"A wild cry escaped from the chest": how in Russia reacted to the victory of gymnasts in the all-around and the 17th title of Dina Averina

"Everything was fine today, they were judged well"

The next day of the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Kitakyushu brought the Russian team two more gold medals.

The victory in the group all-around, which was won by Anastasia Bliznyuk, Polina Orlova, Angelina Shkatova, Alisa Tishchenko, Maria Tolkacheva, also brought them and the Averin sisters first place in the team championship, which eventually made it possible to win the medal standings of the tournament ahead of schedule.

The main topic for discussion at the end of Friday's competitions was that the Russians won the all-around with a serious mistake.

During the performance with hoops and clubs, one of the athletes threw the hoop onto the carpet, which is why the judges lowered the mark.

However, this did not affect the final alignment of the teams.

Tolkacheva, who became a ten-time world champion, said that she and her teammates had already left this incident in the past.

“We performed well.

We made a small mistake in the exercises with clubs and hoops, but in the end the competition was successful.

We have already begun to prepare for the finals, have forgotten about this all-around and are moving on.

We compete in the final for ourselves and hope for a good performance, ”the website of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) quotes the athlete.

Bliznyuk noted that the fans and the festive atmosphere in the stands helped her to perform successfully, which, for example, did not exist during the Olympic Games.

“To be honest, I am happy to hear the tribunes - it always gives strength and energy!

We give the rostrum energy, they give us!

It helps a lot and you can feel the real spirit of competition! "

- quotes the words of the gymnast on the Telegram channel of the Russian Olympic Committee.

The head coach of the team, Irina Viner-Usmanova, said that the day before she had a conversation with the FIG leadership.

Thanks to this, she believes, in the group exercises, it was possible to avoid any referee scandals.

“I got a wild cry from my chest when I saw the grades.

Won 2.5 points.

These were the emotions.

After yesterday's events with the refereeing, I talked with the President of the International Gymnastics Federation.

He said that he himself would keep a close eye on everything.

Therefore, today everything was fine, they were judged well.

There were no hints that they were trying to somehow play against us today, ”Viner-Usmanova told the Championship.

According to the silver medalist of the 1996 Olympics Yana Batyrshina, there could still be complaints against the judges because of the score for performing with hoops and clubs. She said that any mistake immediately leads to an overly picky attitude towards Russian athletes.

“In my opinion, the mark for the first exercise could have been higher. But here, you know, this is the story: when you give a reason - and the reason was obvious, an obvious loss, a drawing in an exercise was knocked down, one gymnast was out of sync - then they rip off in full. We must be three heads taller than everyone else and not give a reason. Here's the next exercise with balls, our girls did so that none of the judges raised a hand to give a mark lower than they deserved. Because the balls were made just brilliantly! It seems to me that they did not play with balls at the Olympics either - it was so cool and easy, ”Batyrshina told Gazeta.Ru.

Four-time world champion Alexandra Soldatova said that she believed that even such a mistake would not leave Russian athletes without gold.

She recalled that a similar situation had already happened with Bliznyuk and Tolkacheva at the 2016 Olympics, and then they also coped with everything.

“The mistake at the very beginning was obvious, but I did not expect so much to be removed for it.

Because of this, a very strong tension appeared after the first sight.

I was very worried about the girls, but I remember that a slightly similar situation already happened at the Rio Olympics.

Then our girls made a mistake in the first form, but they did the second so excellently that they immediately took the lead.

So I knew that if our girls can mentally pull themselves together and do everything to their maximum, then they have a chance to win the world championship, "Soldatova admitted.

"We will pray and cheer for Arina and Dina"

For Dina Averina, the victory in the team competition, to which she had a hand in the previous days, became the 17th gold medal of the world championships in her career.

According to this indicator, she caught up with the most titled gymnast Evgenia Kanaeva, and this also caused an enthusiastic reaction.

The two-time Olympic champion herself said she was happy to repeat her achievement.

“I am now next to the girls, they are great fellows, they did their best.

The performances were amazing.

The girls did not give anyone a chance; together with their cool coaches, they did their job.

Dina Averina is a very clever girl.

I wish her to become an 18-time champion tomorrow, she is very smart.

We will pray and cheer for our girls, Arina and Dina.

If Dina gets around me, I'll be happy.

God grant.

We will not guess, but I sincerely want her to succeed, ”Kanaeva told Match TV.

Yana Batyrshina also stated that both athletes now have the status of legends in their sport.

She also wished Dina Averina to celebrate another success on Saturday.

“Dina has caught up with the legend! But tomorrow she may surpass Eugenia's achievement. I sincerely wish this to her. Dina is the only one at the tournament who did not make a single mistake. To set a new record, she needs to perform at her level. I would like to note that history is being written right in front of Kanaeva's eyes. Now we have two legends - Dina and Eugene. Once I asked Zhenya: "17-time world champion - how is this possible?" But Zhenya is very modest and does not focus on this. She answered me: “Oh, but I don’t know, I never thought about it, I have to count”. Dina knows for sure about the record, but, for sure, she does not attach any importance to it either, "Batyrshina told RIA Novosti.

In turn, commentator Dmitry Guberniev also noted the successes of Dina Averina.

But at the same time, he expressed the hope that the athlete would less often discuss sports policy and refereeing, and instead focus on performances.

“It's great that Dina caught up with Kanaeva.

Averina will win more.

The main thing is to have calmness and composure.

Fewer tears after annoying, but not at all tragic failures, like at the World Cup.

We must prepare for the Olympics and win everyone in three years.

Dina is one of the greatest gymnasts.

Think less about politics, more about business, ”the journalist advised.