Anna Baranova


Anna Baranova is a rhythmic gymnastics coach, former Spanish national coach and current coach of the French national team. She has held the position of coach of the Spanish group in two stages: the first from 2004 to 2008, and the second from 2011 to 2020. In both she had the help as a coach of Sara Bayon. In this period the Spanish team, known as the Equipaso, has won silver at the Olympic Games in Rio 2016, became double world champion in 10 clubs, won world All-Around bronze in 2015 in Stuttgart and finished in 4th place at the 2012 London Olympics.
On June 5, 2015, she was granted Spanish nationality by naturalisation. In 2016 she was awarded with the Bronze Medal of the Royal Order of Sports Merit.

Biography

First time as Spanish coach (2004–2008)

2004–2008: Beijing Olympic Cycle 2008

After the Spanish federation didn't renew Rosa Menor nor Tania Nagornaia, after the 2004 Summer Olympics, Anna Baranova was chosen by the Royal Spanish Gymnastics Federation to be the head coach of the Spanish rhythmic gymnastics group. He went on to train the Spanish team with Sara Bayón at the Madrid High Performance Centre. In 2005, at the World Championship in Baku, Spain finished in 7th place in the All-Around and in 6th in 3 hoops + 4 clubs' final. The group was formed that year by Bárbara González Oteiza, Lara González, Marta Linares, Isabel Pagán, Ana María Pelaz and Nuria Velasco.
File:Conjunto español 2006 Mie.png|thumb|Anna Baranova with the Spanish team in the World Cup Final in Mie
At the beginning of March 2006, the Spanish group won 3 silver medals at the Madeira International Tournament. In September 2006, at the World Cup event held in Portimão, the group achieved bronze in 5 ribbons and silver in 3 hoops + 4 clubs, in addition to 5th place in the All-Around. That same month, at the European Championships in Moscow they ended up in 5th place in the All-Around and 5th place in the 5 ribbons final. In November the Spaniards participated in the World Cup Final in Mie, where they got 5th place with 5 ribbons and 8th with 3 hoops + 4 clubs. The team composition was practically the same as the previous year but with Violeta González replacing Marta Linares.
In April 2007, at the World Cup held in Portimão, the team was 5th place in the All-Around and 6th in both the 5 ribbons and the 3 hoops + 4 clubs finals. In May the Spanish team won the silver medal both in the All-Around and in the 3 hoops + 4 clubs final of the World Cup held in Nizhny Novgorod, in addition to the 4th place with 5 ribbons. In September of that same year they took part in the Patras World Championship. The team placed 5th in the All-Around, which qualified them for the 2008 Summer Olympics. They also finished 6th with both 5 ribbons and 3 hoops + 4 clubs. In December they competed in the Pre-Olympic in Beijing, obtaining All-Around 8th place. The team was made of Bárbara González Oteiza, Lara González, Isabel Pagán, Ana María Pelaz, Verónica Ruiz and Bet Salom.
For this time, in addition to the holder, in the preparation for the Olympics other gymnasts such as Sandra Aguilar, Cristina Dassaeva, Sara Garvín, Violeta González and Lidia Redondo were integrated in the team. In June 2008 at the European Championship in Turin, the group finished in 6th place in the All-Around and 4th place in both 5 ribbons and 3 hoops + 4 clubs. In August of that year they participated in the Olympic Games in Beijing, obtaining the 11th position in the qualifying phase after committing several errors in their second routines, 3 hoops and 4 clubs. This made the team unable to get into the Olympic final. That year, at the World Cup in Benidorm, the Spanish team won two silver medals in the 5 ribbon and the 3 hoops and 4 clubs competition. The group was then composed by the same gymnasts who went to Beijing: Bárbara González Oteiza, Lara González, Isabel Pagán, Ana María Pelaz, Verónica Ruiz and Bet Salom.
In October, after the 2008 Summer Olympics, Bulgaria's Efrossina Angelova became the new national coach, replacing Anna Baranova.

