Skip to main content

Ksenia Afanasyeva should compete floor, vault at Europeans - Valentina Rodionenko

Twice Olympian Ksenia Afanasyeva with the gold medal she won on floor at the Universiade last summer

Russia's most senior female gymnast, Ksenia Afanasyeva, is recovering well from an ankle operation, and expected to be ready to compete on floor and vault in May's European Championships, said Russian coach Valentina Rodionenko in an interview with press agency Itar-Tass this weekend.  

Afanasyeva has suffered from ankle pain since well before the 2012 Olympics, and after a busy first half of  2013 the injury forced her out of the Antwerp World Championships.  A first operation carried out by Russian doctors last year did not help ease the pain.  'We are very pleased that the second operation, done by German doctors, was successful', said Valentina.

First year senior Maria Kharenkova has also been mentioned as in the running for a place on the Europeans team, and in a February interview Aliya Mustafina also stated her desire to compete in Sofia (May 12th to 18th).

Good luck to Ksenia and to all the Russian team as they prepare for the Russian national championships (31st March to 6th April) and then Europeans.

Link to the report : http://www.sports.ru/others/gymnastics/158505663.html

Comments

  1. Thanks to Veronika who has pointed to a comment by Ksenia on VK to the effect that she is preparing vault and would be happy to help on floor, but didn't exactly expect to do so.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nelli Kim - 'Russian gymnastics has closed in on itself' - Lupita translates

Lupita has translated this ITAR-TASS interview with Nelli Kim.  It's controversial, to say the least. Ed's note : much of the initial response to this interview - both here and in the wider gymternet -  has focussed on the detail of Kim's words and especially her comments about Viktoria Komova, and smiling.  But I think these have to be taken in context, and not too literally. Don't forget that just a day ago Andrei Rodionenko complained bitterly about the judging in Antwerp, calling Kim's behaviour 'aggressive'. Kim is responding to this here, and to the wider current context of Russian gymnastics.  What she is essentially saying to the Russian coach is 'get your own house in order, produce confident, disciplined, well trained gymnasts - stop complaining, do your job, and I will do mine.'   She goes about saying this in a somewhat long winded way and says some things along the way that seem contradictory, unfair, inappropriate even for th...

Review of Russian WAG at the 2014 World Championships

The Russians during a team talk in training for the World Championships.  Courtesy RGF Bronze all the way for Russia then.  Beyond the euphoria and surprise of this morning's competition there doesn't really seem to be much to write home about. I am delighted for Aliya personally that the efforts she has made to help the team have provided her with some tangible result, but the principal feeling at the end of the competition is that of relief.  As Vaitsekhovskaya said in her article last week, there were no moments of shock and awe from the Russians, and that's what will be needed if they are to compete for gold medals in Rio (translation available here ). Let's consider a timeline of the competition : before, during and after. BEFORE The promise of a return to the Worlds stage by Viktoria Komova gave Russia a feeling of optimism pre-Russia Cup.  However, Viktoria's performance at this important competition gave little reason for celebra...

Who will travel to Berne? A Russian mystery

Aliya Mustafina and team candidate Seda Tutkhalyan - both from Moscow Five days left before the MAG European Championships open in Switzerland, and Russian gymnast Nikita Nagorny is posting videos of himself practicing a full twisting Roche vault - I wonder if he will compete it in Berne?  The men's team seems fairly well prepared and ready to travel as announced some weeks ago - Kuksenkov, Belyavski, Ignatyev, Nagorny, Ablyazin.  But the composition of the women's team, who will travel to their first major competition of 2016 next week, seems somewhat undecided.  Will Natalia Kapitonova make her major senior debut in June, or will Seda Tutkhalyan, her dynamic yet unpredictable rival, grace Russia's team?  Or will other gymnasts be brought into play; will further, unexpected, changes be made? If head coach Valentina Rodionenko's recent announcement is to be believed, it is a simple case of replacing the injured Maria Paseka (a vault specialist) with Natalia ...

RRG Archive - scroll by date, from 2024 to 2010

Show more