Melnikova's chance in the all-around, the absence of Biles and the renewal of the men's team: what is interesting about the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup

The current Artistic Gymnastics World Championships are being held in Kitakyushu, Japan. Neighborhood with the Olympics, which took place just two and a half months earlier (holding two major tournaments in one year is a rare occurrence, the last time this happened was in 1996), left a certain imprint on the composition of the participants. Many winners of the competitions in Tokyo did not return to Japan for various reasons. The Russian men's team suffered an especially large loss - all the golden four, who won the team championship, stayed at home. Nikita Nagorny and Artur Dalaloyan were injured, the coaches explained the absence of Denis Ablyazin and David Belyavsky with fatigue.

But to replace them, they were not chosen by novices, but for the most part already proven and experienced gymnasts.

The leader of the team should be Igor Stretovich, who back in 2016 helped the national team win the Olympic silver.

He also performed at the last world championship, where he celebrated victory in the team all-around and took tenth place in the individual qualification.

Vladislav Polyashov was a substitute at those competitions, who will now be included in the cage.

He recently appeared at the Olympics, where he tried to qualify for the finals on two shells.

The team also included the experienced Nikita Ignatiev, who played at the 2010 World Championships, 20-year-old Youth Olympics medalist Sergei Naydin, as well as Grigory Klementyev and Mukhammadzhon Yakubov.

The last three will become the debutants of the planetary championship.

The main medal chances for men are associated with Stretovich.

His main types are floor exercises and the crossbar, in which he won the Russian Cup before the Olympics.

The absence of a number of strong gymnasts, including all the freestyle winners of Tokyo, should make the task easier.

Polyashov, on the other hand, has a horse and bars, to which he has recently devoted more time.

If for men at least one medal can be considered a success, then a much more serious success should be expected from the women's team.

It consisted of two Olympic champions at once - Angelina Melnikova and Vladislav Urazova.

They can bet on personal all-around, where there is every chance for the two of them to rise to the podium.

The Russians have not so many rivals in the individual championship.

First of all, this is the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, who won silver at the Olympics, and the Japanese Mai Murakami, who lost about a point in the dispute for a medal.

The rest of the girls who will perform in Kutakyushu, Melnikov and Urazov confidently bypassed.

Fresh off her three-medal performance 🥇🥉🥉 at the # Tokyo2020 # Olympics, Angelina Melninkova (RGF) is back and looking 💪 at the World #Gymnastics Championships.

Check out her Uneven Bars routine from podium training.

# Kitakyushu2021 # GWC2021pic.twitter.com / 23bIp5WhmP

- FIG (@gymnastics) October 16, 2021

There should be no competition from American women.

Their roster completely changed after the Games, and neither the Olympic all-around champion Sunisa Lee, nor the titled Simona Biles were included in the national team.

The 24-year-old sportswoman chose to go on a commercial tour of the country.

Thus, for the first time in 11 years, American women can be left without gold in the women's all-around - the last world champion from another country was Aliya Mustafina in 2010.

In some forms, two Russians are also capable of showing themselves.

Melnikov can be counted among the favorites of all exercises, except on the balance beam.

Urazova's weak point is only the vault.

In the other three events, she either fought for medals in Tokyo, or was very close to reaching the final.

Rather than the Floor Exercise routine she competed at # Tokyo2020, Vladislava Urazova (RGF) has returned to an older routine for this World Championships in Kitakyushu 🇯🇵.

Here's the # Tokyo2020 Olympic team gold medallist in training today.

# Gymnastics # Kitakyushu2021 # GWC2021pic.twitter.com / CC3jT3QnXD

- FIG (@gymnastics) October 16, 2021

In addition to rivals, among whom there will still be girls with rich experience in performances, acclimatization can prevent Russian women.

The day before the start of the World Cup, Melnikova complained of poor health.

Fortunately, the hardest day was in training, the athlete said.

“Today is the fourth day, as we are in Japan, and, it would seem, should already be a little acclimatized.

Usually the toughest day is the third, but yesterday I was just fine.

And today I really want to sleep all day.

We trained alone this morning.

Nobody came to practice from other teams.

Apparently, after yesterday's testing, everyone was very tired, plus acclimatization.

I myself could hardly move in the morning, ”Melnikova wrote on Instagram.

In addition to her and Urazova, the national team included two young gymnasts Yana Vorona and Maria Minaeva.

This will be their first performance at major international competitions, and it will be difficult to wait even for them to reach the final, since they have a strict quota of two people from the country.