Ksenia Savinova and Yana Zaikina share their emotions from their performance at the Shining Star tournament in Tashkent

Ksenia Savinova and Yana Zaikina shared their emotions from their performance at the Shining Star tournament in Tashkent.

Ksyusha noted her progress:

"This isn't my first time here. And I enjoy competing here. Not everything went well, there's still room for improvement. My risks improved at this tournament, and I learned the Raffaeli turn. I'm working on it to get more rotations. Evgeniya Mikhailovna and I prepared, and Alina Maratovna sometimes joined in and helped us.Thank you very much to Evgeniya Mikhailovna and Olga Dmitrievna. And to Ekaterina Medorovna, who came with us to this competition. And to Alina Maratovna for supporting us and preparing us for these competitions."

She also talked about new friends from other countries:

"A girl from Uzbekistan, Leysan Kuzmenko, we saw each other a lot at competitions. We congratulated each other on our placings. She's very kind. Melissa Diete from Germany and I warmed up and prepared on the same floor. She does everything really well, with great intensity and artistry. We became friends. It's great that you can make friends with other girls from other countries here. Takhmina Ikromova also trains here. I really like her. I usually watch her on video, but here I got to see her in person. She does a really great job, doing a lot of tight turns, and her routines are very interesting, with complex risks and skill."

Yana noted the size of the arena and the enthusiastic support of the fans:

"I really liked it here. It was my first time here. At first, I was a little scared because when we walked into the hall, it was so big, with such a high ceiling. And when we were trying out, there was a lot of space near the main stage. It was a bit scary. But then I got used to it and it was very comfortable performing. Our beloved Evgeniya Mikhailovna helped us. She worked with us in the hall every day. Ekaterina Medorovna went over the choreography with us every day, and that's how we got the elements right. Thank you so much to the fans who came here to cheer for us. I want to say a huge thank you to Evgeniya Mikhailovna, Olga Dmitrievna, Ekaterina Medorovna, and Alina Maratovna for always supporting us and loving us. And we love them very much!"

Ksyusha won the all-around, took first place in the ball routine, and third place with the hoop. Yana won gold medals with clubs and ribbon. The gymnasts competed under neutral status.