Originally, Gennady Sartynsky, the head coach of the Ukrainian MAG team, hoped for Oleg Verniaiev to recover in time for Euros and even put him as alternate in the nominative registration. Now, he says to xSport.ua that Verniaiev, who had two surgeries in January, might not be ready in time for Worlds:
“We hope that Oleg will come back by World Championships but no one knows what will happen. It’s a very long period. He hasn’t been training for seven months already, this is a lot. For now, he’s doing conditioning exercises to recover after the injury but it’s not the kind of work that’s required in order to compete at World Championships. And there’s no reason for him to just go there as a tourist”.
With both Oleg Verniaiev and Yevgen Yudenkov still recovering from injuries and Petro Pakhniuk not doing the all-around, Ukrainian team likely doesn’t have very good chances in the team competition in Glasgow and Sartynsky said as much:
“Without Oleg, we don’t have a team that could fight for team medals. Oleg is the basis of the team. Yudenkov had a shoulder surgery. He will also miss the European Championships. In addition, Pakhniuk had an injury and he’s not competing all-around yet. Our goal will be to prepare for the World Championships, to see what we can do. Igor Radivilov and Petia Pakhniuk will try to fight for medals in event finals”.
The Ukrainian MAG team for Euros will be as follows: Igor Radivilov, Petro Pakhniuk, Oleksandr Petrenko, Volodymyr Hrybuk, Vladyslav Hryko.
Photo: National Olympic Committee of Ukraine
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