Today, in Glasgow, the junior competition started at the European Championships. This year the juniors have a “three for the price of one” competition in which their scores are counted at the same towards the team final, the all-around final and as the qualification scores for the event finals. Since, unlike seniors, juniors were seeded into subdivisions randomly, the Russian team, heavy favorites to win the competition, started in the first subdivision in the morning. Their main rivals, Italy, will compete in the afternoon.
Russia brought a very young team to this competition – for all of them except for Ksenia Klimenko it was their first major international competition. The juniors, just like the Russian seniors yesterday, started on beam – a very nervous event that can make or break the team. And it played a role – Irina Komnova and Vladislava Urazova fell off the beam and one of the routines with a fall was counted for the team score (juniors compete in the “three up four count” format here).
The gymnasts did great on floor and vault but then the nerves started again on bars and they made some mistakes. Olga Astafeva had one fall. Vladislava Urazova who was leading the all-around before the last rotation had two falls on bars and finished with only 10.100 which bumped her behind her teammates Klimenko and Astafeva in the all-around results.
The gymnasts and their coaches Gennady Elfimov and Olga Bulgakova talked to Gymnovosti about the competition:
Q: What was the reason for the falls on beam and bars?
Gennady Elfimov: Youth.
Olga Bulgakova: They’re still very young. They didn’t have 100% routines on bars, it was about fifty-fifty. It could’ve gone well.
Q: How do you feel about the competition?
Ksenia Klimenko: Great. Well, we were afraid.
Irina Komnova: We were shaking.
Ksenia Klimenko: Yes, we were shaking. But other than that we really liked it.
Q: It’s the first major international competition for you, right?
Irina Komonova: For me, Olya, Yana, and Vlada it’s the first one but Ksyusha already competed [at a big competition].
Ksenia Klimenko: I competed at the European Youth Olympic Festival last year.
Q: Will you stay to watch the rest of the competition today?
Ksenia Klimenko: Yes, we will. We’ll go to rest for a bit and then we’ll come back later.
Q: Who do you think are your main rivals today?
All together: The Italians!
Ksenia Klimenko: And the French, too, but they competed already.
Q: Do you already know who’s going to the Youth Olympic Games this fall?
Irina Komnova: Two people are preparing right now, Ksyusha and also Dasha Belousova, she stayed at home now.
Q: What do you think was the reason for the falls on beam and bars?
Irina Komnova: On beam, for me – the nerves. I say for myself – the nerves. I think for everyone it was the nerves.
Vladislava Urazova: I was shaking on bars.
Ksenia Klimenko: We wanted to do better but our nerves didn’t allow us. Whatever happened – happened. We need to do what we are able to.
Currently, the Russian team is ahead of the second place, France, by almost six points – that’s despite counting two falls.
Photo: E. Mikhailova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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