Competition report: event finals day 1

The top 8 women on vault and uneven bars, and the top 8 men on floor, pommel horse and rings fought for the European titles today in Montpellier (FRA)

Defending Champion, and newly crowned all-around European champion, Giulia Steingruber (SUI) was surpassed on vault by Russia’s Maria Paseka who took the title by a tenth. Paseka’s Cheng and Amanar were of higher difficulty and although Steingruber’s execution was better, this gave Paseka the advantage. Ksenia Afanasyeva (RUS) held off a challenge by Dutch Noel Van Klaveren to the bronze.

On uneven bars the battle for gold was between Becky Downie (GBR) and Daria Spiridonova (RUS), both posting a 6.7 difficulty score. Spiridonova’s execution was better so she took the European title with 2 tenths difference. Sanne Wevers (NED) got bronze for a routine performed with beautiful form. The younger Downie sister, Ellie, was one tenth behind in fourth place. Crowd favorite Loan His (FRA) unfortunately had problems in her first European event final.

Kristian Thomas (GBR) showed beautiful execution is his floor routine to take the gold medal just ahead of Russia’s David Belyavskiy who had more difficulty but also more deductions. Pablo Braegger (SUI) took the bronze medal.  A bit of drama on floor for Zapata (ESP) who was allowed to do his exercise again after an error in the timing. When his score was posted he was in third place but a line penalty was not included so the score had to be changed which dropped him to fifth place.

Great Britain’s Louis Smith was King of the pommel horse again. He seems so relaxed on this difficult apparatus, combining difficulty with excellent execution. He was almost half a point ahead of silver medal winner, Harutyum Merdinyan of Armenia. Italy’s Alberto Busnari was delighted with the bronze, showing of his trademark handstand travels. Russia’s Matvei Petrov, who qualified in second place, fell unfortunately. 

Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias grabbed his first European title, on his specialisation, rings, showing both the highest difficulty and execution mark. Defending Champion Denis Ablyazin tied for second with former Champion Samir Ait Said, which got the French crowd to go wild. Dutch veteran missed out on a medal by only 33 hundreds of a point.

Congratulations to all medalists ! The event finals continue tomorrow with the women on beam and floor, and the men on vault, parallel bars and high bar