From July 19 to July 21, Russia, the birthplace of rhythmic gymnastics, will host the first World Championship among juniors in history. Irina Viner-Usmanova, President of the All-Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, spoke about preparations for the Championship: “We're preparing for a very long time. Since last year, we started to prepare the program. These are the first competitions, the largest in the world and the largest in these girls' lives.
There will be four exercisesin total, and the result of the team depends on each girl. As for the group exercise, we have very good coaches working with our team. They were preparing in St. Petersburg, the birthplace of rhythmic gymnastics. Their coaches graduated from the Lesgaft Institute (National State University of Physical Education, Sports and Health), where rhythmic gymnastics began to emerge and where the first competitions were held in 1948. "
According to Irina Viner-Usmanova, all tickets have been sold-out for a long time: “We have withdrawn 1,500 tickets for our kids from all over Russia from the sale and distribute them for free. Children come and watch competitions. There will be many important guests who want to look at the new Gymnastics Palace in "Luzhniki". It's in a form of waving ribbon. The entire building was built in the style of Russian folk art. 1,200 people worked on this facility. There's also interactive museum, where you can see the entire history of rhythmic gymnastics. Competitions will be opened by Olga Golodets and Sergey Sobyanin."
Natalya Kuzmina, head of the technical committee of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), spoke about how the idea of the World Junior Championship was born: "When Morinari Watanabe from Japan became the head of FIG, its priorities changed, and more attention was paid to rhythmic gymnastics. Over the past year, a lot of preparatory work has been done to create the program of this Championship. We developed new program that will be interesting for many federations that can get medals or get to the finals."
Natalya Kuzmina said special program was adopted last year at the FIG Congress in Baku: “Thanks to the Russian Gymnastics Federation for its immediate respons, we will hold the first Championship in Moscow. Based on feedback from coaches, gymnasts, national federations, media, as well as the public, a decision will be made, and I hope that these competitions will be in the official calendar program of the International Gymnastics Federation."
