The Russian artistic gymnastics championship took place on the federal territory of Sirius.
Against the backdrop of great competition among the country’s strongest athletes, students of the Volga Region University performed successfully - the university has four medals: “silver” by Elena Gerasimova in exercises on the balance beam and Ivan Antonikhin in exercises on pommel horse, as well as “bronze” in the team championship for Stanislav Isaev and Ivan Antonikhin .

The most exciting fight unfolded in the finals of the men's team championship: the Tatarstan team, which included students from the Volga Region University, fought to the end, but in the end they were third with a minimal gap of 0.55 points from the leaders. The first was the team of the Moscow region, which included three Olympic champions, and the second was the team of the Vladimir region.

Based on the results of the championship, Elena Gerasimova, Yulia Nikolaeva, Ksenia Kuzmicheva, Stanislav Isaev and Ivan Antonikhin qualified for the Russian 

"I would like, of course, to defeat the Olympic champions, but I think that in the near future we will definitely take revenge," shared Lyubov Botova, head of the Department of Gymnastics Theory and Methodology. - Three of our gymnasts - two students of the university - Ivan Antonikhin, Nikita Andronov, and one from the college - Kirill Rodionov - performed on the pommel horse. Elena Gerasimova also showed an excellent result - in all-around to the podium, she lacked just a little bit and became fourth. She was also a finalist in uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. In balance beam exercises Elena had all chances to win, but she won silver with a minimal gap.

At present Elena Gerasimova, as a member of the Russian national team, is at the international tournament in Minsk, and the other members of the Volga Region University team are preparing for the next start - the All-Russian competitions among students in Sochi from 12 to 14 April. Even Olympic champions aspire to take part in them, so the tournament promises to be interesting, and we promise to fight till the end".

Text: Daria Bezzubova