Polina Fyodorova is now fighting for the final spot on the Russian team
As control competitions took place at Lake Krugloye today, Valentina Rodionenko provided an update to the latest selection news, identifying beam specialist Polina Fyodorova as a late addition to the team. Doctors have also now deemed Ksenia Afanasyeva unready to compete at Worlds as she needs more time to recover from her ankle injury. Caution is the watchword here as the health of both Ksenia and Viktoria Komova is being preserved for the long road to Rio.
Valentina has clarified the status of Maria Paseka, omitted from yesterday's team announcement and the subject of injury speculation. Maria has suffered an ankle injury recently, and while it is not serious, it has affected the gymnast's confidence. 'The ankle needs time to rest, and bounce back', said the head coach, 'Unfortunately, we don't have that time. Besides, Maria has doubts that she could perform ... We cannot take a gymnast to Worlds who is not sure, it's too risky.'
The WAG team line up is now Mustafina, Kharenkova, Spiridonova, Sosnitskaya and Kramarenko, with Nabiyeva and Fyodorova now filling the two final slots.
On the subject of MAG, journalist Natalia Kalugina has provided some great updates on Facebook of today's control competition. Denis Ablyazin is fully recovered from the injury that prevented his participation in Russia Cup finals, Nikolai Kuksenkov is in fine form. Belyavski found the competition hard, but held his form. Of the newcomers to the team, Ivan Stretovich is looking good on high bar, and Daniil Kazachkov only needs to fight a tendency to overtrain. Nikita Ignatyev may be fighting off a small injury, if I have understood the translation clearly.
As Natalia says, everything can change between now and the beginning of the competition. I expect there will be a few more decisions to make in the next couple of weeks. Not long now till the team travels to Nanning, then there is podium training to get through before the big days in October.
I wish the gymnasts and coaches all the very best of luck and strength! We are all sending positive thoughts to you!
Source : http://www.allsportinfo.ru/index.php?id=86439 and Natalia Kalugina
Picture courtesy of the RGF.
Does this make sense to anyone? Afanasyeva, Fedorova and Nabieva are all specialists on different pieces. Where are they actually lacking? Surely not on bars, otherwise what was the point of bringing Kramerenko?
ReplyDeleteIt's confounding to everyone but I think it proves that they have to go on who's still standing rather than who makes sense? its 'whoever is healthy' is their team logic. Ksenia was always a nonsense suggestion. Vika, a possibility but even she didn't sound confident a decent bb could come back in 3 weeks, and Nabs is just so far behind in terms of d-score, e-score, and stamina that they seem willing to give anyone else a shot as long as they can outperform her. Whatever the reason, RUS is coming into World's with a weak FX rotation.
DeleteI don't really think RUS is that devoted to saving up for Rio; they seemed willing to sacrifice many unhealthy or unready girls until the doctors stepped in and pulled the plug. Realistically, if they were thinking long term, such girls would never have their names mentioned with World's. Like how USA pulled Maggie Nichols because she had a dislocated knee; such an injury is easily fixed but she wouldn't be 100% which is what they need. Martha didn't even pretend she was in the running anymore; she was not invited to the selection camp. It's a missed opportunity now, but US is thinking long term, it MAY be a saving grace is she can be more useful.
Russia has said all along that these Championships are but a step on the way to Rio.
DeleteI don't fully understand what is happening, but in think we should all remember that what is told in the press almost certainly doesn't reflect the full reality if what is happening in the team. All sports teams play the same game; they don't show their full hand, either to try to hide weaknesses, or to protect potential strengths.
What we feel as fans is the last thing on the Russians' minds at present. This team will probably change again before they travel in Friday. And again before the comp. there will almost certainly be a major weakness on floor, but that has always been so without Afanasyeva (who I never thought was a serious contender), Grishina and Komova. We just have to wait and see,
Well, I'm not always on board with the team logic, but one thing I can clearly say is that there's never a dull moment from Round Lake.
ReplyDeleteI'm trying to stay optimistic with the Russian team. I'm hoping they're just realizing that this worlds won't be their largest medal haul and want to get as many inexperienced girls they can to experience a large international meet to help motivate them to get continue to grow in the sport and to help them get mentally ready for the road to Rio.
ReplyDelete-Jay
Right now the only one on the Russian WAG team that could bring some gold or any medal color is Mustafina and maybe Kharenkova and Spiridonova if they hit on their events. On the team event only with the others falling.
DeleteNow with the current last standing russian soldiers it seems like
ReplyDeleteVT : Mustafina, Sosnitskaya and Kramarenko
BB: Mustafina, Kharenkova, and Spiridonova/ or Fyoderova
UB: Mustafina, Spiridonova, and Kramarenko
FX: Mustafina, Sosnitskaya, Fyoderova/ or Kharenkova
IF and I say IF only IF, they remain healthy till competition.
Alfi
That means Mustafina is going to do the heavy lifting as usual in TQ (4 events) , TF (4 events), AA (4 events), EF (God only knows how many)
Nabieva only adds up in V and UB, other than that she is extra.
Do either Nabieva or Kramarenko have a double twisting Yurchenko right now?
ReplyDeleteOMG Aliya once again doing the whole thing.
ReplyDeleteWell, why not. Seemingly she is the healthiest we have seen in a good while and scoring well on all four events. She has genuine shot at an AA medal and, as we see in gymnastics, you never know when today's work out/performance might be your last... Better ask Aliya what her ambitions are!
DeleteAnother Anon