Kramarenko showed new programs — while in training. Sky Grace is gaining momentum

Official training sessions were held in Moscow on the eve of a unique tournament, which is held on the initiative of Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva.

The international experimental tournament Sky Grace will be held at the VTB Arena in Moscow on December 16-17. A special feature of the competition will be the rules — a mix of what was in 2001-2005 and the new ones, 2022-2024. Before the start of the tournament, the first official training sessions of gymnasts were held. All the "artists" showed their new exercises. However, while the girls did not need to perform the elements in full force — it is still important to keep the emotions for the performances themselves. So the audience will be able to see the full picture on Thursday and Friday, but for now the athletes have demonstrated the outline of the programs.

Kramarenko is ready for new rules

The Sky Grace will be attended by 13 gymnasts from different countries, including those who competed at Olympic Games-2020. Only the girls themselves will be different — most of them are young "artists" who begin their careers at an adult level. But there are also experienced athletes — for example, Alexandra Kiroi-Bogatyreva from Australia, who has already been noted at the World Championships.

On the day of official training in Moscow, the gymnasts were divided into several groups to take turns on the carpet. During the allotted time (15 minutes for each), the athletes managed to make runs of all their exercises under the hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon and work out individual elements outside the program.

While one group of "artists" tried out a competitive carpet, others warmed up on additional ones. Russian Lala Kramarenko stubbornly honed all the difficulties under the guidance of the head coach of the national team Irina Viner-Usmanova. The legendary specialist tirelessly followed the classes and at the most important moments stood near the carpet, giving instructions to the student. Kramarenko and Viner-Usmanova communicated without words even during the exercise run — it was noticeable how Lala nodded her head to the coach, hearing her comments.

Olympic silver medalist Yana Kudryavtseva was walking slowly near the carpet, and the chief referee of the competition Elena Nefedova and world champion Vera Sesina were sitting at the judges' tables. The coaches of the athletes who had already finished testing were in the audience seats discussing the latest preparations for the tournament. During the training, a corner of tears and kisses appeared in the gym — a place where gymnasts and coaches will wait for the announcement of grades. At that time, journalists were preparing to cover the tournament — they set up cameras, studied the starting protocols and photographed the "artists".

Final preparations

At the request of the participants, after all the runs, it was possible to re-turn on the music from a certain exercise and work out the program again. Belarusian Anna Kamenshchikova and Russian Lala Kramarenko also took advantage of this opportunity.

Olympic medalist Yana Batyrshina said in an interview with SE that the reviews of Kramarenko's programs are only enthusiastic — the new rules are really well suited for an athlete who skillfully owns the elements of body difficulty and perfectly expresses the artistic component of exercises. The productions really should be different from those that Lala's fans are used to — there are also more tender, lyrical parts, and the usual driving pieces of programs.

The Russian woman left the carpet among the last, having managed to run through the elements from the hoop exercise once again. After that, there was a small presentation of the judges, including the supreme jury, as well as individual arbitrators. The organizers of the tournament were left to finish the finishing touches for the competitions and the opening ceremony, and the head coach of the Russian national team Irina Viner-Usmanova took pictures with everyone for a long time.

Source: Sport-Express.