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| 1997 born Dmitri Lankin, a rising star on the men's team |
One alteration - which has almost gone unnoticed so far - is the substitution of Vladimir-based gymnast Alexei Rostov with the up and coming youngster, Dmitri Lankin. Rostov finished fifth in the Russia Cup all around, but his selection for the Worlds team was a small surprise as his name does not even appear on the national team listings on the RGF website.
1997 born Lankin, on the other hand, has been tipped by Valentina Rodionenko as a shining light amongst the promising ranks of the Russian team. His strongest pieces are floor and parallel bars, where the Russians are already relatively strong. Often when a youngster is substituted in at this stage, it indicates that the gymnast has earned it in training, and is considered to have 'a temperament for a big occasion'. At present, with such big names as Belyavski, Ignatyev, Kuksenkov, Nagorny and Ablyazin making up the main contingent, his competition for the last spot is the elegant Ivan Stretovich. Ivan finished second on pommels in Penza. These two gymnasts each make a different contribution to the team's configuration - so it is difficult to see which way the selection will go.
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| Lankin with his extrovert coach, Anatoly Zabelin |
In common with the women, this is a transitional team. In the last year, we have seen the rise and rise of Nikita Ignatyev, who has been on the fringes for a few years, but this year has emerged as a leader all around. I'm delighted about this - Ignatyev is a beautiful gymnast. You can really see it in the delayed photography shot for this promotional video of an extreme sports centre close to his home in Siberia - working alongside former national team members Pakhomenko and Russinyak. Like Nemov, he plays the fool a bit during photography; he is entitled to when he can compete for medals. And in the air his crisp lines, effortless flight and great technical flair will offer far more of the artistic than anything you will see in the women's competition. If I do travel to Glasgow this year - which is unlikely, because of my schedule of work - it will be to watch the men compete.
When Rodionenko picks a team, he doesn't just have to submit a list of gymnasts to the FIG - he also has to think of the coaches. Some of them will be the main specialists and support staff from Lake Krugloye - others will be personal coaches to the gymnasts.
The mass migration of coaches away from the countries of the former Soviet Union has produced some of the conditions necessary for the current globalisation of the sport (for example, imagine Canada without Saadi and Davydova, the UK without Popov and Sizhanov, Germany without Belenkyi etc). In the meantime Russia (and Ukraine, Belarus and the rest) has had to manage with depleted resources. High profile investments made by bank VTB in large scale, state-of-the-art training facilities are necessary and good, but training and motivating the trainers has been difficult when salaried work as a coach is difficult to find, and degree courses are thin on the ground.
If the gymnasts lack depth - then the coaches are in a worse position. A few years ago, I remarked that the main coaches on the national team were almost all in their sixties, seventies and, in one case, eighties. It is, therefore, an urgent priority for Russia to rebuild its talent and opportunity, and Andrei Rodionenko has had to work hard to amend this situation. To his credit there are now a majority of younger faces working at Lake Krugloye. This is a starting point, but needs to continue to grass roots level.
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| Tumbling specialist Vasily Ivanov with reserve Anastasia Dmitrieva |
In the past, the selection of a personal coach to the national team has indicated that their gymnast is expected to be a leading medal winner, but I am not sure that we can follow that rule this year. For a start, the team is of primary importance here rather than individual medals (Glasgow is the main qualifying for Rio). Then, there is enough doubt about who will shine in the all around (both MAG and WAG) to select the coaches on the basis of their competition experience. Unless Viktoria is going to surprise us and do all around, (I don't think she is) that might explain Elfimov's appearance on the list this time. It might possibly, however, reveal a conviction amongst the Russian coaches that Kharenkova and Belyavski hold their strongest case in the all around competitions. We will have to wait and see!
Finally, I noticed that the WAG team manager this time will be tumbling coach, Vasily Ivanov. This presumably frees up head coach Evgeny Grebyonkin to concentrate on his team coaching activities. I had to question whether there had been a change in the job roles back at Lake Krugloye, but the team manager does not have to be the national coach, and there is no change currently listed on the RGF website (although it is often out of date ...). Ivanov is a fatherly figure who has quietly supported the girls through thick and thin and the team seems to be working well together whatever the job roles so it is probably not significant.