The Russian Team Championship was held early March in St Petersburg.  It was the first competition used to determine the roster of the Russian Team for the 2006 European Championships to be held in Metz, France, at the end of May.  The Russian Cup to be held on April 5-9, 2006, in Togliatti, and the Dobrovolsky Cup to be held from April 30 through May 3, 2006, in Krasnodar, will also be used to select the team.  The article linked below reports in detail the results from the Russian Team Championship.

Vitaly Dubko, the Head Coach of the Russian National Team and the Krasnodar trampoline club, provided his comments on the Russian Team Championship.  He mentioned that 2005 World Champion Irina Karavaeva and 1998 World Champion German Khnychev had locked a spot on the Russian Team for the European Championships as they had taken the lead after the preliminary round of the competition. 

According to the rating schedule on the Russian Federation's website, it seems that Anton Gonakov, the winner of the competition, also locked a spot.  The site states that men must perform routines of 16.0 pts or more in order to be on the team, and women must perform routines of 13.5 pts or more.  Based on the website, it seems that Nikita Fedorenko has locked a spot for the European Youth Championships. 

Dubko commented that the numerous crashed were due to the fact that many athletes experimented new difficult routines. 

He mentioned that, although 2005 World Champion Alexander Rusakov and 2005 World silver medalist Natalia Chernova fell at the competition, he was confident that they would not be any problem for them to make the team.  He expects them to rectify the situation at the Russian Cup in Togliatti.  Dubko also stated that he considered that Natalia Kolesnikova and Irina Vasilieva (St Petersburg) had high chances to make the team.  He mentioned that the winner, Alina Khametzanova, did very well.

In the men's, Dubko commented that there was a very strong concurrence between Dimitri Ushakov (Yeisk), Alexander Leven (Krasnodar), Yuri Koziakov and Alexei Zenischev (both Voronezh) to make the team. 

Dubko mentioned that Gonakov's victory was a very pleasant surprise as he outdistanced former World Champion German Khnychev. 

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