MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. Gymnasts Mukhammadzhon Iakubov and Zlata Osokina have been granted visas to participate in the World Championship, but the Dutch embassy has not informed the Russian Gymnastics Federation (RGF) when they will be issued, the federation said.
"The Russian Gymnastics Federation, through the open information resource of the European Union, has received data confirming that visas were approved for two more Russian gymnasts - Mukhammadzhon Iakubov and Zlata Osokina. Iakubov was put on the reserve list for the main roster of the Russian men’s national team for the World Championship in Rotterdam, and Osokina was added to the additional reserve list for the women’s team. At present, the Dutch embassy is not responding to the RGF’s requests regarding the date and time when visas will be issued to the athletes," the federation said in a statement.
The World Artistic Gymnastics Championship will take place from October 17 to 25 in Rotterdam. Earlier, the Netherlands refused to issue visas to Olympic champions Angelina Melnikova and Viktoria Listunova, as well as to Anna Kalmykova.
The World Championships will be the first stage of team qualification for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Based on the results, the top three men’s and top three women’s teams will receive Olympic quotas. On Tuesday, Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev said that the Russian Olympic Committee had appealed to the International Olympic Committee and World Gymnastics, demanding that the tournament in Rotterdam be stripped of its qualifying status.
Earlier, gymnasts Daniel Marinov, Arsenii Dukhno, Sergei Naidin, and Alena Glotova, who received Schengen visas, arrived in the Netherlands. Later, Liudmila Roshchina, Milana Kayumova, Ilia Zaika, Savelii Sieedin, and Elizaveta Us received their visas.