Skip to main content

Russia announces teams for Universiade

Tatiana Nabieva will compete on vault and bars

Russian teams for the Universiade (gymnastics competitions take place 7th to 10th July) have been announced. Team format is 5-4-3 :

MAG : David Belyavski, Nikolai Kuksenkov, Denis Ablyazin, Emin Garibov, Mattei Petrov. Substitute - Nikita Ignatiev.

Women: Aliya Mustafina, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Tatiana Nabieva, Anna Dementieva, Maria Paseka

Kuksenkov has only just gained eligibility to compete for Russia and this will be his first international appearance for his new team.


Mustafina and Afanasyeva will compete all around. Nabieva has recovered from her injury and regained form and will be able to contribute on bars and vault, although she does not at present have a second vault.  If they want to win a medal on vault, they will have to take Maria Paseka. 

There is an interview with Valentina Rodionenko about the selection here.  It is clear that there is still some final decision making left to do before the teams travel to Kazan.

With thanks to Lifje for providing the information and link.

Comments

  1. I wonder whose decision it was for Aliya to compete all four events...Hers, coaches, Rodionenkos...After seeing her clearly not 100% at Euros, I wonder if this is the best move. I feel like she barely had a chance to comeback fully after her last injury, and now they are back to working her into the ground...Fingers crossed she has an injury free rest of her career!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In all interviews, I've seen, Aliya showed here great interest in competing in Kazan.

      Delete
    2. Yea I don't doubt that. It is the biggest competition for Russia, I know id wanna compete no matter what. But is it the best decision for her? I mean who knows, she could be fully recovered from euros...hopefully!

      Delete
  2. Rodionenko still insists, that Xenia will show her Amanar in Kazan. That should be very interesting.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Excited to see Anna Dementyeva on the roster

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mustafina on Roschina

ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), October 24. /TASS/. Russian gymnast Lyudmila Roshchina, who won silver in the individual all-around at the World Championships, succeeded precisely because she focused on challenging herself rather than competing for medals. This is the assessment of Aliya Mustafina, a coach for the Russian national team and a two-time Olympic champion, who spoke to TASS. "Of course, I wasn't certain that Lyudmila would end up on the podium in the all-around, though I certainly hoped she would," Mustafina said. "The general instruction was not to think about medals or rankings. As they headed from the warm-up area to the competition floor, I told the girls: 'Don't worry about where you place—just focus on challenging yourselves.' And Lyusya managed to do exactly that." "Her mindset played a major role, too; she was in a very positive frame of mind even back in the warm-up area. So, I wouldn't say that winning this silver was an incre...

Aliya Mustafina - new interview

Aliya in her new Olympic Games outfit.  The teams were kitted out at the Bosco Olympic centre in Moscow last week 'Europeans went quite well, for me personally and for the team.  There were no big blunders or falls and we were able to show a good result.  If we continue to work in the same way as we approach the Olympics, everything will be fine ... Although of course we will need to do a little more in Rio.  For the Olympic Games, everything will be right. 'My knee [Aliya suffered a torn meniscus for which she had surgery last November] is all right, there are no problems with it, I am not worried. 'We will try to fight for first place. But we will be happy with any medals . As usual, our main rivals will be the teams of America, China and the UK. 'It will now be very, very difficult to fight Simone Biles [in the AA] because she has a very large D score. In general, in the individual competition, my goal is just to perform well. The most important thing in the Olymp...

Roschina on Mustafina

 Roshchina discusses Mustafina’s role in the Russian national gymnastics team The Olympic champion has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026 and specializes in the balance beam. "Aliya Fargatovna gives us all sorts of advice and handy tips, which is a huge help to us," Roshchina admitted, adding that Mustafina has been her idol since childhood. Mustafina has been working with the Russian senior national team since the beginning of 2026, specializing in the balance beam. Prior to this, she served as the head coach of the women’s junior national team. Roshchina is 18 years old, and the world championships in Rotterdam mark the second high-level competition of her career. At the 2025 World Championships, she finished 11th in the individual all-around. In August, in Zagreb, she became a European champion as part of the Russian team, which competed under the "World Gymnastics" banner.

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more