Valentina Rodionenko talked to Stadium.ru about the results of the Russian Championships. She said that at the moment the men were better prepared than the women and that she was surprised by the floors on beam and bars (as if she’s never watched Russian gymnasts competing). It also sounds like Rodionenko warmed up to Ksenia Kamkova who is currently on the reserve team and doesn’t get many invitations to the national team camps.
“I was very alarmed by the falls of some gymnasts competing on beam and bars. The source of the falls is in the flaws of preparation for the competition and in psychology. I was happy with the young gymnasts, Angelina Simakova who took second place in the all-around and Ksenia Kamkova who was second in the beam final”.
“The guys are fine. I felt they were better prepared for the championships than the girls who have a bit more competition and a lot of unreasonable nervousness. This is alarming but there’s still time before the main competitions of the season – Euros and Worlds. And there’s still the Russian Cup before that”.
“Two of our experience and decorated gymnasts are recovering. One of them – Viktoria Komova – is doing it well but a bit slow, I think. Even though she missed a very long period of time – she didn’t train for a year and a half because of an injury. What she’s doing now is a big step forward but time is running out. After all, she needs to move to a new level. We how that she’ll be able to do this. Of course, the lack of competitions is felt, hence a certain nervousness. Our other start is Aliya Mustafina. What she’s doing – she’s doing it well. But she has to restore the complete difficulty of her routines. She and Komova are experienced gymnasts. I think they’ll be able to solve their problems by the end of summer and will be able to contend for a place on the national team for Euros and Worlds. But they’ll have to give a proper fight to the younger girls”.
“Today’s leader is Angelina Melnikova. She has good routines and she confidently moved towards that excellent result she showed in Kazan. She’s gaining speed, as they say. The young Angelina Simakova is catching up with her, too”.
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