Alan Owen has posted another fantastic update on the recovery of Aliya Mustafina and Viktora Komova on their websites. He explains that both gymnastics have returned to Round Lake following a two week break away to Spain.
Whilst Komova is training for the 2011 World Championships in October, she is only performing light training since back in Russia. It is hoped that she will be able to compete on at least some apparatus in Tokyo. Presumably vault and floor are debatable.
Mustafina has not been granted permission to train just yet, it has been recommended by her Doctors in Germany that she continues her rehabilitation exercises. She may do some light limited training (no jumping), mainly upper body conditioning and not putting any weight on her leg.
Alan explains how both gymnasts will obviously not be taking part in next months Russian Nationals. The event will help to determine who will make the Worlds team in October. The video in this article shows the Russian girls in Mallorca on their two week break and shows Mustafina working on beam.
Thanks Alan for keeping us updated as always. The question is, if Komova cannot compete at Worlds, who will we see on the Russian team and where could they place? Can they still place on the podium?Leave a comment below with your opinions.
Read more Aliya Mustafina website and Viktoria Komova website.
I think that the Russians have a very hard battle ahead of them. With Octavian Belu & Mariana Bitang heading the Romanian team once again they now have a huge Possibility to land on the podium as a team this year. China is always a threat, and with Cheng Fei back the Chinese are looking very prominent. The US have many new faces rising up to the occasion. It’s going to be a very interesting team final. But with Aliya out of worlds and Komova only possibly competing a few events, I don’t see Russia defending there title. But I can’t count them out because many thought the US would win last year and the came in 2nd. But the funny thing I’ve noticed is that in 2003 the US won the team gold at worlds, that was a year before the 04′ Olympics. In 2007 the US won there 2nd team gold medal, again a year before the 08′ Olympics. We are preparing for worlds, again a year before the 2012 Olympics. So I have a strong feeling the US may claim the title again. But like I said you can’t count anyone out because you never know who will rise to the occasion, but I think the US may repeat the cycle that I mentioned.