Worlds to stay in Tokyo



I personally wanted the World Championships to be moved to Moscow. Russia has verbally stated to International Gymnastics Magazine that they will NOT compete in Japan, and Olympic Champion Sandra Izbasa recently stated that she also won't go to Japan because her health is more important to her than all of the medals in the world. But Fabian Hambucan has recently taken his yearly trip to Tokyo to train with the Japanese National Team and says that he felt very safe and comfortable. And he said that this could be a very exciting World Championships. The Japanese Federation did make a point to the FIG that Russia has more radiation problems than Japan even after the earthquake and tsunami, which I cannot believe. But this is just my personal opinion, plus I love Russia and I think that this very new and inexperienced team could use a home crowd advantage. With Musafina out and other veterans injured, we could very well see a Russian team that doesn't have a lot of experience and could crack under such huge pressure of a World Championships. Most of the European countries have also said that they will not compete in Japan for the health of their athletes. I could see countries not sending their gymnasts in a year like 2009, where it is just an individual championships and not a qualifier. But this is the year before the Olympics, and if you don't go to the World Championships, then you don't go to the Olympics. This had to of been a bluff from the countries because there is no way in hell that Russia or any other top country wouldn't go to a World Championships. But there are rumors saying that this is not the final decision, so we will just have to wait until the end of May to see what happens to this screwed up mess!