16 year old Maria Kharenkova with coach Olga Sagina after yesterday's all around final at the European Championships, in which Maria won a silver medal. Maria comes from the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, and follows in the footsteps of such gymnasts as Ludmilla Tourischeva, Svetlana Grozdova, Natalia Shaposhnikova, Natalia Yurchenko and Elena Produnova who all trained at the same gym as her.
Maria said: 'I’m a little bit sorry that I lost to the Swiss gymnast [Giulia Steingrueber], but, on the other hand, I’m not terribly disappointed – after all, she is a lot more experienced and stronger than I am, and it’s my first time in the all-around'.
Maria has grown physically and developed as a competitor since her last showing at the Nanning World Championships. With her longer limbs is coming a greater grace and power in her moves. 'You can lose by mistake, but you can't win by chance', said head coach Andrei Rodionenko in an interview published today. 'Masha will continue to work, and show a higher level - there is no limit to perfection'. Full results of the competition can be found here - Britain's Ellie Downie, a first year senior, won the bronze medal!
Russia's second all arounder here, the graceful Daria Spiridinova, had rather a difficult time with multiple errors on floor and beam and a below power vault leading her to finish in what she considered a rather disappointing thirteenth place. 'Dasha has only worked all around in this competition, she wasn't fully prepared for this. She has two apparatus - beam and bars - that will be good, and on the rest she is really only there to support the team. We tried all around, but it didn't work', explained Andrei Rodionenko. Daria is growing taller every day, added Russia's head coach, and the forces of physiology are difficult to predict.
Spiridinova - known as 'elf' for her pixie-like appearance - will compete later today in the bars final.
I have gone on record on this blog as preferring first year senior, Seda Tutkhalyan, as a strong all around replacement for Sosnitskaya. However, Paseka's inclusion on the team is predictable given Rodionenko's pattern of preference for low risk selections. It is easy to understand that flying in to compete at such short notice could put significant stresses on a young, inexperienced athlete, and it is conceivable that young Seda wouldn't even have the right visa at this time of her career - so perhaps that wasn't such a bad decision. Let's hope, however, that the gifted gymnast is considered fairly for inclusion in the team for the European Games, where her all around talents may provide great support for the likes of Mustafina.
