on Ablyazin 

An interview with his Mum - http://rewritingrussiangymnastics.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/mama-dont-cry-olympic-medallist-denis.html