Valentina Rodionenko - beam mistakes were not psychological

Valentina Rodionenko during podium training.  Courtesy of the RGF

Allsport today interviewed the Russian head coach as Russia's women took their first steps in these World Championships.  Competing in the first subdivision, on the first day of the competition, qualifications 'didn't go badly', according to team captain Aliya Mustafina on her Twitter account.  She was right: apart from a hesitant presentation on beam, the team did about as well as could be expected, perhaps even exceeding expectations on vault and floor.  Now read on as Valentina responds to Maria Staroveva's questions directly after the first subdivision.

You can say that the girls have qualified normally,  said Valentina Rodionenko. Yes, mistakes were made. But there is nothing wrong with that. Our team took the lead. In three of the four rounds - floor exercise, vault and bars - our gymnasts have been great, they all showed what they are capable. But on the balance beam things went wrong. Almost all the athletes made mistakes and so the gymnasts didn't receive the marks they should have.  But I repeat: there is nothing wrong with that. In the final - and there is no reason to doubt that we will get there - everything starts again.

There isn't really an explanation for why we suffered errors on this apparatus.  Yes, the first girls did not experience too many problems. I should just say I don't think the problems were psychological. I think the girls just relaxed a bit before they performed their combinations on beam. They were ahead pf the second team with a margin of 13 points - and probably decided that it would be easy.

Let's see what will happen next. Today we have to meet with the team, we'll talk and figure out what happened. Especially we had counted on Masha Kharenkova on the balance beam, but she did not hit her exercise.   During the performance there were mistakes and the dismount was unsuccessful. Perhaps even Aliya Mustafina will not get to the finals on this apparatus.

At the moment it is very difficult to say anything specific. Tomorrow qualifications will be completed - then we can draw conclusions, make plans. The judging is an important question. Will the judges hold the line and judge the same way at the end of the second day as they did at the beginning of the first? They are only people, and a lot will depend on their work. Let's see ...

So far, Mustafina has the best result in the individual all-around and Sosnitskaya is second.  Sosnitskaya is first on vault and Mustafina on bars - but we'll have to see how things stand at the end.

It is very difficult to compete first ...  you can not even imagine how difficult it is to go out at 9 am. And now it's even more difficult - to sit and wait while all the qualifications go ahead. Again, I have no doubt that we are going to finish in the top eight teams. But on some apparatus, to break into the final eight will be much harder.

You will find live results at the FIG website.