For a while now, major Russian national competitions took place in Penza, a city not very far from Moscow and home to Denis Abliazin and Natalia Kapitonova.
Then, the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation decided to branch out a bit and held the 2017 Russian Cup in Yekaterinburg, the 2018 Russian Championships in Kazan and the 2018 Russian Cup in Chelyabinsk. The 2017 Russian Cup was a blast and actually drew large crowds (which rarely happens in Russia, but the competitions in Kazan and Chelyabinsk didn’t attract significant audiences (although the crowd was still larger than at the 2018 World Championships in Doha). It seems that for now, the federation wants to stick to the familiar and will hold all the major competitions of 2019 in Penza.
There are probably important reasons: the logistics, the money, the ease of hosting it at the place where it’s being hosted all the time. On the other hand, hosting large gymnastics competitions all around Russia would likely promote the sport. Of course, that would require more investment in marketing efforts but it would pay off eventually.
Russian Championships will take place on March 4-10 and will serve as a selection competition for the European Championships.
Russian Cup will take place on August 26 – September 1 and will serve as a selection competition for the World Championships.
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