Russian Gymnastics Federation made a video about the preparations of the national team gymnasts for the Russian Championships that will start next week in Kazan.
The video was filmed last Thursday when the women had a verification day before the nationals.
Viktoria Komova said she is getting better at controlling her emotions when something doesn’t work out in training:
“We’re preparing for the Russian Championships now. Today was the verification. Looks like it went fine”.
“[It’s hard] To control my emotions – especially during practices. Because when something doesn’t work out, you want to drop everything and leave and say “that’s it, I can’t do it anymore. Now I’m looking at it a bit differently: if something doesn’t work out today, I’ll come tomorrow and do it a hundred times so it would happen”.
Aliya Mustafina who will be competing for the first time since Rio said that she surprisingly got nervous during the verification:
“Today I felt crazy adrenaline during the verification. I don’t even remember when was the last time I felt like this. And that’s why it was a bit hard for me”.
Angelina Melnikova will go to Kazan right from Italy where she’ll compete in Jesolo this weekend. She said she is not worried about the competitors and only tries to do her best:
“I don’t watch my competitors. I guess I’m trying more to realize my potential, to be the best”.
David Beliavskiy says that the main goal for the team is to medal at the 2018 Worlds:
“The main goal for us is a team medal at the World Championships because this way we’ll qualify to the Olympics Games and this is the most important thing this season”.
Nikita Nagornyy:
“We’ll have to work on our technique, on execution and not to downgrade the difficulty, and then everything will be great”.
Nikolai Kuksenkov: “This will be my first competition this year and I really want to test myself, because this competition is both individual and team, [we’ll be able to] to fight with Moscow, Ural, Siberia. That’s why I think these Championships will be interesting and very fascinating”.
At the end of the video, the gymnasts also responded to the prompt “Kazan is…”:
Garibov: It’s five days of the unprecedented fight, 190 strongest gymnasts in the country.
Melnikova: It’s live support and a storm of emotions.
Komova: It’s a sports city.
Kuksenkov: It’s the Universiade’s gold and the best fans.
Beliavskiy: It’s chak-chack, very tasty. [chak-chak is a traditional Tatar dessert]
Nagornyy: It’s my grandpa’s native city.
Dalaloyan: It’s the all-around Russian champion of 2018, Artur Dalaloyan!
Stretovich: It’s a city I’ve never been to but I’m sure I’ll like it.
Mustafina: It’s a city where I hope people are waiting for me.
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