Russian Championships will take place on March 6-10 in Penza. The competition came back to Penza and the federation stopped trying to sell the tickets and decided to attract the spectators by promising them souvenirs and autograph sessions.
The competition is often a splatfest, since it’s early in the year. However, it will serve as one of the selection stages for the European Championships, so we might expect a decent level of preparation, since the Euros are only in a month.
This year’s nationals will be the comeback competition for several big names. Maria Paseka, Elena Eremina, and Aleksandra Shchekoldina will compete for the first time in more than a year. All three had back surgeries last year. Anastasiia Ilainkova, who we haven’t seen since the Russian Cup last year, will also compete here. She missed Euros and Worlds last year due to an injury. Aliya Mustafina will compete all-around for the first time in a year. She injured her knee at the last year’s nationals and then competed only on three events at Worlds. It will also be the senior debut of Ksenia Klimenko and Alina Stepanova. There are also some big names on the competition roster who are not currently on the national team (though, it could change if they compete well here): Tatiana Nabieva, Maria Kharenkova, Seda Tutkhalian, Eleonora Afanasyeva, and Natalia Kapitonova.
Notably absent are Uliana Perebinosova, Irina Alexeeva, Daria Spiridonova, and Valeria Saifullina. No official reasons were provided, so it’s likely either injuries or resting before other competitions. It’s probably safe to assume that Perebinosova and Saifullina are injured since Saifullina recently spent some time in the hospital and Perebinosova flew to Munich where Russian gymnasts frequently go for surgeries and treatments.
On the men’s side, almost the entire national team is expected to compete. Denis Abliazin will finally compete after a string of injuries and also having to miss Worlds in order to be eligible to qualify via World Cups. In today’s live stream from the podium training, Abliazin’s legs were heavily taped and the federation’s representative said that the gymnast is dealing with pain in his legs and his wrist. However, as the time for individual qualification opportunities is running out, Abliazin will try to push through the pain. He is currently slated to compete at the World Cups in Baku and Doha where he will try to qualify on rings and vault. Sergei Naidin, who got injured at the Youth Olympic
David Belyavskiy had to withdraw due to a wrist injury and will miss the upcoming Euros as well. Nikolai Kuksenkov withdrew last minute and there are no details yet on what happened. Kuksenkov had arrived in Penza and was supposed to be at podium training today but posted a video from a train back to Moscow saying he had to withdraw.
There will be an online stream for the finals and – big surprise – Viktoria Komova will commentate together with Emin Garibov.
Unfortunately, no proper stream is expected for the qualifications tomorrow. There will likely be some Instagram streams. Look at @toprusgym on Instagram and @gymnovosti on Twitter for updates.
Schedule (local time GMT+3)
Wednesday, March 6
WAG Qualifications (the national team members compete in the third subdivision)
9:30-11:00 First subdivision (1:30am-3am ET)
11:00-12:30 Second subdivision (3am-4:30am ET)
12:30-14:00 Third subdivision (4:30am-6am ET)
MAG Qualifications (the national team members compete in the second subdivision)
15:00-17:00 First subdivision (7am-9am ET)
17:00-19:00 Second subdivision (9am-11am ET)
Thursday, March 7
17:00-18:30 WAG AA final (9am-10:30am ET)
Friday, March 8th
15:00-17:00 MAG AA final (7am-9am ET)
Saturday, March 9th
12:00-15:00 WAG, MAG event finals (4am-7am ET)
Sunday, March 10th
11:00-14:00 WAG, MAG event finals (2am-6am ET)
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