The 2021 Russian Championships are starting this week in Penza, with the first day of competition on Wednesday, March 10th. Last year, the postponed Russian Championships in November went with little fanfare as almost none of the top gymnasts attended it, reportedly fearing Covid-19. The situation with the pandemic has not really improved but the championships will likely be the only chance to compete before the European Championships in Basel in April, so the full national team is supposed to attend. The only gymnast skipping the competition is Ivan Stretovich who is recovering from wrist surgery.
All days of the competition will be streamed on Russian TV and on the federation’s website. The event will be commentated in Russian by Emin Garibov and Lidia Ivanova. However, on the qualification days, only the last subdivision of the day will be streamed. For men, all the big names will compete in the last subdivision. For women, the last subdivision will only include gymnasts from Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, South Federal Region, and Central Federal Region. It means that several former and current national team members will compete in the earlier subdivisions. The following gymnasts are supposed to compete in the second subdivision according to the regions they represent: Anastasia Iliankova (Siberian Federal Region); Aleksandra Shchekoldina, Ksenia Klimenko, Arina Semukhina (Ural Federal Region); Natalia Kapitonova, Elena Gerasimova, Daria Belousova, Maria Minaeva (Volga Federal Region).
Schedule (local time GMT+3, ET, PT)
March 10th, Wednesday
Men’s qualification
11:30 – 13:30 (3:30am-5:30am ET, 12:30am-2:30am PT) Subdivision 1 (no stream)
15:00 – 17:30 (7:00am-9:30am ET, 4am-6am PT) Subdivision 2 (Live stream)
March 11th, Thursday
Women’s Qualification
11:00-12:40 (3am-4:40am ET, 12am-1:40am PT) Subdivision 1 (no stream)
14:00-15:40 (6am-7:40am ET, 3am-4:40am PT) Subdivision 2 (no stream)
17:00-18:40 (9am-10:40am ET, 6am-7:40am PT) Subdivision 3 (Live stream)
March 12th, Friday
All-Around finals
13:00-15:30 (5am-7:30am ET, 2am-4:30am PT) Men’s AA Final (Live stream)
17:00-19:00 (9am-11am ET, 6am-8am PT) Women’s AA Final (Live stream)
March 13th, Saturday
Event Finals
12:00-15:00 (4am-7am ET, 1am-4am PT) Men’s Event finals (FX, PH, SR), Women’s Event Finals (VT, UB) (Live stream)
March 14th, Sunday
Event Finals
12:00-15:00 (5am-8am ET, 1am-5am PT) Men’s Event Finals (VT, PB, HB), Women’s Event Finals (BB, FX) (Live stream)
Start lists and results will be posted on the federation’s website.
Updates and short clips from the competition will also be posted on the Federation’s Instagram. Here’s Angelina Melnikova’s uneven bars routine from the last verification before leaving for Penza.
