Melnikova leads the Russians to Berne

15 year old Angelina Melnikova will make her major senior international debut in a few weeks' time

According to an interview by Alexey Zubakov with Valentina Rodionenko, the final line-ups of both the men's and women's teams for the Berne Championships have now been determined.

MAG has been previously announced - Denis Ablyazin, Nikita Nagorny, David Belyavski, Nikita Ignatyev and Nikolai Kuksenkov.  Emin Garibov will be the reserve.

WAG - Aliya Mustafina, Angelina Melnikova, Maria Paseka, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Daria Spiridonova. Seda Tutkhakyan, who is competing on beam and floor today at the Osijek Challenge Cup, will be the travelling reserve.

Viktoria Komova is continuing her rehab after a period in hospital in her home town of Voronezh with back pain.  She returns to Round Lake on the 3rd May where she will continue to prepare for the Olympic Games under the watchful eyes of her coaches.

Although I will be excited to see how young Angelika fares, I'm overall a little disappointed with the WAG selection.  It is rather conservative and will be relatively weak on beam and floor (remember, Andrei Rodionenko has said that Mustafina will not have the stamina to do floor in Berne; even if she does pull out a defiant showing she is unlikely to have top difficulty).   I had hoped to see Russia try out its new talent - Seda Tutkhalyan and/or Maria Kharenkova in particular.  The team will meet some stiff competition in Switzerland, however, and I think that the coaches have opted for reliability rather than risk flair.   But Spiridonova's inclusion limits the potential on beam, and weakens the team on floor.  An on-song Tutkhalyan adds potential on both these pieces, even if her reliability may be at question, while Paseka could keep up the average on bars in finals.

This probably won't be the last word on the team - there is always the possibility of a last minute substitution.

As things stand, line-ups might go something like this.  Euros is a team competition with EF this year, no all around competition. 

Qualifications

Vault - Mustafina, Melnikova, Afanasyeva, Paseka

UB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Paseka, Spiridonova

BB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Spiridonova, Afanasyeva

FX - Melnikova, Afanasyeva, Paseka, Spiridonova

Finals 

Vault - Mustafina, Afanasyeva, Paseka

UB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Spiridonova

BB - Mustafina, Melnikova, Afanasyeva

FX - Melnikova, Afanasyeva, Spiridonova

The source of the team announcement is - http://vpsfund.org/114-7/

You can follow live scores of Seda, Natalia, Maria, Nikita and Emin at the Osijek Challenge Cup at http://osijekgym.com/live/ now (Friday pm).