Mustafina will likely miss Russian Championships

Valentina Rodionenko told R-Sport that Aliya Mustafina will likely miss Russian Championships that will take place on March 6-10. This is due to the fact that Mustafina is listed to compete at both Stuttgart and Birmingham World Cups later in March and the federation wants to rest her before the international competitions.

Rodionenko said that several other athletes who have international assignments will also likely get a pass to skip the nationals:

“Everyone will compete at the Russian Championships, except for the ones who will be at a World Cup at the same moment. We will probably let them skip because there is little time between the competitions. Among those are Mustafina, she is going to World Cups in Birmingham and Stuttgart, and we are considering a few more people, we’ll decide closer to the event. The rest will be in Penza.”

As usual, it is not completely clear what Rodionenko meant because no one will be at World Cups at the exact moment of the Russian Championships. Russia opted to skip the American Cup on March 2 and the Melbourn World Cup on February 21-24. Russia is supposed to send a team to Jesolo that takes place right before the nationals – February 28 – March 3. However, it is not yet clear whether they are sending seniors there, plus, last year, the dates were also close and the team that competed at Jesolo went to compete at Russian Championships the very next week.

The closest World Cups after the nationals are the Apparatus World Cup in Baku on March 14-17 followed by Doha the week after, and we are likely to see Maria Paseka, Daria Spiridonova, Denis Abliazin and Kirill Prokopev at both of them as they are trying to win an individual Olympic spot. So, it might make sense to let those gymnasts rest as well, since their results at World Cups are more important than competing at the nationals. Russia is also sending both MAG and WAG to Stuttgart (March 16-17) and Birmingham (March 23). Artur Dalaloyan is supposed to compete at Stuttgart and Nikita Nagornyy is listed on the roster for Birmingham. In addition, Russia is also sending both MAG and WAG teams to DTB Pokal challenge on March 15-17.

Mustafina was originally listed among the stars of a gymnastics gala in London that will take place on the same day as the Birmingham World Cup and was featured in the promotional materials but opted to participate in the World Cup instead.

There are no start lists for the Russian Championships yet but the federation has just released a trailer:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtoR5CvBE02/

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