The next competition for the gymnasts will be the Championship in Moscow which will take place at the Dinamo gym!

It will take place on February 14-17.

I have only confirmation that Vika and Aliya are going. However, I will try to confirm the full participants ASAP!

A new issue of Gymnastika has been released by the federation! It's now uploaded on the websites. You can click the link below to go directly to the new issue.

Gymnastics is a periodical released by the Gymnastics Federation of Russia. The latest issue features an interview with Galina Grishina, Anastasia Grishina's mother. Translation will soon follow.

Click here to see the new issue!

The results from the Couch Gymnast Awards have been announced.

The Most Unfortunate Injury of the Year is the injury Aliya suffered at the Euros last year.

"She was supposed to defend her title.  She was supposed to take us into the big pre-Olympic year proving that she was no flash in the pan.  She was supposed to remind us why she was the best gymnast in the World.  Instead, she landed badly on her most risky skill and was taken out of the game.  It was a shocking, sad moment."

Aleksandr Aleksandrov is also the runner up for the Coach of the Year award.

"Alexandrov tells it like it is, from his opinion of gymnastics, to his appraisals of his gymnasts.  He has  worked to turn Russian gymnastics around, bringing them back to gold medal potential, a position they have not been in for years.  It is a testament to his coaching talents."

As for Gymnast of the Year, Viktoria Komova finished as the Runner Up.

"All eyes have been glued on Komova since her junior debut.  Lyrical, but capable of great difficulty, she is a lovely gymnast.  This year she came back from a lengthy injury break, gaining enough form to seriously content for the World AA crown.  Very impressive indeed!"

Ksenia Afanasyeva finished in third place.

For the Award of Personality of the Year, Tatiana finished as a runner up in second place.

"Tatiana Nabieva, ever the fan favorite for her high spirits and comic charm is still considered one of the great characters of this sport- and where would we be without one of these Russians!  This year Nabieva went from key all-arounder rookie to a two-event team veteran- and she did it with a courage and consistency we have not seen from her before."

For the award of Rookie Gymnast of the Year, Yulia Belokobylskaya finished in second.

"With all the talk about juniors like Komova and Grishina, Yulia Belokobylskaya never figured largely in talk about the Russian up-and-comers.  She wasn’t even part of the junior European team that excited the gym world so much in 2010.  Then she emerged in 2011 to take a European floor bronze in early 2011 and to consolidate herself as one of Russia’s most elegant and exciting young gymnasts. It was less of a surprise then, when she made the World team."

Please check out the full results at the links below along with the comments from voters!

Dark Horse of the Year:

Anna Dementyeva won this award!

"When the European Championships rolled around in April this year, all expectations for the all around gold were placed on Russian team mate and World Champion Aliya Mustafina.  When a knee injury devastated her chances in the first rotation-vault-little Dementyeva stepped up with unprecedentedly confident and consistent performances to take the title."

Part 1 Results
Part 2 Results
Part 3 Results

Vote Here!

The Couch Gymnast Awards for 2011 is now open for voting!! Russian Gymnasts exist in the following categories:

Gymnast of the Year:
Viktoria Komova

Best Artistry of the Year:
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Yulia Belokobylskaya

Personality of the Year:
Tatiana Nabieva
Viktoria Komova

Rookie Gymnast of the Year:
Yulia Belokobylskaya

Coach of the Year:
Aleksandr Aleksandrov

Most Unfortunately Injury of the Year:
Aliya Mustafina, RUS, knee injury during vault at European Championships

Team Player of the Year:
Tatiana Nabieva
Anna Dementyeva

Team Leader of the Year:
Ksenia Afanasyeva

Junior Gymnast of the Year:
Anastasia Grishina

Reserve Gymnast of the Year:

Alyona Polyan

Dark Horse of the Year:

Anna Dementyeva

Foor Routine of the Year:

Ksenia Afanasyeva

Skill of the Year:

Ksenia Afanasyeva, RUS, double turn in attitude on floor

Vote Here!

Unfortunately due to back pain and the treatment, Tatiana will not be competing at the Voronin Memorial.

The next competition Tatiana will attend is the Mikhail Voronin Memorial, which will take place on December 14-17. The competition will take place at the Dynamo gym in Moscow, and will probably be broadcasted again by IG-TV.

Gymnastike just released an interesting video showing the Russian Team during a training session in Tokyo.

"This week's gymnastics workout video features the 2011 World silver medalists and 2010 World Champions, Team Russia. Gymnastike takes you inside their training session in Tokyo, just 24 hours before the 2011 World Championships Team Final where the finished 2nd behind Team USA.

Gymnasts in this video: Viktoria Komova, Tatiana Nabieva, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Yulia Inshina, Yulia Belokobylskaya, and team alternate Alyona Polyan. Head coach is Alexander Alexandrov.
Music by the Kyoto Connection"

You can view the Training Session on Gymnastike's website.

The Official results haven't been announced, but I have some unofficial results I can report.

In the Vault Final, Tatiana Won. She vaulted a DTY and Yurchenko half on piked front half out. In second place was Sarah Flett, and third was Marisa Dick, both from Canada.

On the Beam, Marine Brevet won gold, with Vika following in second place. Unfortunately she fell and struggled a bit on the beam today. Regardless, she finished with a Silver on the Beam. Manon Cormoreche finished in third.

On the Uneven Bars, Vika won the Gold! Her score was around 15.5. It was reported as an almost flawless routine. Tatiana finished in Second for the Silver! Her routine was awesome and she managed to connect her pak to her stalder 1/1. Georgia Rose Brown from Australia finished in third.

Unfortunately Ksenia Afanasyeva didn't qualify for the event finals due to withdrawing from the competition yesterday because of a painful toothache. Anastasia Grishina didn't qualify for the event finals, but she has not returned to full form after her back injury and didn't expect to compete at her full potential at the Massilia Cup.

On the Floor, Vika didn't finish in the top three due to a couple falls. :-(

Overall today, Vika and Tatiana both won 2 more medals in the Event Finals!

MAJOR credit goes to the IntlGymnast user "Yang Yilin AA and UB Gold" for providing reports from the competition from Marseille.