For a while, it looked like Daria Spiridonova would become an alternate on the Russian team, just as she was the last year. Maria Paseka is the reigning European champion on vault and for Spiridonova, the Worlds became the first major international competition of the year, as she was not selected to go to either the European Championships or the European Games. However, major improvements in the past few months meant a high likelihood of a bars medal. Spiridonova will be looking to repeat 2015, when she won gold on bars at Worlds (although she had to share it with three other people).
She qualified to the bars final in the second place and hopes to do well in the final:
“I expect the best from the final. I hope I’ll be able to do all of my difficulty. The most important things are clean execution and confidence.”
She said the support of her husband Nikita Nagornyy is really helping even though they don’t get to spend much time together:
“We support each other a lot. Today, he came to my room, wished me good luck and hugged me tight, so I felt great and confident. We are staying at the same hotel but have practices at different times so we rarely get to see each other. We try not to distract each other because we’re at a competition and not at home.”
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