Second time as Spanish coach (2011–2020)

2011–2012: return to the national team and London 2012

In January 2011, after the departure of Angelova, Baranova returned as coach of the Spanish team, again with Sara Bayón as her vice. She was presented as new coach on January 7. At that time the team was three months behind the others in term of preparation, the time interval between the dismissal of Efrossina Angelova and the hiring of Anna Baranova, Some gymnasts returned to their clubs of origin during this period, although several continued to work on body and apparatus technique with Noelia Fernández waiting for a new coach. With the return of Baranova and Bayón, two new routines were made with the aim of qualifying via that year's World Cup circuit for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The new 5 balls composition was on "Red Violin" by Ikuko Kawai, while the 3 ribbons 2 hoops used Malagueña by Ernesto Lecuona in Stanley Black And His Orchestra and Plácido Domingo's version. During the 2011 season, the group trained by Baranova and Bayón, and formed by Loreto Achaerandio, Sandra Aguilar, Elena López, Lourdes Mohedano, Alejandra Quereda and Lidia Redondo, qualified for several finals in World Cup stages, in addition to winning the 3 gold medals at both the US Classics Competition in Orlando and the II Meeting in Vitória Brazil. At the World Championships in Montpellier, France, they didn't qualify directly for the Olympics, as they obtained the 12th position and a place for the Pre-Olympic after a ribbon knot in their 3 ribbons + 2 hoops routine. They also achieved 6th place in the 5 balls final. After the World Championship they continued their training with the aim of finally qualifying for the Games in the pre-Olympic test event. In November they participated in the Euskalgym and in December, in the I International Tournament of Zaragoza, they won the silver medal behind the Russian group.
In January 2012 they participated in the Pre-Olympic event, where they won the gold medal and qualified for the Olympic Games. Spain won a major competition for the first time since Seville 1998. In May, the team won All-Around bronze at the Sofia's World Cup and the gold medal in the final of the mixed routines of ribbons and hoops. In July 2012 the team won the bronze medal in the All-Around of the World Cup event held in Minsk.
Subsequently, Baranova traveled with the team to the London 2012 Olympic Games, her second Olympic experience as the coach of the Spanish group, having also coached the team in Beijing. In the qualifying phase, the Spanish team, composed of Loreto Achaerandio, Sandra Aguilar, Elena López, Lourdes Mohedano, Alejandra Quereda and Lidia Redondo, finished with 54,550 points who placed them 5th in the All-Around and qualified them for the final. In the Olympic final held at the Wembley Arena, the group first performed with 5 balls that gave them a score of 27,400 points, placing them in 5th position and improving by 0.250 from qualification. In the 3 ribbons + 2 hoops routine they scored 27,550 points, an inquiry for the difficulty score was issued, although it was rejected. The two routines gave them a total of 54,950 points, which served to finish the competition in 4th position and obtain the Olympic diploma.

2013–2016: Rio 2016 Olympic cycle

2013: first world title as coach in Kiev

In 2013 the 10 clubs was on "Blind" by Miguel Poveda, and the 3 balls and 2 ribbons on a mix of "Still", "Big Palooka" and "Jive and Jump" by The Jive Aces. The new members of the team this year were Artemi Gavezou and Marina Fernández. In April of that year, at the World Cup in Lisbon, they won All-Around gold and bronze with 3 balls and 2 ribbons. Subsequently, they won the silver medal with 10 clubs at the Sofia World Cup and bronze in the All-Around at the Saint Petersburg World Cup.
On 1 September at the World Championship in Kyiv, after being 4th in the All-Around the previous day, the Spanish group won gold with 10 clubs and bronze with 3 balls + 2 ribbons. The clubs' score was 17,350, which gave them the world title ahead of Italy and Ukraine, second and third respectively, while in the mixed final, the score of 17,166 was not enough to oust Belarus, that it was silver, and to Russia, that won gold. The group consisted of Sandra Aguilar, Artemi Gavezou, Elena López, Lourdes Mohedano and Alejandra Quereda. These were the first medals won by Spain in a World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship since 1998.
After being proclaimed world champions, the gymnasts of the Spanish group made a tour where they participated in several exhibitions, such as those held at the Arnold Classic Europe in Madrid, the Solidarity Gala in favour of the Man Project in Burgos, the Gala of Gymnastics Stars in Mexico, D. F., the Euskalgym in Bilbao, in Lyon, in Conil de la Frontera, in Granada during the Spanish Group Championship, and in Vitoria for the Christmas Gala of the Federation Alavesa of Gymnastics. In addition, they made a calendar whose purpose was to raise money to pay for the next competitions. In 2014, the captain of the group, Alejandra Quereda, asked about the fact that no Spanish television channel broadcast the World Championship in Kiev and about the lack of media at the airport when returning to Spain, replied:

