From Adevarul:

Octavian Bellu, head coach of the Romanian gymnastics team, said on Friday he didn´t want to take chances with Sandra Izbasa, who is still feeling some pain in the foot she had surgery on, so he didn´t include her in the World team.

“Sandra Izbasa will not go to Tokyo because we don´t want to take any risk. We want to remove any pain she feels in the injured foot. Any health problem, as minor as it may seem, can grow worse and do even more damage. When the doctors will give her the ok to start training again, she will be looking directly to the Olympic Games. We have to adjust as best we can to this situation.” said Octavian Bellu at the Henri Coanda airport.

He also stated that Romania must ensure qualification to the Olympics at Worlds: “Our goal is the Olympic Games qualification, then the World final. It is important to be among the top 8 so that we don´t waste winter on training for the January qualifying stage. We trained for this World Championship taking into consideration the girls´ health status, but we didn´t have many problems there. They are eager to compete, training was not easy as we tried to add in difficulty and clean execution.“

Ana Porgras declared that the members of the National team are truly a team: “I am going there to perform my routines as well as possible, without mistakes. Lately I´ve focused on execution more than on difficulty. We are a true team, we support each other and I hope we do our best. Our objective is to qualify for the Olympic Games.“

Amelia Racea´s personal objective is to win a medal with the team: “I am positive and I have a good feeling about this. We have a good relationship and there is no rivalry among us. I want to win a medal with the team and, if possible, I´d like another medal in the all-around and beam final.”

The Romanian National team left for Japan on Friday to perform at the World Championships. The Women´s team includes Ana Porgras, Catalina Ponor (she will officially be able to compete starting Saturday), Diana Chelaru, Daniela Andrei, Amelia Racea, Raluca Haidu and Diana Bulimar (alternate).

RGF