Daria Spiridonova will compete at her first World Championships this autumn. Picture : RGF Natalia Kalugina has confirmed the Russian team for Nanning : Aliya Mustafina, Maria Kharenkova, Tatiana Nabieva,Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Daria Spiridonova. Reserve : Polina Fyodorova Here is a paraphrased translation of a comment by Natalia Kalugina on her Facebook page : 'Aliya has confidence in competition and she is, kind of, a coach to this team. In Europe she succeeded in this role and she has told the coaches that she even liked it. The main fighting force will be Kharenkova, Sosnitskaya and Spiridonova. Accordingly, the strongest apparatus will be beam (Marina Bulashenko With God!). The Chinese women, of course, have been known to win that apparatus, but if one falls, they all fall. Alla Sosnitskaya could compete in the vault final, and - in theory - on the floor. On bars, of course, Russia will probably lose to the Chinese women, but the...
Hmmmm, I think is is great how wonderful of a leader Mustafina is, but at the same time, it seems unhealthy that the gymnasts are having a hard time without her. Sure, the team total isn't as high and it may be a little disheartening without their leader, but should the individual gymnasts' performance and preparation really be affected that much? I can hardly imagine this happening if, say, Simone Biles got injured and was out.
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