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Working hard at Lake Krugloye - who will make the team?

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Senior team members Daria Spirodonova, Tatiana Nabiyeva, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Viktoria Komova and Maria Paseka enjoy some Sunday fun in Moscow.  Picture courtesy of Viktoria Komova on Instagram

The women are at training camp at present, preparing for the upcoming, late August, Russia Cup.  The outcome of this competition will determine who is selected for October's World Championships.  There will be six team members competing in qualifications (6-5-4 format) and the usual 6-3-3 in team finals.

The faces that I can spot missing from these photographs (see below for a fuller group shot)  are Aliya Mustafina (the only lock to this autumn's team, assuming she recovers well from her surgery, and remains in good health) and Anastasia Grishina, about whom there has been an ominous silence since this spring.  As a reminder, Nastia has had an operation to her knee, as a consequence of an injury sustained on the floor in the Russian Championships.  The Munich clinic where the knee was operated had announced that she would be ready to begin training again by May, but there has been no news since from any source.   Ksenia Afanasyeva, who we all hope will be fighting fit for the Rio Olympics, is still recovering from ankle surgery and, I suspect, taking a sensible deep breath before deciding whether to enter the fray again.

Clockwise, from bottom left : Angelika Melnikova (jr), Maria Kharenkova, Lilia Akhaimova, Ekaterina Kramarenko, Alla Sosnitskaya, Viktoria Komova, Daria Mikhailova (jr), Daria Spirodonova, Maria Paseka, Anna Rodionova, Tatiana Nabiyeva

With Aliya Mustafina considered a certainty at this point in time, and Komova in contention for a place on the team, competing both bars and beam at best, all of the girls in this picture (apart from the two juniors indicated) will be in the fight for medals in Penza, and hence for selection for the Worlds team.

In Nanjing it will be almost exactly four years since the Russian team won gold in the World Championships in 2010.  There, Mustafina made her senior debut, dominating the competition and setting the scene for so many fighting performances in the years to come.

What would your line ups be for qualifications and finals?  Who if anyone do you think will be in the running for Russia Cup and World medals?  Who would be your reserve, and why?

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