Valeri Alfosov, the head coach of the Russian MAG team, talked to RIA Novosti about his expectations for the team at Euros and the plans for the rest of the season.
Q: The team came back to Glasgow three years later. What emotions the men’s team has coming to Great Britain?
A: The memories about Glasgow from three years ago are good, we placed 4th there and qualified to the Olympics and then went to Rio. Today, the competition in Glasgow is a bit different, the format is different, there are new rules in this Olympic quad, all this affects our goals. Especially since the competition was moved [from its traditional dates], and after the finish, we will have the Worlds championships in practically eight weeks, and the Worlds will be a qualifying stage for the Olympics. That’s why we consider both the Euros and the recent Russian Cup more like a preparation for Qatar. But of course the competition in Glasgow is serious, the guys will fight for both the team medals and for the individual medals.
Q: So, the seriousness of the competition cannot be understated?
A: In no way. The guys will show the routines they were preparing.
Q: If we’re talking about the aims and the goals for the competition, what are they? To work on consistency for the Worlds?
A: Of course, the main goal is to try and test the competition routines which are prepared for the Worlds. To make corrections, to see how the judges will perceive these routines and how they’ll score them because there weren’t enough international competitions this year. Yes, some of the guys went to international competitions, but not all of them.
Q: If compared to the last year, how much the routines changed?
A: Almost all the guys changed their routines in accordance with the rules of the new Olympic quad. You know that the D scores became lower by half a point on each apparatus. And still, the guys are trying to upgrade the difficulty and get to the high level of the D score. We more or less know the D scores of all the leaders and we’re trying to reach them. All gymnasts added on all events. They lack consistency in execution for now.
Q: It seems that you managed to avoid health problems and the top team came to Glasgow.
A: Yes, lately we’ve been seriously dealing with giving treatment to our gymnasts, they had special rehab treatments. There are still minor injuries, of course, but nothing serious, which makes us happy.
Q: I’d like to learn a bit more about the situation with Denis Abliazin, why didn’t he make the Euros team?
A: He’s a strong gymnast who can win medals in event finals and we are always happy to see him on the team. But the Olympic qualification process has changed. Abliazin only does three events but the Olympic team will be four people instead of five. If we put Abliazin and Lankin on the team, these two gymnasts won’t be able to compete on high bar, pommel horse, and parallel bars. But don’t forget that the qualification rules allow Abliazin to get a spot through World Cups and to compete at the Olympics. And there’s even an option to put him on the team later, after he gets his nominative spot. But we decided not to bother Abliazin now because there are young gymnasts – Dalaloyan and Lankin – who we need to try out and see how they do.
Q: So, this means that the artistic gymnastics will now rely more on all-arounders?
A: Yes, now the rules changed and the FIG’s technical committee is aiming at developing more all-around preparation, so the all-arounders are more needed than specialists.
Q: How many people can go to Tokyo as a part of the Russian MAG team?
A: Four people on the team, but generally there are six spots, two can be earned via World Cups by both specialists and all-arounders.
Q: Nikolai Kuksenkov is one of the most experienced gymnasts on the team. How does he manage to compete with the younger gymnasts and stay at such a high level, making the major teams?
A: After Rio, we set a goal to keep the Olympic team, the guys were all sent to rehabilitation. I can say honestly about Kolya Kuksenkov, this gymnast has the most discipline, he loves gymnastics, he did a proper treatment and currently, he’s topping the younger gymnasts on high bar and pommel horse. That is, he won over Eltcov, Poliashov, and Prokopev. With his experience, we trust him. And the coaching staff is very happy for Kolya. I’ll repeat: the doors of the national team are always open and we never discount anyone too early. If a gymnast shows international level results, we will always be happy to take him onto the national team despite his age.
Q: Ivan Stretovich had a difficult recovery after a wrist surgery but he managed to overcome many difficulties by the Russian Championships. What state is he in right now?
A: Vanya has recovered, he managed to do all-around at the Russian Championships and he’s now competing as an all-arounder. He did much better at the Russian Cup and he’s a candidate for the Olympic Games. Regarding the upcoming Worlds, there’s one issue: for now, he has low difficulty, he hasn’t yet upgraded all of his routines according to the new rules. But the high level of execution stayed the same, he’s mentally tough and he’s ready to fight. We hope that he will be competitive on our team, if not for these Worlds, then for the next year.
Q: Who are you considering to be your main competitors this year – both in Europe and in the world?
A: We have our traditional competitors. We have information that the Chinese team is very strong, they have both strong all-arounders and specialists. The Japanese team is traditionally good and now they have young and ambitious gymnasts. The US team stays strong, Brazil has a very good and interesting team, I really liked them, I saw them at a competition in Stuttgart. The strong European teams are the Germans, the French and the Swiss. The competition in men’s gymnastics isn’t slowing down, it’s only gaining momentum.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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