2014: European bronze in Baku and second world title in Izmir

Several injuries and physical problems of some members of the team, such as Elena Lopez's knee pain or a bone edema in the left ankle of Lourdes Mohedano, delayed the start of the 2014 season. On March 29, 2014, the group participated in an exhibition in Vera, where they premiered the new 3 balls + 2 balls routine on "Intro" and "Mascara" by Violet, in addition to 10 clubs, which had some modifications compared to the previous year. The following week, the same five group members who had been world champions in Kyiv travelled to Lisbon to compete in the World Cup, their first official competition of the season. In Lisbon they won the gold medal in the All-Around, while they won silver in the two apparatus finals. In the last competition before the European Championship, the Minsk World Cup, the girls won All-Around silver, bronze in the final of 3 balls + 2 ribbons, in addition to a 4th place in the final 10 clubs.
In June at the European Championship in Baku, they got the 5th place in the All-Around and then won bronze in the 10 clubs final. The score of 17,550 placed them behind Russia, silver, and Bulgaria, that won gold. In addition they got the 5th place in the final of 3 balls + 2 ribbons. This medal was the first achieved by Spain in a European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championship since 1999. Two days after the Europeans, on June 17, a reception was held for the national team in the CSD to celebrate this achievement. The president of the Royal Spanish Federation of Gymnastics, Jesus Carballo, described the Spanish group as "one of the best teams we have had" and highlighted the value of the medal to be achieved before "countries with much more history and many more resources to be able to take the podiums". Alejandra Quereda, the team captain, pointed out that «"t is a sample of the great moment of form in which we are".
In August a World Cup was held in Sofia, where the Spanish group was 4th in the All-Around, just 0.5 short of bronze, thus falling behind Italy, Bulgaria and Russia that took gold. The next day, they won the bronze medal in the 10 clubs final and 5th place in the 3 balls 2 ribbons final. For this competition Artemi Gavezou, who was recovering from an injury and could not travel, was replaced by Adelina Fominykh in the clubs routine and by Marina Viejo in the mixed one, making it the debut of both with the starting group. That same month, again with Artemi as holder, they participated in the IV Meeting in Vitória, where they achieved silver in the All-Around and in 3 balls + 2 ribbons, and the gold medal in the 10 clubs final. At the beginning of September at the World Cup event in Kazan, the members of the Spanish team took bronze in the All-Around, the 4th place in the 3 balls and 2 ribbons final, and the 8th place with 10 clubs.
At the World Championships in Izmir, several drops and an out of borders in the 3 balls + 2 ribbons routine, made the Spanish group finish in 11th place in the All-Around, managing to qualify only for the 10 clubs final. The following day, on 28 September, the Spanish team managed to win the gold medal in the 10 clubs final for the second consecutive year. The score was 17,433, which gave the Spanish the world title ahead of Israel and Belarus, second and third respectively. The team was made up of the same members who also won the gold medal in Kyiv the previous year: Sandra Aguilar, Artemi Gavezou, Elena López, Lourdes Mohedano and Alejandra Quereda.
After being proclaimed world champions for the second time, in October the team traveled to the LG Whisen Rhythmic All Stars 2014, held in Seoul, South Korea, where they performed the mixed exercise and participated in an exhibition. On 20 December 2014, the Spanish team participated in the tribute, in Palencia, to their coach Sara Bayón, performing two exhibitions. The recognition took place at the Marta Domínguez Pavilion.