The Artistic Gymnastics Newsletter N° 10 - August 2019

Congratulations to our new European Champions!

The Artistic Gymnastics Europeans in Szczecin delivered a spectacular show that was eagerly watched worldwide. Thanks to our scoring partner SmartScoring and its innovative gymtv.online platform, fans worldwide could even watch the qualifications, selecting which apparatus they wanted to follow thus not missing a single moment of their favourites’ performances.

This year, it was an individual Championships, with the all-around and apparatus titles at stake. On Friday, both all-around finals kept the audience on the tip of their seat, with the medals decided on the very last apparatus. With Mélanie de Jesus dos Santos (FRA) and Nikita Nagornyy (RUS) two new exciting and worthy Champions were crowned.

The event finals marked the comeback of Russia’s Denis Abliazin who joined de Jesus dos Santos and Nagornyy as double gold medallist of these Championships.

Read more about it in our highlights article! 

All videos of the event finals plus the full replays are now online on our YouTube channel!

Competing in a packed Minsk Arena, good for 12.000 spectators daily, the unusual format of these Games put many different nations in the spotlight. Only one gymnast per country could advance to the event finals, ensuring a great variety of nationalities competing for the medals. Russians Angelina Melnikova and David Belyavskiy clinched the all-around titles and one apparatus gold each. 2015 Champion Oleg Verniaiev returned to compete on all 6 events, making it tough for Belyavskiy but having to settle for silver. The Ukrainian star did return home with a gold medal, on his signature event, parallel bars. World Champion on bars Nina Derwael showed incredible mental strength as she bounced back from a fall on bars to hit a great beam set and win the gold there. 

A huge ‘Thank you’ to the Minsk Organising Committee and the Belarus Gymnastics Association for all the hard work in delivering this excellent event!

The full replays are online now! Check out our YouTube channel!

The 15^th edition of the summer EYOF took place between 23 and 27 July in Baku (AZE) where gymnastics enjoyed the spotlight in the magnificent National Gymnastics Arena, venue of the 2015 European Games.

Fresh of success at the first ever junior World Championships last month, Russia’s Viktoria Listunova and Ukraine’s Ilia Kovtun became the stars of Baku. Listunova earned an impressive total of 5 gold medals while Kovtun was not far behind, 4 gold medals and 1 silver!

In the team competition, Russia featuring Listunova, Iana Vorona and Irina Komnova, struggled on beam but strong performances on the other events gave them the edge over a strong Romanian squad with Great Britain in third place. The boys’ competition saw a close fight between Russia (Ivan Kuliak, Mukhammadzhon Iakubov and Kirill Gashkov) and Ukraine (Kovtun, Nazar Chepurnyi and Volodymyr Kostiuk) with the later making the difference on floor and parallel bars. Gold for Ukraine, silver for Russia and bronze for Italy.

Listunova made up for her beam mistakes in qualification by producing 4 lovely routines in the all-around final, cruising to victory with more than 3 points advantage. Great Britain’s Ondine Achampong claimed the silver medal ahead of Russia’s Iana Vorona. Kovtun earned a score of 82.000 to beat his Russian rivals Ivan Kuliak (81.100) and Mukhammadzhon Iakubov (80.550) for the EYOF all-around title.

In event finals, Listunova added the crown on vault, bars and floor to her ever expanding medal collection. Achampong won beam. The Romanian girls did really well too, earning a medal on each apparatus: Silviana Sfiringu won bronze on vault and floor and silver on beam while Ioana Stanciulescu, the 2018 junior European Champion on floor, clinched the bronze on bars and the silver on floor.

Kovtun and Chepurnyi won 2 event titles each, leaving the rings title for Iakubov. Vault was won by British talent Raekwon Baptiste.

Once again, the training camp in the Italian town of Tirrenia offered excellent conditions for our talented gymnasts who learned new skills, perfected their basics and learned from the very best in the sport. The pleasant atmosphere among all participants increased the productivity as the gymnasts challenged their new friends to excel.

The men’s camp was attended by 33 gymnasts and 33 coaches from 21 countries, while the women welcomed 38 gymnasts and 41 coaches representing 23 federations.

A huge thank you to experts, gymnasts and coaches, and of course to the staff at Tirrenia for making this another memorable summer camp!

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With our best regards,

Anca Grigoras                                                                            Tom Thingvold

WTC President                                                                          MTC President