This year, the Russian Cup is taking place early in order to serve as the selection competition for the European Championships. The competition only features the all-around and event finals. Normally, only seniors compete at the Russian Cup but this year’s competition will also feature juniors since they are also being selected for the Euros. The Cup will be divided into two parts – women will compete from June 27 until June 30 and men will compete from July 4 until July 7.
As this is one of the two biggest national competitions of the year, expect to almost the whole national team (except for the injured gymnasts) and those vying to get onto the national team. Aliya Mustafina will likely miss the competition as she is still dealing with her knee injury and we surely won’t see Elena Eremina, Maria Paseka and Aleksandra Schekoldina – all three of them had back surgeries. Maria Kharenkova and Liliya Akhaimova were battling injuries at the Russian Championships and it’s not yet clear whether they will compete all-around in Chelyabinsk but they are definitely preparing for the competition. Liubov Akhaimova, the younger sister and a complete doppelganger of Lilia Akhaimova has recently qualified elite and is expected to compete at the Russian Cup. In the qualification, the senior national team will compete in the second subdivision.
On the men’s side, we can expect Nikita Nagornyy join Artur Dalaloyan and David Beliavskiy in the fight for the all-around gold. Oleg Stepko will again try to make the Russian national team and hopefully, he’ll have more success this time. In the qualification, the senior national team will compete in the second subdivision.
Russia has its own system of gymnastics level and so the Candidate and the Master of Sports levels might be confusing. Basically, both levels are considered to be elite in Russia and the qualification depends not only on the scores a gymnast shows but also on their age. Junior gymnasts at both levels can be on the national team and represent the country internationally. Senior gymnasts on the national team have to be at the Master of Sports level.
Since it’s all about football in Russia right now, unfortunately, the main TV channels won’t be paying any attention to gymnastics. The finals are supposed to be streamed live on the Federation’s website. There might also be some Instagram accounts doing live streams during the qualification as there were for the Russian Championships.
Full schedule
| Day | Session | Local time (GMT+5) | ET | PT |
| June 27
Wed WAG Qualification |
Juniors, 1st Subdivision | 8:00-10:00 | 11pm-1am | 8pm-10pm |
| Juniors, 2nd Subdivision | 10:00-12:00 | 1am-3am | 10pm-12pm | |
| Juniors, 3rd Subdivision | 12:00-14:00 | 3am-5am | 12am-2am | |
| Juniors, 4th Subdivision | 14:00-16:00 | 5am-7am | 2am-4am | |
| Seniors, 1st subdivision | 16:30-17:50 | 7:30am-8:50am | 4:30am-5:50apm | |
| Seniors, 2nd subdivision | 18:30-20:50 | 9:30am-11:50am | 6:30am-8:50am | |
| June 28
Thu WAG Junior AA
|
Juniors, AA final, Candidate for Master of Sports level | 15:00-16:30 | 6am-7:30am | 3am-4:30am |
| Juniors, AA final, Master of Sports level | 18:00-19:30 | 9am-10:30am | 6am-7:30am | |
| June 29
Fri WAG Senior AA |
Seniors, AA final | 14:00-15:30 | 5am-6:30am | 2am-3:30am |
| June 30
Sat WAG event finals |
Seniors and Juniors, Event finals | 12:00-15:00 | 3am-6am | 12am-3am |
| July 4
Wed MAG Qualifications
|
Juniors, 1st Subdivision | 08:00-10:00 | 11pm-1am | 8pm-10pm |
| Juniors, 2nd Subdivision | 10:00-12:00 | 1am-3am | 10pm-12am | |
| Juniors, 3rd Subdivision | 12:00-14:00 | 3am-5am | 12am-2am | |
| Seniors, 1st subdivision | 14:30-16:30 | 5:30am-7:30am | 2:30am-4:30am | |
| Seniors, 2nd subdivision | 17:30-19:30 | 8:30am-10:30am | 5:30am-7:30am | |
| July 5
Thu MAG Junior AA final
|
Juniors, AA final, Candidate for Master of Sports level | 13:00-15:00 | 4am-6am | 1am-3am |
| Juniors, AA final, Master of Sports level | 17:00-19:00 | 8am-10am | 5am-7am | |
| July 6
Fri MAG Senior AA final |
Seniors, AA final | 14:00-16:00 | 5am-7am | 2am-4am |
| July 7
Sat MAG Event Finals |
Seniors and Juniors, Event Finals | 12:00-15:00 | 3am-6am | 12am-3am |
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Hi Liubov. First, I want to thank you about your help with the Baku junior. Now I have a new problem with the federation stream. The screen has a countdown with my time ET. I tried changing my computer time to GMT+5 in order to get it right but no change. I won’t be able to watch since the screen says competition starts in 11 hours!! instead of 3 hours.
There could be just a mistake in the count down. Try checking it when the competition actually starts
OMG Liubov . Komova’s last tumbling pass, the same one she did in AA London olympics. I was like reliving that moment back in time. I was shouting my good vibes to her, You can do it !! She was about to win the silver medal and , puaff, ouch….