Valentina Rodionenko, a Russian national team coach, has expressed her unhappiness with the progress of Aliya Mustafina and Angelina Melnikova this week. Now, she elaborated that Mustafina’s participation at Worlds will depend on how she performs at the Russian Cup this month.
Of course, we know from the past experience, that Russian national competitions might mean absolutely nothing for the team selection for major international competitions. For example, last year Rodionenko claimed that everyone hoping to compete at Euros would have to compete well at the Russian Cup and couldn’t miss the competition. However, two gymnasts who made the team, Irina Alexeeva and Uliana Perebinosova, did not compete at the Russian Cup at all. In addition, Tatiana Nabieva who placed fifth in AA and won gold on vault was not even invited to the selection camp for Euros and Viktoria Komova who won bronze in AA and silver on bars ended up not making the team.
Rodionenko told TASS:
“We’ve just come back from a long training camp in Japan. Aliya still has certain issues. It’s hard for me to talk about her prospects for the World Championships, but the selection for the most important competition of the year will be according to results. We can’t bring gymnasts whose scores don’t allow to fight for medals to Germany. Mustafina’s participation at Worlds will largely depend on how she performs at the Russian Cup which will start in almost three weeks.”
Support Gymnovosti on Patreon from only $1 a month and help us bring to you even more awesome gymnastics coverage!
Buy cool gymnastics-themed t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, phone cases, and more at our store on Teepublic!
