"She began to feel very comfortable on the court." Academy coach Evgeniya Eliseeva on Anna Vakulenko's performance at the Southern Federal District Championship

Academy coach Evgeniya Eliseeva summed up the performance by Anna Vakulenko from Volgograd at the Southern Federal District Championship.

"I am very happy that Anya has started to grow. She has started to mature, she is performing as a Master of Sports, and, of course, whether you like it or not, you need to reach another level, you need to start taking risks, which is what we are trying to do for now. Of course, there are still difficulties, we are still very small, young. But the progress is obvious. It seems to me that she has started to feel very comfortable on the court, she has started to really perform. We have raised our eyes, opened our chests, become more confident in ourselves. And in fact, the grades also show this. We have grown quite well. But for the Russian Championship we still need to fine tune their skills, risks, elements, so that there are more rotations everywhere on the risks, to be more artistic. We have time for this, we will definitely work on all the programs and we will arrive, I hope, in good shape," the coach said.

Evgeniya noted the contribution of Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva to the progress of the Academy’s student.

"It seems to me that Alina Kabaeva always senses the children.  The most valuable thing is that this is her life, she lives for our children. I really like that she puts her hand, her heart into all this and in the end we see how our gymnasts grow thanks to her, of course, too," she said.

At the Southern Federal District Championship in Sirius, Anya took fourth place in the all-around among gymnasts born in 2010 and older, and also became a bronze medalist in the team event as part of the Volgograd Region team.