Mustafina will perform all four in London - Andrei Rodionenko

Thanks to Alan who alerted me to this English language radio interview with Head Coach of the Russian team, Andrei Rodionenko.

Rodionenko has a lot of thinking to do before the London Olympics.  Picture courtesy of the RGF.

 Rodionenko's key points were as follows :

• For the Russians the Europeans were a control test for a young inexperienced team rather than the endpoint.  Sometimes the Europeans are the most important competition but this time round we have the Olympics in plain view and the main goal was to collect information to help decide what kind of team to take there.  
• He was happy to see the Romanian team so good and taking gold.
• This was not the final team that will go to London; Afanasyeva and Dementyeva were both sick, and in London Mustafina will perform on all four pieces of apparatus.  The fact that she competed on only three pieces in Brussels significantly affected her psychological preparation.
• Will the team be ready in two months?  Rodionenko replied that 'we must fuel our athletes.  50 per cent of our planning wasn’t very good.'  It's a very serious conclusion for them: the preparation of athletes, 'their feeling and their realisation of the situation', needs work. 
• It was acknowledged that the Russians had sacrificed this championships for good performance at the Olympics – they just wanted to see Russia’s newcomers in action and who can make the remaining two spots
• The Russians will take three all arounders with them to London - Mustafina, Komova and Grishina - the remaining two spots will be allocated either in a three and one or two and two formation, and will be decided from Afanasyeva, Inshina, Paseka, Dementyeva.  [Please note : I did not hear Rodionenko say Sidorova but this may not be significant - she is with the team in Sochi so I am guessing she is still in the running and this may just be my defective hearing of Rodionenko's English.]
• Rodionenko emphasised the difficulty of making a decision whilst working across effectively two different competition formats - in qualifications 5-4-3 and in finals 5-3-3.
•  Results from the Russian Cup, to be held mid June in Penza, will be part of the final decision process and they hope to find a solution there to their selection.