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| Yuri Korolev (right), has joined the Russian national coaching team. He is seen here congratulating his gymnast, 2012 Olympian Dmitri Barkalov. |
The RGF has now updated its list of national team coaches. The senior management team includes Andrei Rodionenko and his wife Valentina Rodionenko as Head Coach and Senior Coach of the men's and women's teams respectively, with Evgeny Grebenkin installed as Senior Coach of the women's team. (Grebenkin has stepped down from his personal coaching responsibilities for national reserve team member Ekaterina Baturina.) Nikolai Yepishin has taken up a position as Senior Coach of boys and girls. Valery Alfosov, Nikolai Krukov and Olga Bulgakova remain in their existing positions as Senior Coaches of the men's, junior men's and junior women's teams respectively.
Alexander Alexandrov, personal coach to Aliya Mustafina, is confirmed in this position on the national coaching team, and Gennady Elfimov, coach to Viktoria Komova, is similarly appointed, so the coaches to the top two gymnasts on the WAG team are now, it seems, paid by the RGF/Ministry of Sport as full time employees. This undoubtedly emphasises the importance of Mustafina and Komova to the Russians' preparation for the coming Olympic Games in 2016.
Anton Stolyar has been newly appointed as a women's senior coach, returning to Russia from Italy where he has been coaching members of the Italian team including Erika Fasana and Elise Meneghini.
Returning to the senior WAG team is beam coach Marina Bulashenko, who has many years of experience of international competition, having worked with such gymnasts as 1992 Olympic beam champion Tatiana Lyssenko and 1996 World beam champion Dina Kochetkova. Bulashenko replaces Larissa Ushakova, who contributed to some of the best beam work of the last Olympiad, so she has a hard act to follow.
There were rumours after the Olympics of a bid to recruit a much needed vault specialist for the WAG team. It is unclear from this simple list whether any changes have been made on this vital piece of apparatus which has become a relative weakness since Oleg Ostapenko left.
Moving from the Vladimir School of Gymnastics, 1981 and 1985 World Champion Yuri Korolev, and Sergei Andrianov (son of the legendary Nikolai Andrianov and Liubov Burda) join the national coaching team, in charge of the technical preparation of the junior gymnasts.
Elsewhere, it has been confirmed that Viktor Razumovsky is now personal coach to senior WAG Anastasia Grishina.
Andrei Rodionenko Head coach, men and women
Valentina Rodionenko Senior coach, men and women
Valery Alfosov Senior coach, men
Evgeny Grebenkin Senior coach, women
Nikolai Krukov Senior coach, junior men
Olga Bulgakova Senior coach, junior women
Nikolai Yepishin Senior coach, boys and girls
Gennady Elfimov Coach, women
Alexander Alexandrov Coach, women
Anton Stolyar Coach, women
Vasily Ivanov Coach-acrobat, women
Marina Bulashenko Choreographer, women
Olga Burova Choreographer, women
Vitaly Olgychev Coach-masseur, women
Vladimir Timonkin Coach-doctor, women
Nikolai Suchilin Coach, technical preparation, men and women
Sergei Ryubakov Coach-engineer, men and women
Dmitri Skakodub Administrator of the training process, men, women
Andrei Belikov Coach-operator, men, women
Alexei Yushin Coach, men, women
Andrei Dukhno Coach-acrobat, men
Vladimir Gaverdovsky Coach, men
Alexei Blyushka Coach-masseur, men
Konstantin Lyskov Coach-doctor, men
Ludmila Mamontova Choreographer, men, juniors
Sergei Andrianov Coach, technical preparation, juniors
Yuri Korolev Coach, technical preparation, juniors
Yuri Barinov Coach-acrobat, juniors
Artem Voinov Coach, technical preparation, juniors
Dmitri Gusev Coach-acrobat, juniors
Larissa Efremova Choreographer, juniors
Dmitri Kurov Administrator of the training process, junior teams
Yuri Golubev Coach-masseur, juniors
Alexandra Popova Coach-masseur, juniors
Sergei Gulevsky Coach-doctor, juniors
Grigory Marsov Coach-doctor, juniors
Igor Kozenkov Coach, technical preparation, boys and girls