The Russian team is flying to Minsk for the European Games on Monday. At the beginning of this week, the women preparing for the European Games and the Universiade had a verification. The federation posted a video with some fragments of routines and short interviews with Anastasiia Iliankova, Aleksandra Shchekoldina, and Andrei Rodionenko.
Anastasiia Ilainkova has a great all-around potential but back injury has been slowing her down. She often competed on only one event – her signature bars – at the latest international competitions. For European Games, she is also preparing to compete on beam:
“I’m in a great mood, I did really well at the verification, but I still need to work on my routines a bit more. There’s one more week until the European Games and on June 24th, we’re going to Minsk. I’m preparing bars and beam. On bars, I just need to do my routine cleanly. On beam, I’ll be competing after a certain period of rest and I just need to do it consistently and cleanly, with an easy routine, just go out and do it. Right now, the team is full of positivity, everyone wants it and prepares for the European Games. I hope that everything will work out. Cheer on us and we’ll try to meet your expectations!”
Aleksandra Shchekoldina missed her first senior year because of back surgery. She started her comeback at the Russian Championships this year and then competed at the DTB Challenge but European Games will be her first major international competition:
“It’s the first time I’m going to a competition of such caliber and for me, I guess, it will be a very interesting competition, the most important competition at the moment. I’m focusing on floor and vault but I’ll be doing all-around.”
Andrei Rodionenko was happy with how the verification went on floor but noted that the team currently has issues on floor:
“European Games are a special kind of competition. There’s no team final, only the all-around and event finals. What we need to aim for are medals, preferably, of the highest value, in all the finals. Today, the vault looked good. We used to get ready on it quite late but now all the team candidates are doing competition-level vaults. However, the rest of the events, especially floor, cause wariness because there are issues with landings on tumbling passes and something is lacking in choreography. That is, in general, floor routines require serious work both in terms of quality and consistency. Mentally, I think, the gymnasts are prepared quite well. However, in order to show good results, they need to be braver and treat the competition they are preparing for more responsibly.”
“We have two all-arounders and Iliankova. In the all-around, there will be Melnikova and Schekoldina, and on bars – Iliankova. She has a routine that allows to expect medals, she proved it by winning the European Championships on bars. Regarding the all-arounders – there’s no functional preparation for doing the all-around as a whole. That is, they have it on an average level, but to have each event on the highest level, so that all of them would give a good overall score – neither of the gymnasts has it yet. Melnikova is more experience, I think, she’ll be able to achieve it in this last week. Regarding Shchekoldina, a lot has been missed. This is practically her first more or less serious competition ever. I guess, she lacks that confidence and anger to achieve what we expect from her. I really want to believe that both gymnasts will take it into account and will show their best results in Minsk.”
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