Just like old times as Russia dominates
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Under the leadership of renowned rhythmic gymnastics coach Irina Viner, Russia swept the board at the world championships with a domination reminiscent of the Soviet era.
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Daria Dmitrieva of Russia performs with the ribbon during the individual final at the World Championships on September 23. Dmitrieva took gold of the event. Photo: AFP |
In contrast to the disappointment over Russia's poor performance in the Winter Olympic Games and its failure to make the soccer World Cup finals, the rhythmic gymnastics squad clinched eight gold, five silver and one bronze.
The championships cemented the reputation of Viner, who has coached numerous Olympic, world and European champions during her long-lasting career.
"Of course we're happy with the results," Viner said.
"We missed only one gold in the group competitions. But, I believe, we will make the right conclusions to improve our performance in the future."
Russian gymnasts Evgenia Kanaeva, Daria Kondakova and Daria Dmitrieva dominated the individual competitions, sweeping all the gold medals.
"It's great that we have three, top class gymnasts in our squad," Viner added.
"It's tough competition between them and I believe they will all improve their performance."
Viner, the daughter of an artist, was born in 1948 in Tashkent, the capital of the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan, which at that time was a part of the Soviet Union.
She started her career at the age of 11. Her skills and original style of presenta-tion soon stood out allowing the young prodigy to become Uzbek champion three times.
But success in sports was not the only feature of this multi-talented girl who went on to earn a degree in medicine a few years later.
Viner moved into coaching in 1969 and started working with the Uzbekistan rhythmic gymnastics team just three years later.
She stayed with the team for 20 years.
After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 Viner trained British rhythmic gymnasts, leading two of them into the 1992 Olympic Games.
Following the Barcelona Games, Viner left Uzbekistan for Moscow, taking the post of head coach at Russia's Olympic training center.
She started by coaching her only gymnast, Amina Zaripova who won their first medal for Russia at the world championships at Alicante, Spain, just a year later.
Athens Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva, Sydney Olympic gold medalist Yulia Barsukova and Yana Batyrshina, who earned the silver medal at the Atlanta Games, all came up under Viner's watchful gaze.
Viner's secret of success is her family touch.
Some of her gymnasts lived in her Moscow house where the coach also cooked and washed the girls' clothes.
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