He performed only on the rings: gymnast Dalaloyan took third place in the Italian club championship despite the demarche of the Ukrainian

Artur Dalaloyan is the only Russian gymnast who this spring got the opportunity to participate in any competitions outside of Russia.

Back in 2021, he signed a contract with the Italian Gymnastic Romagna Team, for which he played in the national club championship.

Similar tournaments are being held in Germany, where seven Russian athletes competed for various teams last season, including Olympic champions Nikita Nagorny and David Belyavsky.

Dalaloyan himself also competed in the Bundesliga before moving to Italy.

But with the start of a military special operation in Ukraine, German clubs completely refused to cooperate with the Russians.

The Italians, on the other hand, did not terminate the contract with the three-time world champion, and he made a significant contribution to the team's entry into the Final Six of the Italian Championship.

The final competitions were held in Naples on May 21-22.

On the eve of the start, one of the participating teams, Palestra Ginnastica Ferrara, announced that the Ukrainian Ilya Kovtun would not take the platform due to the presence of Dalaloyan in the application for the tournament.

“He follows the instructions given in this regard by the Ukrainian Gymnastics Federation to all his athletes.

But most of all, he does not want to participate in competitions that will be attended by the Russians.

Especially after what happened on the podium of the World Cup stage in Doha, stained by the blatant gesture of Ivan Kulyak, which everyone remembers and for which he was recently justly punished by the International Gymnastics Federation, ”says Palestra Ginnastica Ferrara in an official statement.

The team supported the athlete's decision and, as a sign of solidarity, did not replace him with another gymnast in exercises on parallel bars.

“The rest of the guys will fight for him and other Ukrainian friends.

However, this time the final result will be of secondary importance, ”the club said.

Dalaloyan himself did not even immediately find out about what was happening and reacted absolutely calmly to the hype that had risen.

“To be honest, I just now heard about it.

Of course, I was interested in whether that club would reach the final.

I was told that he preferred to play in the German Bundesliga.

Didn't know I had anything to do with it or anything to do with it.

My attitude is absolutely even and calm to this, it makes absolutely no difference to me, because of me (Kovtun refused -

.) or not because of me.

I come to do my job, and I don't really care about the rest.

These are some of their affairs, I don’t want to discuss and comment on this, ”RIA Novosti quoted the athlete as saying.

And the head coach of the national gymnastics team, Valentina Rodionenko, in turn, said that the Ukrainian was “put into the head” that he could not compete in the same tournament with the Russian.

In addition, in her opinion, Kovtun is simply afraid of losing to the more experienced and eminent Dalaloyan. 

The semi-finals took place on the first day of the final tournament.

Six teams were divided into two groups, and the winners of each subgroup, as well as one of the teams that took second place - the one that scored more points, went to the decisive part.

Dalaloyan's team confidently won their semi-final, while Kovtun's club took third place in the group and could not continue further struggle for victory.

In the final competition, the Gymnastic Romagna Team finished third with 17 points.

Pro Patria Bustese won with 29 points, Virtus Pasqualetti won the second place with 26 points. Dalaloyan competed only in the rings competition, where he finished third with 12.900 points.

According to Valentina Rodionenko, such an assessment may indicate a serious error in the execution of the program.

“He has a complex combination that fits the bill.

It's hard to say what happened without seeing the performance.

Perhaps he fell, this is severely punished, or there was a problem with the dismount, or he did not finish the cross.

There can be a lot of serious deductions, ”Rodionenko explained RT.

She also found it difficult to answer why the athlete performed only on one projectile.

According to Rodionenko, leaving for the competition, Dalaloyan was determined to perform in all sports.

Perhaps the coaches of the Italian team decided to keep the Russian in order not to develop the scandal that was brewing due to the boycott of the Ukrainian.

“I only hope that this is not some kind of injury,” the head coach of the national team emphasized.