Thanks to Vera Nikitina who posted this picture on Ksenia Afanasyeva's VK.com group
Just a brief list of all the ups and downs of the past few days. My main wish now is that all the Russian gymnasts take time to recover fully and come back to competition only when they are ready, at full physical and psychological strength.
Ksenia Afanasyeva has just (Friday) had an operation on her leg (nothing more specific, not sure if it is a re-injury) that she injured on vault in team final at Russian nationals. She will stay in Munich for a further two weeks, and have to remain on crutches for six weeks. 'It's not easy', she says. Thanks to Olya Terentyeva for the information.
I thank Radio Moscow Echo journalist and gymnastics specialist Natalia Kalugina for the following updates from Round Lake :
Ekaterina Kramarenko is very ill and in hospital; on a drip :-( She will be replaced by Anna Rodionova in Sofia. Anna is looking beautiful on beam, but struggling with her own injuries, so we will have to wait and see.
Aliya Mustafina will probably compete bars and beam only as she is experiencing leg pain. (Via VK) : she has had MRI scans in the past few days, ankle.
(Via VK/Instagram) Viktoria Komova had her operation last week and is currently sharing a room at the Munich clinic with Ksenia Afan. In a recent interview, Vika's coach, Gennady Elfimov, says he hopes she will be ready to compete at Worlds; but he is pretty non-committal.
Evgeniya Shelgunova has just returned to Moscow from Munich following arm surgery. It is expected she will resume full training in the summer.
Maria Paseka is having back problems and will not be considered for Euros.
No more news from Anastasia Grishina and her injury/operation, other than early reports that the injury wasn't quite as bad as first thought.
Finally, I think that overall, given the level at Europeans, the young Russian team (Rodionova, Spiridinova, Sosnitskaya, Kharenkova and captain Mustafina) will probably gather a fair number of berths to finals, and probably win a few medals in events. There is no all around competition so the important thing though is the team. Romania will most likely be strongest there; Iordache and Bulimar are both currently on excellent form. Personally speaking, I hope Russia will fight for silver and I am expecting that they may finish with bronze. Britain is looking strong for these Championships and Italy and Germany could be in contention too if they have good competitions.
This young team stands to gain experience and develop competition toughness by exposure at an important competition such as Euros, provided they are properly prepared. What Russia stands to gain, if they capitalise on this situation well, is added strength in depth. Russia is currently too reliant on its Olympians to win medals, given their injury-stricken state, and these young girls, competition-hardened and fit, could be a vital reserve. A healthy team of Mustafina, Komova, Grishina, Afanasyeva and Kharenkova is potentially world-beating against any team in the world. But questions have to be asked about Russia's 100% injury rate amongst its veterans. Is something lacking in the training? Is the competition schedule too dense? Was Valentina Rodionenko wrong to pressure Afanasyeva to compete at nationals? Or is it just that Russia has too few top performers? The USA has its fair share of injuries, but they are less consequential as there are good reserves, and less pressure therefore to recover quickly. Injuries are often down to bad luck. But having said all that, Russia currently seems to be an accident black spot.
RRG wishes all the gymnasts the best of luck. All of us, readers and writers, send our love to the girls who will be competing in Sofia, and to those recovering from injury. We know that you will all do your best, you will delight us, and we look forward to seeing you with smiling faces and on winning form, in Sofia and beyond.
Update 9th May from Valentina Rodionenko on Rsport : Maria Paseka was excluded from selection on sports principles she is overweight and off form. Private rumours suggest Maria is in hospital with a rib or back problem
First, hope the girls all get back healthy.
ReplyDeleteSecond, I don't know what it is. The girls are probably not doing enough exercises before they start doing gymnastics exercises, something that obviously went down after Alexndrov left. They seem to be more injured now than ever before.
They might be rushing them back too quickly as well. There was no reason for Ksenia to do any events at Russian Nationals and now she is out for a longer time. Komova seems to be getting more injury prone by the minute. Hopefully this ankle surgery will rid her of her constant ankle problems. She hasn't competed since Olympics 2012 (2 years)!
Aliya is probably pushing herself a bit too hard, because she knows she is the only veteran who is "relatively" healthy and now she hurt herself. That being said, it's nice that they have at least some young gymnasts coming up, and it will be interesting to see how they do.
Romania has even less top performers and Bulimar was injured but is back now, so I think it is something with the Russian training.
So most of the russian camp is suffering from injuries except for the two Rodionenkos!!! LOL
ReplyDeleteBecause they are the reason of the injuries. Imagine, a women with ZERO knowledge and experience in coaching gymnastics is the NATIONAL COACH. Ridiculous. They won't be leaving Round Lake before destroying everything. Thanks to their son in law.
DeleteCall up Nabs!
ReplyDeleteThe Russian journalist you quote was very disappointed by mustafina's form. She wrote she's overweight.
ReplyDeleteYes, Russians kind of like their gymnasts borderline anorexic, but they shouldn't be surprised when girls lacking muscle and body mass get so easily injured. Aliya Mustafina has a very strong physique, hence her being the only member of the team still standing relatively healthy.
DeleteKomova's father recently stated that Vika will spend two months recuperating, then it's back to Germany for "rehabilitation," and if all goes well, there will be two months left to prepare for Worlds.
ReplyDeleteBetter to keep her for the next Olympics. No way she will be able to get fit for Worlds
DeleteTwo months doesn't really seem very long to prepare for Worlds when she has already been out of training for most of the last two years ... Competing in Rio is a very hit and miss ambition for any athlete, let alone a gymnast.
DeleteMaybe we will see Vika on beam and bars in future. She seems so fragile in so many ways.
I don't think she has not been in training for the past two years. After all, she said herself she was ready to compete at worlds last year right up till she got the illness. She was "very prepared" is what she indicated and also had the 2 1/2 twisting vault. And she still is in training, albeit without the load she needs to put on her bad ankle to do difficult tumbling and vaulting again, but training and conditioning nonetheless. You are already assuming she might do just bars or beam when they both have grander plans? Let us wait and see before we write her off as too fragile mentally or broken physically, etc. It's over two years to Rio and I'm still not quite ready to even say she's finished for worlds this year. Sure, her odds of winning the AA just went down, but who knows... She might still medal or have a shot at a bars/beam medal. Besides, no other gymnast is standing out now as a clear #1 candidate to win come October.
DeleteI used to be a gymnast and let me tell you something, two years without serious hard core competitive training pretty much means you're a goner. There are exceptions, but with Komova's mental game, I firmly doubt she's one of them.
DeleteUpdate from Valentina Rodionenko: V Afanasyeva (May 2nd) has had a second surgery on her ankle (she says just a clean up); Komova (April 27th) a third. Emin Garibov has had surgery on both shoulders. Grishina is back from Munich where she had an operation. All of the gymnasts are training with an eye on the World Championships. 'It turns out that this effects all those who competed at the Olympics' says VR.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=82728
That edit belongs to russianpoise.tumblr.com
ReplyDelete