The “Crystal Rose” tournament in Minsk is probably the best thing that has happened to the world “artist” in recent times. “The two best teams in the world play here,” said Irina Viner. And even if we assume that there is still some exaggeration in his words, it is stupid not to recognize the power of Russia and Belarus. Anyway, for individuals. Unfortunately, we hardly see any group players in international competitions now, although I’ve heard the training process isn’t any easier there. On the contrary, even vice versa.
Juniors, pre-juniors and seniors – in each of the categories we have at least a few stars ready to win the world and European championships. Neither Bulgaria, nor Italy, nor Israel have such squad depth – and Minsk showed us that. For example, the all-around team Russia-1 with sisters Dina and Arina Averin won 80% thanks to juniors Maria Borisova and Anna Popova.
“I really appreciated – and even encouraged me to keep working – that we have great youngsters,” Wiener said in an interview with after the individual finals.
In the environment they say that the future of our rhythmic gymnastics belongs to Popova and Borisova. The future, it should be noted, is promising in all respects.
On the other hand (which hurt my ears the whole time I was in Minsk), a special emphasis on juniors and only after that the transition to the stars of the Russian team, the Averin sisters and Lala Kramarenko, is actually our top prospect in the current Olympic cycle. Although it is necessary to talk about top athletes, let the conversation not be very pleasant.
For Dina and Arina, the “Crystal Rose” did not work out at all – they won the team in the all-around without taking a single first place. In the individual finals, the best result for two is Dina’s bronze in the ball exercise. You look from the outside and you won’t believe it was the Averina sisters who were the main favorites at the Tokyo Olympics just a year ago. Kramarenko does much better – silver in the individual all-around, two gold medals in the individual final out of four. But this is clearly not the maximum level when it comes to the most talented gymnast of the generation.
It’s a paradox, but with the general high level of the Russian team in Minsk, we were behind precisely as part of the leaders. Belarusian Alina Gornosko won the individual all-around and also won two of four separate finals. She could have taken three, if not for the losses in the exercises with the band, where, according to her, she simply could not cope with her nerves. Without further ado, Alina is now the strongest gymnast on the planet, although the comparison with the rest of the world is still out of proportion. This is not enough when it comes to collective success. But at the level of the Olympic Games, where there are in principle no team competitions, it is the individual level that decides who will walk away with the gold.
Right now, our hypothetical chances would be far from 100%, which is just as normal as it is abnormal. More precisely, even to say – “unusual”. For almost two decades, Russia was the absolute leader of the world “artist”, and now our team is the leader in terms of losses among all the countries participating in the tournament, in which, in addition to Belarusians, gymnasts from Malaysia competed.
It sounds depressing, but there are still explanations for what happened. I am sure that the many faults of the Averins are due above all to insufficient competitive practice. At the end of the post-Olympic world championship, Dina and Arina took a break to think about their future life plans and practically did not participate in departures. Judging by the comments of Wiener and the sisters themselves, during this time they were able to reboot a bit and find an incentive to move on. Then something happened that we all know well.
But the tied fight between Kramarenko and Gornosko already seems much more interesting to analyze. In fact, I’ve long been told that of all the variety of Russian team rivals, it’s Alina who is feared, because under the new rules, which have increased the importance of body difficulties, she’s able to score absolutely sky -Highlights.
We can say that she and Lala are gymnasts of the same type: not the strongest, but still a strong apparatus and the greatest difficulty of the body, coupled with artistic abilities. Overall, Kramarenko probably has a higher development ceiling, but here and now Gornosko is both more experienced and more stable.
Lala needs to gain experience at the highest level, but how do you get there if, under current conditions, the Spartakiad does indeed become the main start to the season? Crystal Rose is only the second international tournament for the Russian team this season. The first was in Dubai – with incomprehensible regulations and a strange redistribution of results a few days after the end. It is not under such conditions that future Olympic champions are born.
Throughout the Minsk tournament, Wiener said that for our team these competitions were “the world championship with the European championship”, although, of course, this is a forced exaggeration – there is still no options. Olympic Games silver medalist Yana Batyrshina adheres to a similar position:
“I believe that the Crystal Rose should not be equated with the World Cup, although now many people say that the tournament is no worse. Yet athletes from other countries, the same Bulgarian Boryana Kalein, the Italian Sofia Rafael, the Israeli Daria Atamanov, who played medals at the European Championships, could join the fight. They are very good gymnasts. Therefore, we always understand inside that such comparisons are more to reassure us. We don’t know how it could have happened if they were all together,” Batyrshina told .
In the absence of international competitions, it is necessary to train by internal activities, but it seems that they are still of little use. In any case, in comparison with real international competitions, in which there is competition, excitement and – and above all – real tournament motivation. Otherwise it will become more and more difficult for the same Averin sisters to seek an incentive to spend in the room all day.
Therefore, no matter how we say that without Russia, world rhythmic gymnastics will be impoverished, it seems that we suffer no less. And we don’t know where all this will lead.
Source : MatchTV
