Elena Eremina was the most successful gymnast on the Russian WAG team at these Worlds, qualifying to three finals and medalling in two of them. Eremina became 5th in the beam final, with a somewhat weaker routine than her performance in the qualification. She suspects that nerves and fatigue were to blame for this result:
“I guess it’s because I was nervous. I can’t say whether I’d be able to win a medal if not for the mistake on the dismount. Whatever happened – happened. I’m a bit tired already from such a long competition, so, maybe, this also played a role.”
Aliya Mustafina had practically no doubts that Eremina would medal in the all-around:
“When I learned her qualification results, I had practically no doubts that she would medal in the all-around if not for mistakes. If she tries really hard, she can become the team leader in the future. Eremina needs to upgrade a little bit everywhere. She doesn’t have a weak apparatus, all of her routines are decent, but she needs to upgrade everywhere.”
Nellie Kim also noted that if Eremina upgrades, she can become one of the leading gymnasts internationally:
“I really like Lena Eremina as a gymnast, she competes here cleanly and well. Her routines are beautiful, she’s an elegant girl, but she absolutely must upgrade her routines in order to fight for the medals on all the apparatuses. Generally, I’m very happy that there are such girls like Eremina and Angelina Melnikova on the Russian team. They both inherited the best features of the Soviet school of artistic gymnastics: choreography, they have a high level of ballet training. Of course, it would be nice for them to be more relaxed during the competitions. Look at the Americans who are smiling and waving to the crowd. You need to know how to work the crowd, our girls lack that, they’re shy. I used to be like that as well.”
“Talking about Eremina, she’s capable of becoming a leader in the international WAG. She has everything she needs for this. I can’t only vouch for her fighting character, I don’t really know her well yet. But if she’s a fighter by nature, it’ll be easier for her to win in Tokyo. Although, the competition will be very hard there. Don’t forget about Simone Biles who’s missing this season and who has very difficult routines”.
Photo: Russian Federation of Artistic Gymnastics
