While the U.S will announce the women’s World Championship team on September 21st, other countries with great potential to medal in Tokyo have been revealed.

Romania has now stated that their teams are set but with a little complication. For the women, the team will be Diana Bulimar, Diana Chelaru, Raluca Haidu, Ana Porgras, Sandra Izbasa, Amelia Racea and Daniela Andrei as the alternate.  For the men, the team will be Cristian Bataga, Marius Berbecar, Adrian Bucur, Ovidiu Buidoso, Vlad Cotuna, Flavius Koczi and Andrei Muntean as the alternate.

So what is the complication? Well, there are two.

The FIG mandates that gymnasts must be competing at the elite level for at least six months to be eligible to compete at a World Championships. This is to insure that the FIG has a good time span for drug testing each athlete that could potentially perform at Worlds.

This affects the Romanians because two of their former stars, Catalina Ponor and Marian Dragulescu, had come out of retirement on April 1st. That means for them to eligible to compete at Worlds via drug testing results, they have to wait until October 1st to be cleared and then named to the teams. The two will be named to their teams when the Romanians arrive in Tokyo next month, according to Mircea Apolzan, the secretary-general of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation.

At last year’s Worlds, the Romanian women placed 4th in the team final with all 14s except a 13.700 on uneven bars and a 15.066 on the balance beam. The men failed to qualify to their team final just outside of the top eight in 9th. The hope is that, with Catalina Ponor and Marian Dragulescu, each team will improve at this year’s Worlds. And with this also being the qualification for the Olympics next year, teams must place in the top eight after prelims in order to have an automatic berth to compete in London. A second qualification will happen in January in London if either team fails to qualify next month.

The Russians have also named their women’s team. The team will be Yulia Belokobylskaya, Viktoria Komova, Ksenia Afanasyeva, Anna Dementyeva, Tatiana Nabiyeva and Maria Paseka with alternates Alyona Polyan and Yulia Inshina.

The Russian women won gold last year at Worlds and even with their star and 2010 World All Around Champion Aliya Mustafina out of this year’s Worlds with a torn ACL, they still have a good chance at winning a medal if not gold again.

The Russian men's traing squad is Emin Garibov, Sergei Khorokhordin, Nikita Ignatiev
David Belyavski, Denis Albyazin, Andrei Cherkasov, Anton Golotsutskov and Konstantin Pluzhnikov. The team placed 6th last year. This year, the hope is a medal, but a 6th place finish would be winning when it comes to qualifying to the Olympics.

China has named Jiang Yuyuan, He Kexin, Sui Lu, Tan Sixin, Wu Liufang and and Yao Jinnan with alternate Huang Qiushuang to the women’s team. They won bronze at last year’s Worlds and look to be even stronger coming into Tokyo.

The Chinese men’s team will be Chen Yibing, Teng Haibin, Feng Zhe, Zhang Chenglong, Lu Bo and Guo Weiyang with Zou Kai as their alternate. The men won gold last year and it looks like they are almost guaranteed to win gold again.

As we wait for other teams to be announced, we can see from just these teams how competitive Worlds will be this year. It will be an amazing showdown.   

Keep checking back each week for another preview of the 2011 Tokyo World Gymnastics Championships!

For a complete list of teams that have been named, go to this blog.

 

In this news report, Catalina Ponor and Sandra Izbasa are interviewed and asked about Worlds. Some of the highlights are translated below:

Catalina: "I understand both coaches' and gymnast's point of views, and I try to do what's best."

Regarding Catalina’s heart intervention: "My heart is broken only because I know other gymnasts will be losing medals (laughs)."

Sandra: “I can't hide it anymore. Yes, I am preparing uneven bars as well and trying my best to make it before Olympics.”

2008 Olympic Uneven Bar Champion He Kexin at the 2011 Chinese Nationals.