The experiment was a success! Sky Grace winning Moscow

Report from the Sky Grace international tournament.

The Sky Grace international experimental tournament held on the initiative of Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva ended in Moscow on Friday. Thirteen gymnasts from different countries of the world took part in the competition and tested unique rules (a mix of what happened in 2001-2005 and what will be in the new Olympic cycle). Lala Kramarenko of Russia, who showed four new exercises in different styles, won the all-around. Several Olympic champions in rhythmic gymnastics, Mariinsky Theatre prima Svetlana Zakharova and ballet dancer Sergei Polunin took the stage during the tournament.

Friendly atmosphere in the world of rhythmic gymnastics

The second day of the competition at the Sky Grace tournament was held almost according to the classical pattern. Since athletes perform in the absolute all-around in Moscow, exercises with clubs and ribbons were demonstrated on Friday. However, Svetlana Zakharova, the former Mariinsky Theatre ballet dancer, opened the day instead of a gymnast. She went on the stage and performed the famous solo number of The Dying Swan. Another surprise awaited the audience after the competition. Sergei Polunin, a famous ballet dancer, went to the mat. Phone flashlights and glowing bracelets lit up in the stands with his lyrical performance.

The atmosphere was generally very warm — the audience welcomed all the gymnasts coming out on the mat, especially loudly greeting the tournament's main star Lala Kramarenko. There are the same relations between the rhythmic gymnasts in the Russian national team also. Alina Kabaeva spoke about that in a short interview before the competition with clubs.

— Our team has a very friendly atmosphere. Even our coach, Irina Viner-Usmanova, always wanted a little bit of competition. But we didn't have it. I understood that I was going out to the mat alone and if I dropped an object, it was my only fault. This is not a team sport. We still have good relations with each other, the Athens 2004 Olympic champion said.

Almost all gymnasts coped well with clubs. 2000 Olympic champion Yulia Barsukova joked that she was lucky not to have clubs in the all-around program at the time of her performance at the Olympics — she did not really like this subject. Lala Kramarenko received the highest score at this tournament (37.4 points), performing under the Garganta Con Arena composition by Marea Tango and Javier Yuch.

The Averins appeared as warriors

However, many athletes experienced problems with the ribbon. This is one of the trickiest subjects anyway because it is challenging to perform various difficulties with it. They also had to recall the order of the elements and the new programs — after all, the exercises had to be staged in a short time. That’s why some rhythmic gymnasts had small mistakes and even losses when performing with the ribbon. Still, this did not stop Lala Kramarenko and she also won in this discipline with the Kiss Me Now lyrical song. As a result, the Russian gymnast won the all-around with the total score of 14 points away from the one grabbing silver.

All participants of the competition attended the award ceremony. All tournament participants were awarded memorable gifts, and medals were received by Lala Kramarenko from Russia, Anna Kamenshchikova from Belarus and Ketevan Arbolishvili from Georgia.

The award ceremony was followed by a gala concert. It was opened by world champions Dina and Arina Averins, who performed their demo performance as warriors. The sisters skillfully handled all the objects and remained with swords in the end. Then young gymnasts and creative teams also performed, with accordion playing and jumping rope at the concert.

The vivid show was the final chord of the very successful tournament giving extraordinary emotions to the audience in the hall and to those watching the competition online over the two days. Alina Kabaeva, the author of the tournament idea, the organizers of the competitions, choreographers, judges and, of course, the gymnasts themselves and their coaches are among the co-authors of the success.

All Olympic champions in rhythmic gymnastics, honored coaches and invited guests — Olympic athletics champion Yelena Isinbaeva and Olympic artistic gymnastics champion Alexey Nemov, as well as famous gymnasts Anastasia Maximova, Anastasia Bliznyuk and many others — communicated warmly, shared their impressions and took pictures with each other after the tournament.

Sky Grace. Tournament results

Source: Sport-Express daily.