The athletes showed exercises with a jump rope and a hoop on the first day of the tournament that is taking place on the Sirius Federal Territory.
The Sky Grace is being held for the second time. Last year, athletes competed in Moscow and Lala Kramarenko won. Now the Russian star is also on the list of participants, but the tournament is taking place on the Black Sea coast — at the new Academy of Rhythmic Gymnastics. The competition has become higher, including due to four more representatives of our country and Anastasia Salos, the master from Belarus. On the first day, the girls performed with their usual hoop and the unfamiliar jump rope that had disappeared from the adult program more than a decade ago.
Unique rules
The Rhythmic Gymnastics Academy near the Olympic Park on the Sirius Federal Territory is designed for regional teams and clubs and is part of a multifunctional sports complex. All work in the building has been recently completed, and the participants in the Sky Grace were the first ones to perform on the new floor. The hall was attended by many spectators who were invited to be the first to visit the Academy. By the way, there is a museum of the history of rhythmic gymnastics there. The display also tells about the change in rules that took place in this sport at different periods of time.
Project organizer Alina Kabaeva, head coach of the Russian national team Irina Viner, CEO of PJSC Gazprom Alexey Miller, Aide to the President of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin, and Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Veniamin Kondratyev delivered welcoming speeches at the opening ceremony. After that, the announcer stated that several Olympic champions were attending the competition as honored guests. Further to Alina Kabaeva, these are Alexandra Timoshenko, Yulia Barsukova and Evgenia Kanaeva. Our artistic gymnastics stars — Svetlana Khorkina and Alexey Nemov also arrived.
The return of the jump rope is not the only innovation designed by the Sky Grace organizers. According to the regulations, this component is based on jumping, and the hoop must contain an equal number of all body elements. At the same time, the number of elements of the object and the body is not limited.
World champion and competition judge Vera Sesina assumed in a comment for Sport-Express that the jump rope would be the most challenging object for gymnasts. "I think this kind will be inferior to all the others, because girls practice exercises with a hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon every day and perform with them once or twice a week. And they didn't pick up the jump rope for five to seven years. It is difficult to complete a program as complex in terms of intensity as with other kinds. We are interested nevertheless to see how the gymnasts will cope."
So it happened. Kramarenko, the competition leader, scored four points more with the hoop than with the rope. Truly, she did not make any visible mistakes in both kinds. The rest of the gymnasts had the same situation — there was a feeling that the jump rope was more challenging. The girls did not avoid inaccuracies and losses, and sometimes they had to disentangle the object.
As expected, Salos was the closest to Kramarenko. However, she is more than five points behind Lala after two kinds. It seemed that Nastya had difficulties when performing with the said jump rope, but this is normal. Furthermore, qualification results should not influence the final — and the representative of Belarus is to definitely get there.
Anastasia Guzenkova, one more Russian national, is third. She had the jump rope entangled, just like Mariia Borisova had. Masha is now only on the seventh line. However, the gap from the fourth place is very small — less than a point.
On Saturday, gymnasts will qualify with a ball, clubs and a ribbon, and eight participants in the final will be determined after that. They will actually compete for the Sky Grace medals — they are to show all the five exercises again on Sunday.
Source: Sport-Express daily.