The Russian Championships that were supposed to include both senior and junior competitions were originally scheduled for March and April for women and men respectively. They were originally postponed and then canceled. The Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation still wanted to hold a national competition in the fall but they opted for the Russian Cup, a senior individual competition. However, after the announcement that the European Championships are planned for December and will include senior and junior competitions, the federation decided to go back to holding the Russian Championships. According to Valentina Rodionenko, the competition will take place in November in Lobnya (near Round Lake) instead of the original host city Penza:
“At the beginning of November, we will hold the individual Russian Championships, we will confirm the exact dates later. It will be a qualifier for the Euros but there are no miracles, there won’t be someone who will suddenly show something unusual. We just need to wake the athletes up, there will be only this competition and one international competition this year. The competition will take place in Lobnya, there won’t be a team competition, athletes will not be able to prepare in such a short time. The Russian Cup won’t happen this year, we don’t have enough time. Originally, we wanted to hold it in September but that’s too little time to prepare. Now that we know the dates of the European Championships, we just don’t have time for it. So, we decided to hold only the individual Championships.”
Usually, the Russian Championships are open to qualified gymnasts from around the country who compete in teams representing their regions. However, due to the quarantine, many gymnasts who are not on the national team are still not able to train and it is not clear when they will return to the gyms.
Rodionenko said that Russia was one of the countries insisting that the European Championships should still take place this year:
“We had to have an international competition, we’ve been waiting for it, insisting on it. Andrei Fyodorovich [Rodionenko] is a member of the UEG’s Executive Committee. They had a video conference and Russia voted for the Championships to happen. It’s more convenient that the two competitions [MAG and WAG] will take place in one city than the way it was before. There aren’t that many countries that are ready to host competitions these days, but it’s usually all fine in Baku. We will have to be ready as required by that time.”
Currently, only the senior national team members designated as potential Olympic team candidates have been allowed to come back to Round Lake. Since the European Championships will include a junior competition, the federation is trying to make arrangements for the junior national team to come back to training as well. Rodionenko said they will not be allowed to come back to Round Lake for the time being, so the federation is lobbying the Sports Minister to allow the junior team to train in Obninsk, at the Latynina training center.
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