Translated material
Your own rival
Alina Kabaeva will defend the title of absolute European champion for the sixth time
Today, the 22nd European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships starts at the Druzhba universal sports hall in Moscow, in which 106 gymnasts from 18 national federations will take part. Despite the fact that the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships are held annually, their regulations vary. Once every two years, athletes compete for medals in individual exercises - with ribbons, clubs, ball and rope, and the next year in the all-around, that is, based on the results of all four types of the program. It is according to this scenario that the tournament will take place in Moscow, where athletes will compete for the title of absolute champions of the Old World. In group exercises, three sets of awards are awarded annually - in the all-around and two separate events.In addition, juniors will also perform at the upcoming championship - more than 100 athletes from 33 European countries, which in itself is already a record for all previous championships. The young “artists” will have to report in full. While adult athletes will compete for four sets of awards, youth will compete for awards in five - in individual events and team competitions.
The main intrigue of the Moscow championship is connected with the performance of Russian Alina Kabaeva. Will the Olympic champion, five-time absolute European champion be able to win this title for the sixth time? After all, in the entire history of continental championships, not a single gymnast has achieved such success. All of Kabaeva’s predecessors won the title of absolute champion only twice in their careers: Anelia Ralenkova from Bulgaria in 1982 and 1984, Soviet gymnast Alexandra Timoshenko in 1988 and 1990, and Bulgarian Maria Petrova in 1992 and 1994.
Since 1998, starting with the European Championships in Porto, Kabaeva began her countdown of titles. However, there is no doubt that the current tournament for the 23-year-old Russian will be one of the most difficult. And not only because Kabaeva’s rivals are more than serious. Alina herself recently returned to the gymnastics field after a rather long break, because after winning the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004, she decided to leave the sport for a while.
At a press conference, which on the eve of the European Championship was held at the sports base in Novogorsk, Kabaeva stated that she herself would be the main rival at this tournament. In the last days before the start, the athlete trained to the point of exhaustion: a 12-hour working day, from ten in the morning to ten in the evening, sometimes without breaks for dinner or even lunch. “I’m not afraid of any of my rivals. This season I performed quite consistently and am ready for this championship,” Kabaeva told reporters. True, she answered all other questions extremely sparingly, citing fatigue - the result of intensive preparation for the championship.
Nevertheless, one of Kabaeva’s main rivals at the championship in Moscow, without a doubt, will be her teammate, winner of the tournaments in Deventer (Netherlands) and Holon (Israel), 20-year-old Vera Sesina. This season, the athlete from Yekaterinburg has already participated in a dozen different tournaments and always won prizes. By the way, at this championship each federation can nominate no more than two gymnasts. And Sesina won her ticket to the championship in Moscow in intense competition with another Russian, five-time world champion Olga Kapranova.
In addition to the Russians, the Moscow public will see other strongest gymnasts in Europe: Ukrainians Natalia Godunko and Anna Bessonova, Inna Zhukova from Belarus, Bulgarian Simona Peycheva, Anna Kurbanova from Azerbaijan and others.
As for competitions in group exercises, 18 groups came to Moscow, with five gymnasts in each. On the eve of the championship, the head coach of the Russian group teams, Valentina Ivanitskaya, told reporters that the composition of her team had become significantly younger. Of the experienced gymnasts, only two Olympic champions remained - Olesya Belugina and Elena Posevina. “Recruits” Daria Shkurikhina, Natalya Zueva, Anna Gavrilenko are only 16 years old. Nevertheless, the coach and the leadership of the federation place the highest demands on all athletes without exception, since the Russian team has not lost since 2000. According to Ivanitskaya, this season was very difficult for the team. Many girls had various kinds of problems - with weight, injuries, lack of motivation. The coach broke up with those gymnasts who did not want to train and work seriously at the beginning of the season. The youth who have replaced them do not yet have sufficient experience, but it is the young people who will rely on them with an eye to the Olympics in Beijing.