Veteran Ekaterina Kramarenko will replace Viktoria Komova in Sofia next month
Youth Olympic Champion, World and Olympic medallist Viktoria Komova has today personally confirmed that she will miss her much anticipated return to international competition. Speaking on the Russian gymnastics site at VK.com, Komova says that she sprained her foot in training right after Russian Championships and will travel to Munich at the end of April for an operation. No other information is available at this time.
This is rather troubling news for the Russian team who are already digging deep into their reserves to field a team at this spring's European Championships, following injuries to their stars Ksenia Afanasyeva and Anastasia Grishina, and the retirement of Olympic reserve Tatiana Nabiyeva. Russia, like Romania, is currently reliant on a team of veteran gymnasts from the London 2012 Olympics and before, and the consequences of the current injury rate is that it increasingly cannot select its best possible team for major competitions.
In a hard sport like gymnastics it seems, unfortunately, inevitable that injury will play a significant part in determining selections. The USA, with its large bank of participants, can rotate and rest its top performers more easily than the smaller teams in Europe, but Russia's main stars are called upon time and again to represent their team. In particular Aliya Mustafina, who herself suffered a major knee injury in 2011, has missed only one major international since spring 2010. Ksenia Afanasyeva has a similar record dating back to 2007, missing Worlds in 2009 only. It is pretty hard to find other gymnasts in the world's top ten with a similar level of consistent participation.
Longer term, there is real reason to hope that Ksenia Afanasyeva will be back in time for Worlds this autumn. Anastasia Grishina has also said that her knee injury is less serious than initially thought (a dislocated kneecap, with little or no ligament damage) but this is still a debilitating and painful injury, and her likely path to recovery is unknown at this time. Komova's repeated injury is very worrying; the girl seems to suffer from the gymnastics equivalent of a boxer's 'glass jaw'. I personally wonder if she will ever make it back to international competition fitness, with such an apparently fragile body.
The selection of Ekaterina Kramarenko to replace Komova has led to some raised eyebrows, and if it comes to fruition will certainly confirm that Russia is playing a safe card in Sofia this spring. Head coach Andrei Rodionenko is conservative by nature, and is playing a difficult political game with paymasters who seem to expect medals at every competition. Russia's reputation for unpredictable competition performance must be troubling him as he approaches a major competition with a relatively untested and young team. Kramarenko might be viewed as a steadying influence for the young members of the team, and moral support for Aliya Mustafina. The great Champion is only human after all, and must be feeling the emotional and psychological strain after so many years of being Russia's reliable one, and its main medal prospect. Even the amazing Mustafina cannot be alll things to all people. The team needs a Champion, a rising star and a table-setter; Russia just about has all three with Aliya, young Kharenkova and veteran Kramarenko, but we have to hope that all gymnasts remain healthy.
If this mixed Russian team wins in Sofia, it will be thanks to a solid performance from all gymnasts on day one of the competition through to finals, without the qualification jitters from which they usually suffer. Romania deservedly beat Russia at the last European team competition in 2012 when Russia had a wobbly start on beam and floor, and Romania definitely has the better record of fighting through the competition nerves.
It remains to be seen what the emotional vigour of this new Russian team will be. Mustafina's ambition will be matched by the competitive nature of young Maria Kharenkova, the very first time that the World Champion has had to face competition from a much younger, similarly intense compatriot. At best they will both drive each other to peak performance. Both Daria Spiridinova and Alla Sosnitskaya appear to have sunny dispositions and to take their team responsibilities seriously. Perhaps Kramarenko's calm professionalism will provide the concrete base needed for a solid performance. We will just have to wait and see.
The Russians will not be able to count on the potential high scores that Komova might deliver when on song, though, and if they do not overcome their now usual unsureness in the team event, the competition could crack open for the Romanians, the Germans or even the British team.
You can see the execution and difficulty scores for the all around competitors at this month's Russian Championships here : http://sportgymrus.ru/Admin/GetFile.ashx?get=1&id=44474
With special thanks to Veronika Kuzmina who pointed me in the right direction!