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Russian teams registered for Tokyo World Championships

Nominative registrations for the forthcoming World Championships are now available at the FIG website.

Russia has confirmed its teams as follows :

MAG

Konstantin Pluzhnikov (reserve)
Emin Garibov
Sergei Khorokhodin
Nikita Ignatyev
David Belyavski
Denis Ablyazin
Anton Golutsotskov

It is great to see some new faces on the team.  

WAG

Alyona Polyan (reserve)
Ksenia Afanasyeva
Viktoria Komova
Anna Dementieva
Yulia Belokobylskaya
Tatiana Nabieva
Yulia Inshina

Inshina, Komova and Belokobyskaya compete at world championships for the first time.   Maria Paseka did not quite make the cut this time - she didn't look ready at the Ghent World Cup this weekend and, besides, Inshina complements the team's skill set much better.  But remember, this time last year Dementieva was the reserve gymnast.

Komova and Dementieva have their personal coaches travelling with them to Tokyo.  WAG judges for the Russian team are Vera Kiryashova (coach to Tatiana Nabieva) and Vera Kolesnikova (mother/coach to Viktoria Komova).

With all the injury problems that the Russian team has faced this year, I'm relieved to see them reach this point with such a strong team.  At their best they are a close match for the USA, Romania and China, and I hope they can stay healthy and put up a good fight in the team and all around competitions. 

Thanks to Albert who spotted this link first!

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