Valentina Rodionenko told RIA Novosti that Ksenia Klimenko and Sergei Naidin will represent Russia at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. Klimenko won bronze in the all-around and gold on bars at the European Championships, however, her performance at the Youth Olympic Games qualifier in Baku earlier this year was not as stellar and she finished only 7th in the all-around there. But Daria Belousova who finished third in Baku and was also in contention for the one spot at YOG injured her foot during the qualifier and had to miss the Euros.
After the event finals at Euros, Klimenko told Gymnovosti that getting to the Youth Olympic Games was her biggest dream for this year.
Q: You qualified to the bars final in first place. Did it affect your performance today? Were you thinking: “I was first and I got to stay first”?
A: Something like that, yeah. It’s just that bars are my event. Today it didn’t go so well on the beam, but generally, beam and bars are my events, on which I can fight [for the medals].
Q: And what happened on the beam today?
A: I just tried to be on the safe side today and didn’t do one combination, I was very afraid [to make a mistake]. I downgraded a bit and I guess because of that both the D score and the final score were a bit lower.
Q: You will turn senior next year. What are your plans and dreams for the next year?
A: To become a European and World Champion. Also, we will soon have the trials for the Youth Olympic Games, for me and another girl, we’ll fight in order to get that spot. And so this year, my dream is to go to the Youth Olympic Games and to win there.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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