Valentina Rodionenko gave an interview to Sergei Smyshlyaev from RIA Novosti with updates on the national team gymnasts, the preparation for Euros and the plans for Worlds.
Q: The women’s team has arrived in Glasgow for the European Championships. What is their mood?
A: Everything’s great, we settled in the hotel, got the accreditations. Everything is according to plan.
Q: The team that went to the European Championships is quite experimental, except for Angelina Melnikova. What are the goals set for this team?
A: The main goal for our girls is to be consistent throughout the competition, to show their routines on the level they really can do.
Q: Literally a week before the competition, Viktoria Komova was left off the team because of the verification results. Does she still have a chance to get back on the A team?
A: Of course. She has to prepare for the World Championships and in this case, everything depends only on her. She will be preparing with everyone else.
Q: Melnikova who just turned 18 came to Glasgow as the team leader. How ready is she mentally for this responsibility?
A: It’s important to note that there’s no all-around competition here, her task is to compete consistently, without jitters. Don’t forget that the World Championships are ahead of us and the Euros are rather a test competition. That’s it. I think she’ll be ok. She feels fine.
Q: Since we’re talking about the competition format – it’s quite hard. Three people up on the apparatus and all three scores count.
A: Yes, it’s very hard but what can we do? And it’s not like this is the first time such a format is used. There’s no room for mistakes, the price of a mistake is too high. And whoever will make fewer mistakes will be ahead. But this format is a very good test. It’s all fine, we’re going to do the podium training and see the state of the team.
Q: I wanted to say that the arena is familiar, the 2015 Worlds took place here, but the team is new.
A: That’s the thing, the team is new. You can say it’s peculiar and experimental. Almost everyone is new but we hope that Lilia Akhaimova will show what she can do. Irina Alexeeva is also completely new on this team. And Angelina Simakova, everyone’s young.
Q: Irina Alexeeva only recently came back from the US and she’s already on the Euros team. How did she settle on the team and get used to the new environment?
A: Irina is fine, she’s a social girl, so there were no issues. At the same time, she knows very well what she wants. Her mentality is American, in a good way. She’s moving forward no matter what. In some ways, she differs from our girls with her attitude towards many things. She’s preparing to do two events. For four of the girls, this competition will be a trial by fire. We hope everything goes well.
Q: Is there a final decision regarding who does which event?
A: We’ll decide after the podium training because some have similar routines on certain events in terms of difficulty. We’ll see how the podium training goes. Although on bars, perhaps, Uliana Perebinosova is ahead in difficulty. It will all depend on whether they do their connections, we’ll need to see now. After all, it’s one thing to do something at home but many things change when you’re away, we need to consider how they’re feeling, how they’re adapting.
Q: I have to ask about Aliya Mustafina, how is she feeling, are her knee problems over?
A: Aliya is fine, she lost weight. The extra weight was causing problems. She lost weight, she looks great, much better than before. And she has a great attitude so we hope that she’ll prepare for the World Championships seriously. The most important thing is the fight against extra weight. It’s almost two months until the Worlds and if she’ll stay in the shape she got into, everything will be fine.
Q: So, she still has a chance to go to Qatar?
A: Yes, she has a pretty strong chance. She has a good beam, she’s a beam specialist, after all, and if she gets her bars up to the level… If she’ll do her connections, everything will be fine. She’s a bit afraid of vault, afraid for her knees. But there’s no way to escape the training load.
Q: Considering the fact that the European Championships were moved to August and the Russian Cup and Russian Championships are behind, how will the team for Worlds be decided this year?
A: The European Championships will be at the forefront, of course. We don’t have such a long bench of girls so that someone else would suddenly do great. Of course, Aliya will be competing for a team place, and Komova, too – if she gets her head in order and starts training differently. But besides that, we don’t really have anyone. Elena Eremina is still not there, it’s not worth the risk even though she’s seriously training. Those who will be better, more consistent and more confident, will go since the World Championships are the main competition for us.
Q: Can you say something definitive about Eremina’s comeback?
A: It’s hard to say anything here, after all, she needs to get the doctors’ permission after such a surgery. It’s the same story with Paseka, she needs the doctors’ permission. She feels fine, she’s in great shape, including her weight, but it all will depend on the permission. The surgeries were very complicated, so we’re waiting.
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pretty brave to call someone who struggled to put together a beam CR for an entire quadrennium a “beam specialist”