No good news to report at present from beautiful, brave St Petersburg, as the gymnastics club where national team members Elena Eremina, Valeria Saifulina and Lilia Akhaimova all train faces ruin. Club Pushkin, built up from scratch by coaches Alexander Kiryashov and Vera Kiryashova, is one of Russia's leading gymnastics clubs for women. St Petersburg gymnasts are technically clean, well disciplined and happy competitors who generally stay in their sport and work with their club for years. Tatiana Nabiyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko and Evgeniya Kuznetsova have all trained at Pushkin and earned medals for their country at world level, including gold. Current senior national Elena Eremina is vice world champion in the all around and uneven bars events.
St Petersburg is a historic city where Imperial Russia left its mark. The beautiful palaces and waterways mark it out as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the wonders of the world. Its spirit is fierce and proud as the survivor of a vicious siege during the Great War. The home of the Kirov ballet, the Lesgaft Institute, the Hermitage, and great authors such as Pushkin, Dostoevsky and Gogol bears the cultural symbol that is characteristic of its gymnasts. St Petersburg does more than survive, it thrives and blossoms in every possible way. Pushkin's gymnasts do more than compete, they perform, and create memories and images that are worth more than medals.
Sadly, it is the management of the city's built heritage that is currently putting the future of the Pushkin gymnastics club at risk. Recently, new planning rules have been passed in St Petersburg, relating to the height of buildings permitted in the historic parts of the city, where our Club resides. Pushkin, several decades old now, needed refurbishment. The plans had been approved and building was about to begin. But then the hammer fell, as the rules changed. Pushkin's new construction, once passed by the local authorities, was to be a little higher than the new planning rules allowed, and so building work had to be stopped. No progress can be made as the proposed height of the building is now illegal. The old gym, once so full of promise, now stands empty, as good as derelict.
The club's gymnasts have moved to a makeshift facility at the Expo Centre - some distance away from the original club, in a not-so-nice part of the City that involves a long walk for club members. It was meant to be a temporary measure. Parents, gymnasts and friends helped with the move and in setting up the equipment, but the temporary facilities can't replace a proper gymnastics home. The facilities are not safe for elite gymnastics practice; the flooring is hard concrete and there isn't a landing pit.
It seems crazy that Russia can't help Pushkin to find a way out of this impasse. Everyone just says 'nothing will help'. Bureaucracy in Russia can be very rigid. Gymnasts are walking away from Pushkin because they can't train in an unsafe environment in such a poor location. And the historic home of Pushkin gymnastics remains empty and neglected, all because of the bad timing of some planning decisions.
At this rate, there will be no Pushkin club for World Champion Elena Eremina to return to once her back is recovered. The Kiryashov couple have spent the best part of their lives building up one of the most productive, happiest and successful clubs in Russia, only to see it destroyed in a few weeks.
But miracles can happen. Surely there must be a solution to this problem? Can anyone help?