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Keeping Up with the Round Lake Gymnasts: Aliya Mustafina Back in Contention For Worlds Team

Over in Round Lake, there is no shortage of drama when it comes to selecting a team to go to Glasgow in October.

In the past couple days, the Russian Gymnastics Federation announced their preliminary world championships team  for the Worlds in Glasgow, Great Britain and their star, Aliya Mustafina announced she would not be contending for a spot due to a chronic back injury. Now, just days after this announcement, Aliya has apparently done a 180 and decided to give the worlds team a shot.


Russian head coach, Valentina Rodionenko confirmed Aliya's participation to R-Sport.

“Yesterday Mustafina decided to bite down and train for the World Championships despite her back pain. We know her condition and can’t force her to train. But Mustafina said she would get ready for Worlds, so she will return to training. We’ll be taking seven gymnasts to Worlds.”

But, Aliya hasn't really made up her mind for sure one way or another. Aliya herself told R-Sport in a seperate article: “My performance at Worlds is up in the air. I’ll see how I’m doing in the next few weeks and will know whether it’s possible as we get closer to departure [for Glasgow]."

She continued: "While it is difficult to say anything about the state of my health, one does need to start training. We will work in the camp at Round Lake."

For now - the "provisional" worlds team for Russia is comprised of:

Ksenia Afanasyeva
Viktoria Komova
Daria Spiridonova
Seda Tutkhalyan
Maria Kharenkova
Maria Paseka


For additional resources, visit Elizabeth at Rewriting Russian Gymnastics.

Translation of V-Rod quote from Nico aka "Papa Liukin."

The 2015 World Championships will be held in Glasgow, Great Britain, Oct. 23 - Nov. 1.

For a list of World Championships teams announced so far, I've started a list here.

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