International GYMNAST Magazine Online: Russia Names World Teams

Russia Names World Teams
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Amanda Turner on Friday, August 24, 2007
 
European all-around champion Maxim Devyatovsky and European beam champion Yulia
Lozhechko will lead the Russian teams at the upcoming World Championships, to
be held Sept. 1-9 in Stuttgart.   Nikolai Kryukov
The men's team is Devyatovsky, Sergei Khorokhordin, Yuri Ryazanov, Nikolai
Kryukov, Alexander Safoshkin and Anton Golotsutskov. The alternate is Anatoly
Vasilyev.
The women's team is Lozhechko, Yekaterina Kramarenko, Svetlana Klyukina, Ksenia
Semyonova and Yelena Zamolodchikova. The alternate will be decided between
Kristina Pravdina and Daria Yelizarova.
At the 2006 Worlds, the Russian men finished second and the women finished
third, but head coach Andrei Rodionenko continued to stress the teams' goals of
a top-12 finish.
"The primary goal for this world championship is to achieve full representation
for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing," Rodionenko said. "Medals and victories
are the second tier of importance."
Absent from the team is veteran Anna Pavlova, who is suffering from an ankle
injury. 2006 Junior European Championship gold medalists Karina Myasnikova and
Yelena Kokareva are still recovering from injuries, and 2004 Junior European
gold medalist Nadezhda Ivanova has been sidelined indefinitely by a hip
problem.
Rodionenko said a solid performance at the recent University Games helped
Zamolodchikova make her seventh consecutive world team.
"I'm a grown up and I understand perfectly that right now I am not at my peak,"
said Zamolodchikova, who will turn 25 on Sept. 19. "I don't doubt that I
wouldn't even be on the team if there weren't any injuries. I feel like the
team needs me and I need the team. But as soon as I feel like they don't need
me anymore, I'll leave then and there."
Zamolodchikova, like Kryukov a gold medalist at the 1999 World Championships,
won two gold medals at the 2000 Olympics. She told the All-Sport Agency the
camaraderie among the Russian gymnasts is better than in previous years.
"I love that that now there is no bitterness, that someone can beat out someone
from the team, takes someone's place," she said. "Yes, we constantly compete
against each other, but, nevertheless, as a team we're pumped up."
Read "Great Heights," a profile on Lozhechko, in the July/August 2007 issue of
International Gymnast magazine. Devyatovsky and Ryazanov appear on the cover of
the June 2007 issue, which features the 2007 European Championships. To
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