Russian all-around champion Victoria Listunova, who arrived at the Russian Cup in Kaluga, announced in advance that she would only perform on uneven bars due to injury.
Thus, Listunova will not be able to defend last year’s all-around title at the Russian Cup and greatly simplifies the task of winning this year’s tournament for Angelina Melnikova, for whom the departure from Kaluga will be the first after a long pause.
During Tuesday’s tryout, Vika, as expected, worked only on the uneven bars, while remaining with the girls of the Russian national team on other apparatus as a support. Just as her group was performing an exercise on a balance beam, the athlete told details about the injury, the recovery process and the state in which she approached the Russian Cup.
– They have already announced that here in Kaluga you will only do bars, they mentioned an injury. What type of injury and when was it received?
– After the Russian championship, a bone fracture in the left foot. Therefore, I do not make jumping shells in competitions. In training, I run and jump slowly, but as the injury was serious, we decided not to do the all-around for now. In principle, I could recover without problems and do it, but I would like not only to do it, but to show the level, new combinations.
– About a year ago, before the Olympics, you injured your elbow. After the Games, they recovered, winning the Czech Republic in April, and one more injury. During this year, how many months have you been perfectly healthy?
– I felt my elbow free, as it was fully extended and bent, around November. I started to slowly climb the bars, to hang on, that is, from that moment on, it was the elbow that no longer bothered me.
– But then the muscle mass on the left, you could not do much. When could you?
– In January, most likely.
– And four months later, another injury.
– Leg injury, probably accumulated. I hit my left foot more than once, in the end it didn’t work out, and there was already a serious injury.
– Are you going to do a full uneven bars program here?
– Sure. But, if anything, I still have a backup option, and I can do that.
– Today, at the test, they did a “two somersaults with two turns” outing, are you okay?
– Yes. The leg doesn’t bother me at all. But, of course, the coaches and the doctors … not even scared, but just want me to recover until the end and in the future it will never bother me. So that it doesn’t happen that I start jumping in advance and my leg still hurts. We don’t need it.
– However, on June 11, we cycled on Sparrow Hills, it turns out – with an injured foot.
– (OFthere is.) Well, the foot does not work there, I twisted the heel. Nothing disturbed. And, by the way, when I was at the base of Lake Krugloye, I replaced running cardio loads, which I could not do because of my foot, with a bicycle. It was the only thing that allowed the legs to be loaded.
– It worked?
– Feelings, of course, a little different, but still helping.
– Given this experience, if you, like Nikita Nagorny, were invited to compete in another sport, what would you choose? Except for synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics, which they did, of course.
– Probably, like Nikita, she would run an athletic sprint.
– What if we offered you the choice of swimming styles?
– Free. As part of training, I go to the pool, I need it, because there is a load there, but at the same time without extra strain on my back, it is important.
— Back to gymnastics. After the Czech Republic, Valentina Rodionenko said there was some fear of the log. Do I understand correctly that due to an injury, the amount of beam work after CR is almost nil?
– Of course, I did more basic exercises while my foot hurt. I hope this will help me, should help me. Everything that happens is for the best.
– Is there a chance that at the Autumn Spartakiad we will finally see your rivalry with Minaeva, Melnikova and Urazova in the all-around?
Yes, if nothing happens.
Source : MatchTV
