Yana Zaikina and Karolina Tarasova talk about the performances at the second stage of the Cup of Strongest

At the second stage of the Cup of Strongest, the Academy juniors Yana Zaikina and Karolina Tarasova won two medals each.

Yana took second place in the all-around and became the champion in the ball event, and Karolina won bronze in the all-around and silver in the hoop final. Their coaches are Elizaveta Chernova and Evgeniya Eliseeva, and their choreographer is Elena Egorova.

Karolina Tarasova told how the Sirius competition turned out for her and what advice Olympic champion Alina Kabaeva gave her:

"This is a great experience for me, and the third place is a very good result. Alina Kabaeva was also with us. She prepared us. This is the double responsibility. Not to let her, our team down, that everybody helps us, there is the desire to show all that in the result. She gave me many pieces of advice, she said, calmly, every throw, every turn, element — everything should be done smartly. And if something does not work out, not to give up and continue. And everything will work out."

Yana Zaikina also shared the details of the training and thanked the Academy team:

"I am very happy that I had performed well, showed that I can have the good performance, that I do everything. And thankfully I managed to do everything today. We had a plan from Alina Kabaeva at workouts. We made two clean run-throughs in series or we make a clean round at the first, and at the second one over the week. Many thanks to her for giving such plans to us, believing in us, supporting, thanks. Many thanks to Elizaveta Chernova for her support and for training us. Evgeniya Eliseeva, Elena Egorova, for giving us some energy and always supporting us. And to all the Academy staff."