Anna Pavlova won the silver medal on vault at the 2014 European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held in Sofia, Bulgaria May 12-18, 2014. It was Azerbaijan's first medal at European Championships, and Pavlova's seventh, the other six being for her native Russia.

“I was very nervous whether I will do well in my first European Championships competing for Azerbaijan," Pavlova said (quoted by Gigi Khazback Farid on her site wogymnast.com). "I am very happy that I managed to win the first medal for my new country. They are helping me to stay in the international circuit – I am helping them to win medals.”

For a full report on the meet, see International Gymnastics magazine.

RESULTS, Women's European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, May 12-18, 2014, Sofia, Bulgaria

VAULT
1 Giulia Steingruber SWI 14.666
2 Anna Pavlova AZE 14.583
3 Larisa Andreea Iordache ROM 14.533
4 Alla Sosnitskaya RUS 14.449
5 Janine Berger GER 14.399
6 Claudia Fragapane ENG 14.333
7 Kim Bui GER 13.916
8 Noemi Makra HUN 13.362

FLOOR EXERCISE
1 Vanessa Ferrari ITA 14.8
1 Larisa Andreea Iordache ROM 14.8
3 Giulia Steingruber SWI 14.5
4 Marta Pihan-Kulesza POL 14.4
4 Diana Laura Bulimar ROM 14.4
6 Alla Sosnitskaya RUS 14.266
7 Roxana Popa Nedelcu SPA 14.191
8 Claudia Fragapane ENG 14.133

UNEVEN BARS
1 Rebecca Downie GBR 15.5
2 Aliya Mustafina RUS 15.266
3 Daria Spiridonova RUS 14.966
4 Rebecca Tunney GBR 14.933
5 Sophie Scheder GER 14.733
6 Larisa Andreea Iordache ROM 14.533
7 Kim Bui GER 14.4
8 Roxana Popa Nedelcu SPA 14.266

BALANCE BEAM
1 Maria Kharenkova RUS 14.933
2 Larisa Andreea Iordache ROM 14.
8 3 Aliya Mustafina RUS 14.733
4 Rebecca Downie GBR 14.366
5 Vanessa Ferrari ITA 14.133
6 Marta Pihan-Kulesza POL 13.733
7 Claire Martin FRA 13.366
8 Giulia Steingruber SWI 13.2

 

 

Anna has confirmed her plans to compete at the Voronin Memorial which will begin tomorrow, and last till December 4. This competition will take place in Moscow. She will also be competing at the Feuerwerk der turnkunst competition on December 27 in Germany!

Anna Pavlova Online will be conducting an exclusive interview with Anna to talk about the latest events in her life, and we invite fans to submit questions for the interview! We will be collecting questions to ask her for a week.

You may submit your questions as a comment to this news article. Questions will also be collected on our Official Facebook Pages, and various Gymnastics Blogs we work closely with.

We can now confirm that Anna Pavlova has decided to compete for the nation of Azerbaijan to return to the international arena! On Thursday, FIG announced that Anna Pavlova, along with teammate Yulia Inshina, will be on the WAG team for Azerbaijan. In an article from All Sport Info (Russian Press), Anna said "“My dream is to prove to everyone that I can show good results in the international arena."

Anna correctly describes the team selection process, “First of all, the opportunity to compete at international competitions has always interested me. The russian team for a long time never gave me such an opportunity, regardless of the outcome which I showed in the qualifying national competitions.” She cites that the team selectors, base their decisions "on their own discretion" rather than the results of qualifying events.

“Take for example, the last Russian Cup. There Alla Sosnitskaya was second in the all-around and won three medals in individual events, but did not go to the World Cup. But there went Anna Rodionova, who was fourth in the all-around and in the individual event finals has not earned any awards. Yet, the coach saw her as the future, and at the World Championships she got into the finals on the beam, but the principles of selection does not seem to be understandable."

Anna also cites her vocal opposition to the political decisions prior to her ending her career probably worked against her.

Azerbaijan's main goal in taking on new members for their team is to build a strong squad for the upcoming European Games in Baku which will take place in 2015.

Anna's mother, Natalia, will serve at the national team coach. Given there are no good gymnastics facilities in Baku, the gymnasts will remain and continue to train in Russia.

”After the European Games in 2015, one year before the Olympic Games 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, of course, if I’m in shape – I will continue my career. I have dedicated myself to this sport for 20 years [...]. But you must understand that if I do not succeed – I will not be competing in Brazil.”

Today the event finals were held at the 2013 Russian Cup in Penza. Anna Pavlova won the Silver in the Beam finals! A full report of the competition can be found here (The Couch Gymnast Website).

We will also be updating the photo gallery with new photos from the Event Finals, courtesy of the Artistic Gymnastics Federation of Russia.

Congratulations to Anna Pavlova for finishing in 3'rd place in the All Around final! Her final score is 55.139. Tatiana Nabieva won Gold, with Alla Sosnistkaya following in 2'nd.

Anna qualified to compete in all event finals! The full results and a report can be found at the Rewriting Russian Gymnastics Blog. Credit goes to Ksenia Semenova for releasing the results of the competition.

Also, congratulations to Tatiana Nabieva for her amazing comeback!