"Veronika proved she's a true athlete!" Alina Gusarova talks about the Russian Junior Championship

Academy coach Alina Gusarova told how Veronika Malinina managed to pull herself together after an unsuccessful performance in the all-around final at the Russian Category 1 Junior Championship and take first place:

"Veronika Malinina coped with mixed success. There were, of course, some shortcomings. In the all-around, for example, she performed poorly in the first event. But then she pulled herself together. I told her that she had to prove herself, show her, fight. And I wanted us all to see that she was a true athlete. And she went out and performed the remaining three events without any major mistakes. I was very happy about that."

The specialist also shared how the control training sessions went:

"The test training went well. We did a circuit. We had four first category children. We made them papers, and on each paper we wrote down who would start with which event. What each of the four people drew, each got a different event. And they went through the entire circuit. We judged and helped them, so that they could do well in this competition."

And she thanked Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva for her help in preparation:

"Many thanks to Alina Maratovna, she always supports us, helps us, we love her very much and are very grateful to her."