Second-year senior Angelina Simakova is definitely one of the top Russian all-arounders at the moment and proved this by winning the AA gold at the Russian Championships and winning the verification before that. However, she has also been struggling with hitting at international competitions lately, on top of dealing with the ankle injury she got at Worlds. While Valentina Rodionenko was practically ready to discard Simakova after the unsuccessful showing at Euros, her husband, the head coach of the Russian national team, seems to be more sensible on the issue and recognizes that Simakova can flourish with a bit more help from the people around her. He told TASS:
“At the last European Championships, Simakova competed fine on two events. She currently has issues with going through puberty, she’s having a really hard time. And it’s not just her, it’s almost everyone [on the team] born in 2002. So, we need to think about how to help her now”.
Hopefully, it means that the coaches will find ways to guid Simakova through this process and she’ll get more chances to compete internationally.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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Rodionenko is right..she has Somerville issues with her puberty.good luck Angelina..
Some puberty excuse me