Andrei Rodionenko talked to Sport Express about the results of the European Championships, the Russian team’s preparation for Worlds and the issue that’s been worrying the fans around the world – will Aliya Mustafina go to Worlds this year.
Q: What do you think about the team’s performance at the European Championships?
A: It’s not the kind of competition where it makes sense to draw conclusions like that. We considered the European Championships to be an intermediate competition in the preparation for the World Championships. The most important thing is that we discovered a lot of things that should be corrected. They’re different for each athlete. There’s still time, so after a week of rest, we’ll start the main work.
Q: Let’s start with the women’s team that was somewhat experimental.
A: It’s not an experimental team already, it’s the main team. We don’t have any other options but to refresh the team. And the only way to do it is at competitions because until you look at the gymnasts at a tough competition fight, you won’t understand anything about them. At practices, everything can look completely different. I don’t want to evaluate the girls’ performance now because it will be premature. The World Championships will show whether they live up to the trust or not. And for now, everything can still be fixed.
Q: What’s happening with Aliya Mustafina who’s coming back after having a baby but couldn’t compete at Euros because of an injury?
A: No one but Aliya herself can answer the question whether she’ll be ready for the World Championships. Aliya walked her path to the Olympic medal more than once now and she understands perfectly what requirements are imposed on an athlete at that level. She knows how to evaluate her condition objectively. Right now Aliya is training, she’s taking it very seriously but only life will tell what this will turn into.
Q: The men’s team, on the whole, has much more depth than the women’s team and there wasn’t such a drastic change of generations there.
A: It’s important to understand here that the World Championships will have a completely different format than the European Championships. The Olympic format that will be in Qatar involves two days of qualification. This has never happened before.* And there’s also the question how to qualify to the Tokyo Olympics. It won’t be easy for the event specialists.
Q: Who impressed you among those competing in Glasgow?
A: I really liked the Irish gymnast [Rhys McClenaghan] that became the European pommel horse champion. He was practically unknown but he showed an absolutely unique program. It still lacks reliability and quality of execution but who knows what will happen at the World Championships.
Q: And among the Russian gymnasts?
A: I don’t want to say anything because, as I said, the competition was a preparation. In general, we’re not pessimistic at all despite the fact that not everything we planned was achieved. Everything’s really close, the results are sometimes divided by literally a few hundredths of a point. That’s why making predictions is an ungrateful business. We’ll keep working and then anything is possible.
*In fact, this has happened before and many times. The qualifications at the World Championships were spread over two days (two for MAG, two for WAG) in 2017, 2015, 2014 and before that as well, so it’s not clear why Rodionenko claimed it’s a new
Gymnovosti is able to provide coverage of the European Championships thanks to the support from our patrons on Patreon.
