MOSCOW, September 10. /TASS/. All athletes of the Russian national men and women’s artistic gymnastics teams arrived at the training camp at the Ozero Krugloye center in the Moscow Region, Valentina Rodionenko, a Russian national gymnastics team’s coach, told TASS on Thursday.
"The teams have arrived in full at the Ozero Krugloye and there were no unpleasant surprises," Rodionenko stated. "Today, all of them are taking tests for the novel coronavirus and will be able to start with their training sessions tomorrow."
"The training camp is scheduled until September 24 and will be then followed by an educational and training event. We begin our final-stage preparations for the Russian Championship in Penza."
Russian President Vladimir Putin approved on May 22 a proposal from the Sports Ministry of Russia to reopen training camps for national teams’ athletes, only with a strict observation of all disciplinary and sanitary measures in view of COVID-19 pandemic.
The city of Penza, which is located 625 kilometers (about 388 miles) southeast of Moscow, is set to host the Russian Gymnastics Championship between October 26 and November 8.
Athletes representing national teams of Japan, China, Russia and the United States are expected to compete during the tournament’s announced closing date on November 8. The national teams at the issue will be represented by eight athletes (four male and four female athletes) from each national team.
Among the Russian gymnasts, who are attending the training camp outside Moscow this week are: Denis Ablyazin (three-time silver and two-time bronze Olympic medalist; two-time world champion) and Russia’s three-time World Champion in gymnastics Artur Dalaloyan along with Nikita Nagorny, who grabbed three gold medals at the 2019 World Championship, and many other prominent national athletes.
Dalaloyan-Nogorny record stats
At the 2019 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships, held in Poland’s Szczecin on April 10-14, Dalaloyan and his teammate Nikita Nagorny won silver and gold respectively in men’s individual all-around competition.
At the 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Qatar’s Doha, Dalaloyan won gold and Nagorny took bronze in men’s individual all-around competition. Dalaloyan’s win in Doha brought Russia the first gold of the World Championships in men’s all-around event in almost 20 years.
Dalaloyan also won the gold in men’s floor exercise at the global gymnastics tournament in Doha in 2018 and is now the only Russian to win two golds at one World Championship. At the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, hosted by Germany’s Stuttgart between October 4 and 13, Dalaloyan won the gold medal in the team event.