Valentina Rodionenko gave TASS updates on the national team. She confirmed that Viktoria Listunova is missing Worlds due to a minor elbow injury:
“Listunova is getting treatment, she has certain issues with an elbow joint. It’s a problem connected to growing up, she’s a very young athlete, after all. We withdrew her from the World Championships and gave her an opportunity to get fully healed.”
Earlier, Rodionenko said that Russian WAG team for the upcoming World Championships (October 18-24) will be Angelina Melnikova, Vladislava Urazova, Yana Vorona, and Maria Minaeva, with Melnikova and Minaeva competing in the all-around.
Melnikova and Urazova are the only Russian gymnasts that had their Worlds preparation interrupted by a week-long quarantine before meeting Vladimir Putin (Listunova, Akhaimova, and the MAG team are all skipping Worlds this year). However, Rodionenko believes the break will not have much of an effect on the gymnasts:
“Melnikova and Urazova are already back at the center and training now. In my opinion, the 1.5-weeks break did not throw Angelina off her schedule, she did fine in practice yesterday. There’s only one month left until the World Championships, she now needs to raise the training load slowly. She needs to get into it gradually, there’s little time left.”
“Anastasia Ilyankova has already attended a training camp [after the Olympics], while there’s a big question mark in regards to Lilia Akhaimova, she will likely retire.”
During the Olympics, Akhaimova’s coach Vera Kiryashova also said that the gymnast will probably retire due to her injuries. At 24, Akhaimova was the oldest gymnast on the Russian team in Tokyo. However, Akhaimova herself hasn’t confirmed her retirement.
Rodionenko also announced a replacement on the men’s team for Worlds – Dmitri Lankin will replace Mukhammadzhon Iakubov who got injured. Lankin was not able to contend for the Tokyo Olympics because he had surgery in March. The rest of the MAG team are Ivan Stretovich, Vladislav Poliashov, Nikita Ignatyev, Sergei Naidin, and Grigori Klimentev.
The gold-winning MAG team are taking a break now and are expected to come back to Round Lake in October, according to Rodionenko:
“We’re waiting for our guys, Olympic champions, at the next national team camp which will start in the beginning of October”.
However, Nagorny’s first competition will be before that – he is competing in Bundesliga next week.
Rodionenko also said that Maria Paseka might come back to the sport soon:
“We’ve been telling Paseka about an option to return for a while but she took a long time to think. Now she’s come to her senses and hopes to recover her vault, but, in order to come back to the national team, one has to earn it. At the next Olympics, the team will consist of five gymnasts and not four, like it was in Tokyo. She can try, no one is blocking her path. As far as I know, the doctors cleared her to come back to the sport. Of course, we’ll invite her to the training camp, she can train. Perhaps, she’ll come to Round Lake already in October.”
Paseka originally took a break from gymnastics in early 2020 when she got injured and wasn’t able to qualify to Tokyo via Apparatus World Cups. At the time, she believed she wouldn’t be able to recover in the few months left until the Olympics and there was no potential spot for her on the Russian team. Last month, she said she now regrets her decision to stop training then.
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