The Rugby World Cup is taking place in Zealand . Team Russia are participating for the first time in history and have already played 2 group matches against the United States and Italy, which they both lost unfortunately.

Russia will play another 2 matches at the world cup in New Zealand against their other group opponents Ireland and Australia.

We got a hold of Richard Van Poortvliet  the correspondent for RT, Russia's 24 hour news channel in English, who is in New Zealand right now covering the World Cup and everything that has to do with the National team of Russia. You can listen to the interview in podcast.

The 2011 rhythmic gymnastics world championship is gaining momentum in the French city of Montpellier. On Tuesday the first medals of the world meeting found their holders. And we are very happy to inform our listeners that Irina Viner’s girls celebrated double success in France with the Olympic champion Evgenia Kanaeva and world silver medalist Daria Kondakova earning two golds and two silvers respectively. 

The Queen of the Russian rg gymnastics, the two-time all-around world champion and the holder of the Olympic title Evgenia Kanaeva lived up to the expectations of her coaches and fans by confirming the status of the strongest rhythmic gymnast of the world.

On Monday the elegant Russian lady Kanaeva won the preliminary competition with two apparatuses receiving the right to perform in the final of the main gymnastics start of the season. Her compatriot Daria Kondakova was not at a loss either as she delivered practically immaculate routines with a ball and a hoop qualifying for the final round of the world championship.

Unfortunately the third representative of the Russian rg team – Daria Dmitrieva didn’t cope with her nervousness. She made a drastic mistake to be more exact she dropped the ball while performing in qualification and as a result she finished just 31st missing an opportunity to participate in the final event of the championship.

Bit we should say that Dmitrieva rehabilitated for her failure by demonstrating a perfect program with a hoop. Daria collected third best sum of the day for her tender routine but to great disappointment of the young lady she was not allowed  to take part in hoop final.

The thing is that two other Russian girls Kanaeva and Kondakova were at their best taking first and second places in standings respectively. And according to the rules established by FIG only two gymnasts who compete under the flag of one country can fight for medals in the finals. So, due to this restriction Dmitrieva was forced to stay out of the final.

At first 8 best gymnasts who qualified for the final showed their routines with a hoop. Predictably the best student of Irina Viner Kanaeva amazed the judges with her extremely difficult hoop routine collecting quite a decent sum of 29.300 points. This was enough to defend the world title Evgenia earned at the previous world championship.

Another promising member of the Russian team Daria Kondakova impressed all of the spectators by her splendid program with a hoop. Her excellent routine was accompanied by the applause of none other than the strictest rg referee – the head coach of the national team Irina Viner. This is the highest praise that exists for the Russian gymnasts. Viner’s happiness can indicate only one thing – the girl managed to cope with all the required elements.

But even this brilliant routine delivered by the Russian talented lady was not enough to outscore the current leader – Evgenia Kanaeva. Well the judges were generous to Daria Kondakova giving her 29.250 points, but it was 0.50 points less compared to Kanaeva’s score. Israel’s Neta Rivking surprisingly competed the podium with a score of 28 points. So, two Russian ladies occupied the first two steps of the podium clinching gold and silver in a hoop event.

An hour later the girls changed a hoop to a ball and continued to compete for the awards of the 2011 world championship. The leader of the Russian team Evgenia Kanaeva pleased her huge crowd of supporters for the second time by establishing another victory at the world arena. The Russian star and 2012 Olympic hopeful Evgenia Kanaeva won the event by huge margins.

Picking up an unbelievable score of 29.600 points Kanaeva turned out to be unreachable for her opponents, including her teammate Daria Kondakova who settled for silver with quite an impressive result of 29.050 points. Lubov Charkashina of Belarus took bronze in this event.

After the competition the two-time 2011 world champion Kanaeva talked about the secrets of being on the top "I don't have any secrets," I have people with me, who above all, work every day so that every day I improve and improve. I don't ever think about medals, I'm just happy and glad when it works out."

Russia is leading the team competition ahead of Belarus. Ukraine is in current third place outscoring their counterparts from Azerbaijan.

The competition will continue on Wednesday with clubs and ribbon qualification, with the finals taking place on Thursday. Russian gymnasts are the main favourites of these events who intend to set another sweep of all the gold and silver individual medals at the world championship.