Oleg Verniaiev has competed in the qualification today with hit routines on parallel bars and pommel horse and will likely make at least the parallel bars final. This competition comes less than two months since his surgeries on both ankles.
On how today went:
I’m very happy. Generally, there’s not much to say for now, I did what I was supposed to. I’d like to make the pommel horse final and I think I’ll make the final on bars. I’ll be checking out the competition on pommel horse now. Well, I’m happy, my coach is happy, For today, I guess, it was the best I could do. We’ll see.
On whether he is doing full routines in training:
No. I haven’t even tried some elements in training yet. For example, on bars, I haven’t done a Bhavsar since December. We’ll see what happens in the final. The issue is that my endurance only allows me doing average difficulty now. Even today, I was supposed to do a stutz to one bar, but I took it out and did a stutz to two bars, I don’t have the endurance, the conditioning. Perhaps, a miracle will happen and I’ll be able to do it. In any case, in the final, you need to either go for broke or not compete at all.
On how his ankles are feeling:
My legs are fine, I’m not doing much after all, I only did two dismounts carefully, so I’m ok.
On why he started competing so early after the surgeries:
That’s what my coach and I
On whether he wants to go to European Games:
Of course! It’s not the main reason why I came here but I understand that if I win a medal here, I can qualify to the Games right away. I liked it there the last time, so why not go again? And it will be close for my parents to travel, and, generally, I need to compete as much as possible before Worlds, so it will be good for me.
On whether he knows where he will compete next:
I don’t know anything. I don’t know what will happen after Euros because I wasn’t planning anything, I was told about Euros only a week before. We’ll finish here and will start planning. The most important thing is that I need to work on my legs and my shoulder and to train.
On whether he is in pain:
Yes, I still am. I’m working on my shoulder, I’m trying. The legs, I’m only doing a couple of dismounts, I’m warming them up, taping them, and it’s fine. I’m in pain, but the pain is because the full recovery period hasn’t passed yet. The pain in the shoulder is enormous. But I competed without pain killers right now, without anything. Last year I always took pain killers [before competing]. So, we’re working on it. I need to condition the shoulder, so that the muscles would hold everything tight.
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