MOSCOW, March 17 (R-Sport) - The Russian Figure Skating Federation on Monday confirmed that Olympic champions Adelina Sotnikova and pair Maxim Trankov and Tatiana Volosozhar will not compete in next week's world championships in Japan.
The 17-year-old Adelina Sotnikova, who beat South Korea's reigning champion Kim Yuna in the women's singles with a lifetime best performance in Sochi last month, had been nominated to represent Russia for the March 24-30 event in Saitama along with 15-year-old European champion and Olympic team gold medalist Lipnitskaia.
"It was decided to let Adelina recover and start preparing for next season," federation president Alexander Gorshkov was quoted as saying in a website statement.
Russia is also to rest Olympic champion pair and reigning world champions Trankov and Volosozhar, though its gold medal challenge should remain strong with Yuri Larionov and Vera Bazarova joining Sochi silver medalists Ksenia Stolbova and Fyodor Klimov as the two entrants.
As announced previously, 18-year-old Maxim Kovtun will be the sole male singles skater.
