Stolen gold: how Ablyazin won the vault at the Tokyo Games, but remained second

Formally, everything was within the framework of the rules.

The first attempt in the final of the vault of Shin Ji-hwan surpassed in basic difficulty the one that Denis Ablyazin had - 6.0 against 5.6.

But on landing, the Korean made a mistake, for which he received a deduction and only 8.833 points for execution.

From a technical point of view, the Russian gymnast performed both of his attempts much cleaner and higher.

But due to lack of difficulty, Ablyazin's scores turned out to be equal.

And the gold went to the side.

The Russian side decided not to file a protest.

The Russian gymnast was not perfect on landings, and twice, and in these cases, the rules of good gymnastic tone do not recommend making claims to the referees.

I think that is precisely why the head coach of the Russian national team, Valentina Rodionenko, reacted rather harshly to the question of the appeal.

“The vault is judged not by the quality of performance, if the results are equal, but by the most difficult jump.

Sin jumped a six-point jump, that's all.

There can be no other conversations, ”the specialist summed up.

However, it was not so simple.

Three-time Olympic champion of Seoul Dmitry Bilozerchev, who worked as a practical coach in the USA for many years, and then in Russia, when asked to share his opinion on the jumping final, did not hide his surprise with the results of the final.

“Everyone is saying now that the Korean athlete had a higher difficulty, but from a technical point of view, he did not make the declared jump at all when he performed his three twist screws. The rules on this matter are spelled out: landing must be done clearly with toes forward. If at least one leg is not turned in, this is the basis for not counting the indicated basic difficulty. The Korean, on the other hand, did not turn a quarter of a turn: on landing, you can see that the toes of his feet are looking to the side. So is the head.

Accordingly, the judges were obliged to count the element as simpler "three screws", reduce the basic difficulty of the jump to 5.6, and only then make deductions for technical errors, which the athlete had quite a lot.

In other words, the situation allowed the arbitrators to completely “strip” Sina, and all this would be absolutely within the framework of the rules.

Instead, he was given the victory, depriving Denis Ablyazin of his honestly earned gold.

If the judges were more professional, the Korean gymnast would not even be among the prize-winners, ”Bilozerchev prepared the jump.

The bronze medalist of the Games in Beijing in this type of program, Anton Golotsutskov, in turn, was not so categorical.

He explained why it is difficult to dispute the gymnastic result, pointing out the errors of the Russians in the execution of their jumps.

“Denis Ablyazin is a great fellow, but, unfortunately, he did not have clean landings on both jumps. And every extra step is a deduction. I can't explain what happened to the guys. I know that they worked on the "boards" a lot, prepared them, for sure they both understood that this was the final final, where you had to go all-in and not take care of your legs, but it was because of the boards that they suffered: neither Denis, nor Nikita Nagorny did not manage to get up “dead” on the landings. Arguing with the judges in such cases is useless: if you have given a reason, be prepared for the score to be lower than expected ... ", Golotsutskov explained.

Ablyazin, having won such an offensive silver medal, actually became the author of a completely unique achievement: already at the third Olympics in a row, the gymnast, who almost his entire career was tormented by all kinds of gymnastic injuries, the last and most difficult of which happened just a year ago, is winning medals: silver and bronze - in London, two silver and bronze - in Rio and, finally, gold and silver - in Tokyo.

And God knows that great Olympic gymnastics remained in Ablyazin's debt.

Several years ago Denis and I talked about gymnastics.

At that time, Ablyazin's combinations on the rings, in the vault and in floor exercises were considered the most difficult in the world, but when I asked if he enjoyed being superior to his rivals without ever leaving the carpet, Denis winced.

“Pleasure is when you went out onto the platform, did everything smoothly and neatly and got on the board.

What is the most difficult program?

It is a constant and absolute concentration on each individual element.

During the combination, you constantly think about a lot of things.

It's a hard work.

If you miss the control on the same rings even for a split second, then you may not complete the combination at all - to fall.

So I can't say that performances are easier on any of my three shells, ”Ablyazin replied.

Three shells remained in Denis's arsenal even after, working on the rings, he severely injured his hand.

Because of this, even before the Games in London, he forever abandoned the horse, followed by the crossbar: a sore hand made even the most ordinary hanging impossible.

In the first of his individual finals - on the rings - Denis remained sixth.

And he ended his Olympic performances with the shell that he loves most.

What happened in the final finals was perceived as deja vu: in 2012, Ablyazin lost his Olympic silver in floor exercises in a completely similar way, losing the technical score with an equal total of points to the absolute champion of those Games, the legendary Japanese Kohei Uchimura.

Just losing gold is much more painful than losing the second most important reward.

But this is how gymnastics works: it is possible to equally divide the award only if the assessments of the two athletes are identical in all components.

This is how everything turned out on Monday in the women's floor exercise, where the Olympic champion in the team championship and the all-around bronze medalist Angelina Melnikova shared the third step of the podium with the Japanese Mai Murakami, somewhat compensating for the eighth final result of Victoria Listunova with this success.

She, it seems, simply could not stand the expectation - she made completely atypical mistakes for herself on landings.

Actually, the mistakes of Ablyazin and Nagorny were from the same category: accumulated fatigue and orderly worn nerves let down.

“They say that my gold was stolen?

Let them write whatever they want, it won't change anything.

I urge everyone to calm down.

I will not say out loud what I think, - Ablyazin cut off like a man in the mixed zone.

And for some reason I immediately remembered how in that long-standing conversation of ours he told me about his favorite kind of program - vault.

“… When I run, the main task is to place two“ narrow ”arms on the projectile and to correctly pick up the grouping after pushing off.

The result largely depends on the first phase: the run-up, the jump on the bridge, getting into the hands.

The jump itself is too fleeting to think about it during the flight.

Everything happens automatically in the air.

The next thought is about landing, where the main thing is to stand ... "

And will anyone now turn their tongue to say that this guy did not do the main thing in Tokyo?