Leonid Arkayev, head coach for men and women as well as president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation, gave a brief overview of the candidates competing for places on the Russian team for Anaheim at a press conference in Moscow on Wednesday. Speaking to journalists before the Russian Cup to be held at the Olympiski Spprts Stadium June 17-20, Russia’s ring master said that the national competition would be a decisive, but not the only step, for determining the athletes who will make the trip to California in August. “We were very diligent when setting up the selection process,” he explained, “there are various factors that have been taken into consideration, namely competitive results, total sum of start values and the total score of the top seven athletes.” Based on those criteria, a preliminary standing has been drawn up and Arkayev gave a run down of the rankings of the top gymnasts going into the Russian Cup.

For the women, Svetlana Khorkina leads with 44 points, followed by Anna Pavlova (43), Natalia Ziganshina (37,5), Alexandra Shevchenko (32), Yelena Anoshina (25) and Maria Kryuchkova (12,5). At the moment, double Olympic champion Yelena Zamolodchikova, who is coming off an injury, has only amassed a total of six points, but Arkayev is hopeful that she will regain her form. On the men’s side, Alexei Bondarenko is top of his squad with 39 points and Yevgeni Podgorni is second with 34. They following ranks are: Nikolai Krykov (23), Yevgeni Krylov (19), Maxim Devyatovski (17), Anton Golotsutsukov (14) and Alexei Nemov (9). Arkayev stressed that the team for Anaheim has not yet been picked and that this is only a preliminary ranking. The Russian Cup is a national competition featuring a preliminary competition and an AA. It will be followed by the event finals of the Russian championships on Friday, June 20. The Russian AA championships took place earlier this March with Svetlana Khorkina and Yuri Tikhanovski winning the AA crowns.

Updated June 18, 2003

After the preliminary competition on June 17, Arkayev was more specific about the prospects of individual gymnasts. “Six gymnasts compete, seven will travel to the USA,” he said, ”for the women, Khorkina, Pavlova, Natalia Ziganshina and Kryuchkova have secured their spot. Out of the four remaining candidates – Shevchenko, Anoshina, Miller and Zamolodchikova – we will select three who will go the world championships.” On the men’s side, Podgorni, Bondarenko, Devyatovski and Nemov made the cut, Arkayev told journalists, despite Nemov not being in top form yet.“ But a team without him is impossible.” Meanwhile, 1999 world champion Nikolai Kryukov is facing difficulties after a less than stellar performance in prelims. “His chances have gone down a bit. He has a difficult character, but we’ll see,” Arkayev informed the press.

Updated June 19, 2003
Pavlova Wins Russian Cup

Anna Pavlova came out on top of her team at the Russian Cup, taking the AA title just ahead of Svetlana Khorkina, who had won the prelims. Natalia Ziganshina fell from beam to finish out of the medals. Men's AA-title was won by Yevgeni Podgorni from Novosibirsk who defended his pole-position after Tuesday's prelims. Yevgeni Krylov, who landed only on a poor 7th rank after the prelims, fought back to the podium and got finally at least a bronze medal.

Updated June 20, 2003
Khorkina Wins Big in Finals

Svetlana Khorkina, the reigning world and European champion, came close to sweeping the event finals at the Russian championships on June 20. The 24-year-old won bars, beam and floor as well as placing third on vault and avoided the mistakes her younger competitors made. Khorkina's coach Boris Pilkin stated that he and his pupil would be focusing on perfectingh vault in the weeks leading up to Anaheim. Alexandra Shevchenko of St Petersburg was the surprise champion on vault while Natalia Ziganshina struggled severly on bars, where she had previously outscored Khorkina, and beam. The elder Ziganshina did, however, pick up a silver each on vault and floor.

On the men's side the two Alexeis, Nemov and Bondarenko, surprisingly withdrew from the competition at short notice, Maxim Devyatovski was the only multiple champion, with golds on vault and bars. Georgi Grebenkov rebounded well to take the floor title, while Dmitri Drevin won high bar. Rostov on Don native Alexander Safoshkin scored a massive 9,800 to win rings, in his only other final - bars - he placed fourth. Yevgeni Vasilyev was tops on pommel horse. AA winner Yevgeni Podgorni could only manage two medals in the finals - a bronze each on pommel horse and bars.

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