"We are trying very hard!" Irina Dzyuba talks about the performance of the Academy gymnasts at the Sky Grace Cup

Academy coach and the 1996 Olympics bronze medalist Irina Dzyuba summed up the performance of our students at the all-Russian Sky Grace Cup competition.

"As far as I am concerned, the girls are off to a very good start. There are some shortcomings, I can’t say that the performances were perfect, but I think that it did work out in some instances," Irina said. 

The coach also talked about the preparation process for the competition.

"We took a certain approach and the way we handled the preparation process was very serious. Alina Kabaeva controlled the entire process. Everything was agreed to in detail, with plenty of details. The girls also worked very well with the sports psychologist, which is also critical during serious competitions," she said.

Irina also expressed gratitude to Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva.

"Many thanks to Alina Maratovna because I am sitting in the hall all the time and there are such moments when, as the saying goes, ‘the blink of an eye.’ She is like a breath of fresh air, when she comes. She gave a hint to plenty of such interesting moments to Kristina and me. Truly, I wouldn’t actually pay attention to them. That is, Alina Maratovna focuses definitely on the exit from the element. And I actually do not see it. That is, she made the rotation and that’s all, continued running further. She has a very good sense of children’s lines. That is, plenty of accents for the head were set in the ribbon for Anya Vakulenko, and some breaths were added. Many comments on emotions were for Lera. And by the way, I was very pleased, and there were plenty of good words that Lera gave a very emotional performance," the coach said.

At the tournament in Sirius, the Academy gymnasts won 12 medals, five of which were gold!