Eight Russian gymnasts will participate in November at the Friendship and Solidarity Competition in Japan organized by the FIG.
Earlier, Valentina Rodionenko announced the names of the gymnasts: Nikita Nagornyy, Artur Dalaloyan, Dmitrii Lankin, and Alexey Rostov for MAG and Angelina Melnikova, Liliia Akhaimova, Elena Gerasimova, and Yana Vorona for WAG.
The organizers said during the press conference that all participants will be required to do several PCR tests for COVID-19 and the movement of the participants in Japan will be restricted – this will allow them to avoid a two-week quarantine in Japan. In addition, Artur Dalaloyan and Valentina Rodionenko confirmed that the participants will need to isolate for the two weeks before the trip. Dalaloyan said on his Instagram that he will participate in the competition despite the recurring injury. He originally missed two post-lockdown national team camps because he was undergoing treatment for that injury:
“This was a massive week! Lately, there have been many emotional ups and downs. First, I was surprised by the new that it would be possible to compete at three competitions before the end of the year. Then, the European Championships became a question mark but they were later moved to another country. Then the Russian Championships were a question mark and, at the end, I won’t be able to participate in the Russian Championships, because the competition in Japan requires the strictest safety measures, two weeks in quarantine before flying to Japan, three tests. In the gym, I periodically suffer from the wrist injury that hasn’t healed yet and there are constant PT procedures. At the end, we’re flying to Japan on November 5th for a friendly meeting. And I hope I’ll be well-prepared for this competition. After which, I’ll start preparing for the European Championships in December. All in all, it’s not easy and I can only keep doing my job!”
Russian MAG Championships technically take place well before the flight to Japan – on October 26th – November 1st – but due to the quarantine requirement, gymnasts will have to stay at Round Lake. WAG Nationals will overlap with the competition in Japan that takes place on November 8th.
Valentina Rodionenko said that judges and coaches will be quarantined with the gymnasts as well:
“The team will fly to Tokyo on November 5th. All the delegations that plan on going to Japan have to go into strict quarantine two weeks before the flight. Our [delegation] will come to Round Lake on October 18th with all the [negative PCR test] results in hand and they all will stay there before leaving for Tokyo. Four judges who will work at the competition also have to move to Round Lake on October 18th. Overall, there are 16 members in the delegations and they all will have to live at Round Lake for two weeks.”
Rodionenko announced that gymnasts who will travel to Japan are not guaranteed automatic spots on the Euros teams and will have to try out for them:
“I cannot say that all the participants of the friendly competition guaranteed their right to compete at the European Championships in Turkey. We have David Beliavskiy, Denis Abliazin, Ivan Stretovich and a number of other gymnasts. But those athletes that will skip the Russian Championships will also take part in a very important competition and will compete against leading gymnasts from China, Japan, and the USA. There’s no one stronger than them in the world”.
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