Tatiana Nabieva competed for the Russian national team last time in 2014, at the World Championships. Since then, she occasionally competed in the French gymnastics league, attended Sokol Grand Prix in 2017 and was a staple at national competitions but never got camp invitations despite often outscoring national team gymnasts. Last month, she was finally invited to Round Lake and is now one of the main candidates to represent Russia at the Summer Universiade. Nabieva competed at the 2013 Universiade and said multiple times that she hoped to return to that competition again.
Another unexpected candidate for the Universiade team is the 2016 silver Olympic medalist Seda Tutkhalian. She’s been recovering from an ankle injury for the past three years. She has recently won AA at the National Student Championships in addition to winning gold on bars, silver on floor and bronze on beam. It seems like she might be slowly making her way back on the national team.
Valentina Rodionenko told TASS that Tatiana Nabieva and Lilia Akhaimova are the main candidates for the team, while Seda Tutkhalian and Polina Fedorova are fighting for the third spot:
“The national team for the Universiade is almost complete. For women, Tatiana Nabieva and Lilia Akhaimova are slated to compete, while Polina Fedorova and Seda Tutkhalian will fight for the third spot. If Nabieva, who attended the last camp, will get herself together and clears her mind, she will have a good chance. She’s light, beautiful, flying, she can do difficult vaults, she has good bars. Nabieva was only left out because of her character, no one was writing her off.”
Polina Fedorova won silver in AA at the National Student Championships, in addition to gold on floor and beam and silver on vault and bars. Her last international competition for the Russian national team was the 2015 Universiade.
According to Rodionenko, the men’s team will likely consist of Ivan Stretovich, Ilya Kibartas and Kirill Prokopev.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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This makes me so happy! 🙂