More Voronin Cup Videos

New videos of the Voronin Cup (to go with the incredible Viktoria Komova video we posted earlier) have indeed been uploaded. YouTube user Igorgymn1 has tons of them. We thought we'd post a few to show you just how exciting Russian gymnastics currently is...

This is Viktoria Komova's excellent bar routine. Check out her form and swing - very promising stuff!

And this is Komova's floor routine, still with the amazing 1.5 twist through to Arabian opening pass and strange landings. Somebody please tell us - are Komova's ankles all right? She's not wearing any bandages around them, but we wonder about those landings.


Viktoria Komova (photo: Bernard Garau)
This is Anna Myzdrikova's very hard floor routine, featuring a great triple twist to immediate back tuck (that'll be useful under the new code); whip to immediate double Arabian; 2.5 twist to barani to stag leap; double tuck; double pike. Myzdrikova needs more dance, but she seems graceful enough. It should be a treat watching her floor routine come the next quad.

These are Myzdrikova's vaults, a sloppy but promising double-twisting Yurchenko and an arched but powerful half on, layout front off. Nice!

This is senior AA winner Kristina Goryunova's beam routine, featuring a nice pike front to sheep jump and one of the best front somis to scale we've seen. Now that's how you perform that skill.

And this is Goryunova's floor routine, featuring, among other things, a very nice double layout. Goryunova is an interesting gymnast. She's not naturally elegant (she moves a tad heavily), but she does an excellent job hiding that fact. She's living proof that non-elegant gymnasts can be taught to comport themselves gracefully, given the right coach and/or choreographer.


Kristina Goryunova (photo: Stefan Wurzer/Gymnasticsunited)
This is Alyona Zmeu's beam routine. Zmeu is very elegant and does some of the best leaps this side of China. She has gorgeous legs. Love this girl.

This is Diana Sapronova on beam. Sapronova is nothing special, but she's stable and elegant enough. It must be very reassuring for the Russians to have this kind of gymnast to fall back on when all their great stars are injured.

Also, for those of you who like watching gymnasts in plain clothes, here is a video of Yulia Lozhechko, Elena Zamolodchikova and Anna Pavlova standing around and giggling at the Voronin Cup. Pavlova is shown limping around with a huge brace around her right knee, over her pants. Reportedly she told someone who attended the competition that she expects to be back in 8 months' time. We don't know whether that means back in training or back in competition, but either way, it means she's optimistic about her return to the sport. Excellent news!