Federation Friday: Cyprus

This week the Cyprus Gymnastics Federation talks about their successful year, from the Rio Olympics to the Academy in men’s artistic gymnastics

First Olympic Games participation in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – MARIOS GEORGIOU

Marios Georgiou became the first Cypriot to qualify for a gymnastics final, after his performance in the men's all around qualifying event.

Marios is a very high level gymnast and we will see him make even greater success in the future.

 

World Gymnasiade held in Trabzon, on 11-18 July 2016

Our athletes through a difficult circumstances and enormous psychological pressure conquered a total of 8 (eight) medals.

MVP of Cyprus delegation was our young athlete Elias Georgiou, who won a total of 5 (five) medals: gold in Rings, Silver in Individual All-Around, Horizontal Bar, Parallel Bars and bronze in Pommel Horse.

Excellent appearance from Neophytos Kyriakou who won gold medal in Vault and silver in

Floor Exercise and from Tatiana Batsourina who won the bronze in Uneven Bars.

 

Level 1 Academy for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics

Cyprus Gymnastics Federation organised a Level 1 Academy for Men’s Artistic Gymnastics which was held at the excellent facilities of the Apostolou Varnava Training Hall and Olympic House in the capital city of Nicosia. It was the 237th Academy overall and the 59th to be held in Europe and was held on August 20-27, 2016.

The course leader was Derick Scholtz from South Africa who has been a frequent Academy expert in multiple disciplines and age group programme camps and is a Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics coach. He taught all of the theory lectures. For this Academy he was joined by Andrei Levit who was Polish National Coach, a FIG brevet coach and coach of former vault world champion Leszik Blanik. He currently coaches at the training centre in Mons, Belgium.

The examination at the end of the Academy consisted of a two-part examination that includes a theory examination and a practical examination involving the teaching of a Men’s Artistic Gymnastics skill. The results were excellent for all participants with several very high marks. The three highest results for this Academy were all over 90% and were all achieved by Cyprus coaches. The top three in order were Pangiotis Aristotelous, Panagiotis Petridis, and Ahmad Jaser.

Text and photos: Cyprus Gymnastics Federation