The unique element of Nagorny and the feat of Belyavsky on the uneven bars

Shortly before the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Basel, which was to be the main test before the Tokyo Olympics, the Russian men's team suffered a serious loss.

Arthur Dalaloyan earned an Achilles strain in training and was out of action for three months.

One of the strongest gymnasts on the planet even had to undergo surgery.

In the absence of Dalaloyan, the undisputed leader of the team was the absolute world and European champion Nikita Nagorny.

Already in qualifying, he confirmed his status by qualifying for the all-around final with the best total points.

The Russian performed especially well in floor exercises - he was the first to show a triple back somersault, which will now be named after him, and scored a fantastic 15.066 points only for him.

Nagorny's closest competitors were his own compatriots. Experienced David Belyavsky, who won the all-around at the European Championship eight years ago, qualified for the final with the second result. Alexander Kartsev became the third, but he could not start drawing medals - in the finals there is a limited quota of two gymnasts from one country. But the national champion in the all-around helped the team a lot, winning the last fifth ticket to the Olympic Games for the national team. Another Russian gymnast Kirill Prokopyev came to Basel to replace Dalaloyan, but in qualifying he also showed a very high seventh result.

The all-around final began with another outstanding performance of Nagorny in floor exercises. He did not take risks and again show his name element, but still took the lead with a score of 14.933 points. Belyavsky received 14,400 points, which for him was a huge step forward compared to the qualifying performances. He also greatly improved his performance on his beloved horse, adding another 14.933 points. And in this form, Nagorny had the first failure - he almost flew off the shell, but somehow incredibly managed to pull himself together and limited himself to only a horse. The world champion had to let his compatriot go to first place, and go to second himself.

But the reverse change took place after the performance on the rings. Nagorny performed in his own strength, and Belyavsky gave him more points. The Turk Akhmet Ender, who in qualification was the best gymnast after the Russians, immediately approached him at a distance of 0.033 points. Belyavsky also performed unsuccessfully in the vault - his legs parted in the air, and on landing he touched the mat with his hand. But Ender did not use this chance and jumped very modestly himself. Nagorny, on the other hand, showed an excellent double somersault with a half-turn and received high 15 points for it, becoming almost unattainable for his rivals.

The fate of the silver was to be decided on the uneven bars - Ender on them is the reigning vice-world champion, but for Belyavsky it is also a profiling shell.

In this mini-dispute, the Russian won a convincing victory - he scored 15.366 points, and the Turks lost seven tenths to him.

Nagorny on the uneven bars again got 15 points exactly.

After that, the Russians had enough to avoid falls in the last exercise on the crossbars, which they did.

Nagorny won the European championship in individual all-around for the second time in a row, and Belyavsky became the silver medalist.

What a podium!



1. Nikita Nagornyy (RUS)


2. David Belyavskiy) RUS)


3. Ilia Kovtun (UKR)



Congratulations!

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- European Gymnastics (@UEGymnastics) April 23, 2021

Listunova's victorious debut and Melnikova's silver falls

Unlike the men's team, the Russian women's team arrived in Switzerland with the strongest line-up.

The company of experienced Angelina Melnikova was made up of Vladislav Urazova, Victoria Listunova and Elena Gerasimova.

They all won at least two gold medals at the only junior world championship so far in 2019, and in Basel they were waiting for their debut in the senior national team.

In the all-around qualification, the Russians repeated the achievements of men with amazing accuracy.

Melnikova qualified for the finals with the best result of 55.991 points, at the same time taking first places in floor exercises and on uneven bars.

The second amount was scored by the champion of Russia in the all-around Listunova, losing more than half a point to her compatriot.

The third was Urazova, and she, like Kartsev, had to end the fight for medals due to the strict rules of the competition, but she got an extra quota for the country for the Olympics.

The main rival of the Russians in the all-around was to become the Romanian Larisa Yordake. In the world of gymnastics, she is known for the fact that it was she who at the World Championships and the Olympic Games managed to get as close as possible to the invincible American Simone Biles. But in 2017, Yordake almost ended her career due to serious injuries. The Romanian returned to the platform only three years later and won two golds at the December European Championships. In Basel, the 24-year-old athlete really turned out to be the best after the Russians and got herself a ticket to the Games in Tokyo, but immediately after qualifying she was in the hospital with a kidney infection. She had to miss the first medal drawing.

In the final, the Russian gymnasts immediately took the lead. In the vault, Listunova repeated her qualifying result of 14.466 points. Melnikova even surpassed herself, gaining 14.733 points for Yurchenko with two screws - only the host of the competition, Julia Steingruber, jumped better in Basel. But already in the next view, the two Russians changed places. 15-year-old Listunova flawlessly performed her program on the uneven bars, for which she received 14.333 points from the judges. At the very end of the performance, Melnikova had a fall - she did not have time to catch on the pole after bent over somersault. At the same time, even so, she received a good 13,733 points, which many participants did not count on.

Melnikova's failures did not end there. On the balance beam, she repeated her mistake in qualifying, and again fell off the shell during the turn. The result of the Russian woman was limited to a very modest 12.833 points. Now she already had to worry about her second place, for which the British Jessica Gadirova began to claim. Listunova, on the other hand, performed brilliantly on the log. Even with her rather big height for this exercise, she earned 14.066 points - no one has ever performed better on this apparatus.

Floor exercises were given to the leader of the all-around a little worse.

Although she did not have serious mistakes, but for the first time in the day she received less than 14 points.

In total, her score turned out to be quite high - 56.731 points.

Listunova won and became the first gymnast in ten years to win the all-around at her debut European Championship.

Behind her, Melnikova performed almost perfectly and took second place, gaining 55.432 points in the end.

Viktoria Listunova goes into the lead with only Angelina Melnikova to go !!!

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- European Gymnastics (@UEGymnastics) April 23, 2021