The Belorussian men’s team suffered several injuries during the preparation for the World Championships which is seriously affecting their chances at the competition. However, they still plan on making the top-24 and have big plans for the next year: to do well at the European Games in Minsk and to qualify to the Tokyo Olympics as a team.
Alexander Baranov, the MAG head coach, talked to the media about the team’s prospects:
“It was not easy to fill the team spots. Practically a week ago our athletes competed at the World Cup in Paris. They performed well: Yahor Sharamkou got fifth on floor and Vasilii Mikhalitsyn was fifth on pommel horse and sixth on bars, but he injured his knee on the bars dismount and he won’t be able to compete in Qatar because of this injury. Vasilii was one of the leaders of our team. He was an event final contender on pommel horse and parallel bars and he could even fight for a medal on pommels. The junior European champion Sviataslau Dranitski got injured recently at a competition in Batumi. He has already had a surgery and is doing rehabilitation right now”.
“Athletes rarely get injured in training. Usually, it happens during the competition when the adrenaline rushes and the desire to perform a specific element is through the roof. That what happened with Slava and he tore his Achilles. I think Dranitski will start tumbling in about half a year, so we’ll likely see him at the European Games in Minsk”.
Baranov said he had to replace the experienced gymnasts with the younger ones:
“The leader, Andrey Likhovitskiy, participated in more than one World Championships and also at the Olympic Games. Now, he will have to do compete in the all-around instead of his planned four events but I think he’ll manage. Dzianis Sanuvonh will also compete in the all-around. He is undoubtedly prepared. For Raman Antropau, Yahor Sharamkou and Kiryl Tsiareshchanka, this is the first competition of such a level. Overall, the team is prepared well, even though it will be quite hard without the leaders. Nevertheless, we have to do achieve our goal there and make the top-24 in order to keep fighting for the spot at the 2020 Olympics. It will be harder next year: we’ll have to make the top-12. For now, our level, if we look at it objectively, is 12th-16th place. But we’ll try to get through”.
Baranov also said that the federation is placing high hopes on the European Games that will take place at home in June of 2019. Since the competition is individual, Baranov feels like the Belorussian men have good chances of making finals and winning medals on individual events. According to Baranov, Viktor Doilidov, one of the most successful Belorussian coaches, is coming back from Turkey to work in Belarus again. The plan is to revamp the whole current system both for MAG and WAG “so that, in the future, it will not be necessary to invite Americans”, said Baranov, referring to 2015, when two American WAG gymnasts were invited to represent Belarus.
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Photo: European Games
