"All the girls opened up differently." Academy coach Irina Dzyuba talks about the international competition in Barnaul

After the completion of international competitions as part of the "Dynamo for Russia’s Children" festival in Barnaul, Academy coach and bronze medalist of the 1996 Olympics Irina Dzyuba spoke about the importance of the tournament for our students.

"This tournament was in our plans; almost all of our girls from the Academy came. We are gaining experience. This tournament was especially important for younger girls like for Darina Budnikova, who still has no experience, for Monina Miroslava, for Sofia Smirnova, for Samatova Sabina and for Solosina Dianochka, because some of them had competitions, others had none at all, it took us a long, long time to switch to our rules. And they were already going there with this great desire to start," Irina said.

The coach assessed the performances of our gymnasts.

"And it was interesting for us to look at them. They all opened up differently. The older girls tried out something new and tried something difficult. Well, not everything worked out, because there was still a slight decline after the Cup. After all, we had such a major start to the Cup. But for experience’s sake we worked a little for the public, again we looked at the compositions," she said.

Irina also thanked the organizers of the tournament.

"The tournament was very wonderful. Everything was very warm, very hospitable, good judging, the audience perceived everything very well, we are very grateful to all the organizers.  We are very grateful to the Academy's leadership who sent us here, because we came as a very big team. It's still far from Sochi. And of course, we thank our leaders, our main leader,  Alina Kabaeva, who always guides us," the coach said.

At the tournament in the capital of the Altai Territory, the Academy's students won five gold, two silver and one bronze medals.