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Grebyonkin: Aliya succeeded in spite of knee pain

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In an interview with Albert Starobutsev of ITAR-TASS, Russian WAG team coach, Evgeny Grebyonkin, spoke of Aliya Mustafina's performance in the all around yesterday.  'We are very happy with the performance of Aliya', he said, 'she completed her task, pulled herself together and managed to win a bronze medal, even though she had hurt her knee.  This explains why her bars dismount was not perfectly landed.  On beam, I liked how Aliya performed'.

Aliya herself has also spoken of the impact of her health on her performance at these Worlds.  'It is a joy' she said of the bronze medal she won, 'especially as just before the World Championships I suffered a virus, which left me with almost no physical strength, and even worse, sapped my morale'. 

Aliya added another bronze medal to her collection in today's uneven bars final, while in the men's competition Alexander Balandin secured a silver in rings.  You can find full results of these competitions here.

Congratulations to all the gymnasts, and good luck to Aliya again, and to young Anna Rodionova, who compete in the beam final together tomorrow afternoon.
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