The triumph of Melnikova and Nagorny and the feat of Listunova: what made the Russian Cup in Artistic Gymnastics memorable

Young Marinov almost beat Nagorny

The Open Artistic Gymnastics Cup of Russia was discussed long before it started.

This was due to the fact that Ivan Kulyak could not take part in the tournament, suspended for six months by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) due to the demonstration of the Z symbol at the World Cup in Doha.

As the head coach of the Russian national team Valentina Rodionenko explained, if the athlete was admitted, there was a threat of imposing sanctions on the entire national federation, so the organization decided not to take risks.

Thus, Kulyak will not perform until at least mid-August, when the appeal tribunal of the Gymnastic Ethics Foundation will hold a meeting on the young man's claim.

However, many did not like this decision.

People who did not know the nuances of the situation even offered to dismiss the leaders of the FSGR.

Despite the ban on competing, Ivan nevertheless came to Kaluga and trained with the rest of the tournament participants, among whom this year were representatives of Belarus.

He tried to keep a good mood and told reporters about his plans to go to the Olympics.

“It’s mentally hard when you get ready and then you get suspended.

But it's nothing, you just need to survive.

Now I still can't do anything.

We need to train and develop our programs.

It is clear that it will be very difficult at the first competitions in which I will perform, but this must be dealt with.

The Olympics is in my plans, ”TASS quotes the athlete.

Could not miss one of the main starts of the season and the Olympic champions of Tokyo in team competitions.

The whole four came to Kaluga to the delight of the fans: Nikita Nagorny, David Belyavsky, Denis Ablyazin and Artur Dalaloyan, but the latter never entered the platform, since he had not trained in recent weeks due to a sore throat.

As a result, he tried himself as a commentator at the tournament.

Later, the rest appeared in training before the Nagorny Cup.

As it turned out, his wife Daria suddenly had kidney problems and had to be taken to the hospital.

However, this did not prevent the gymnast from performing superbly in the all-around.

Moreover, the athlete himself was very surprised by the victory.

“I am shocked by myself.

When I went to the Russian Cup with David Belyavsky, he said that if I win the all-around even now, it would be dishonest.

Like, they all train constantly, and I come after several trainings and win.

But I can say that the main thing is to get together at the right time, go out and do it, ”said Nagorny.

He dedicated the victory to his recovered wife, and at the awards ceremony he presented Daria with a huge bouquet of roses.

Belyavsky took only third place in the all-around, leaving behind 17-year-old Daniel Marinov.

The young man became one of the discoveries of the Russian Cup.

The athlete lost 0.599 points to Nagorny, and on the second day of the competition he performed better than the Olympic champion.

Nikita was helped by the peculiarities of the tournament regulations, according to which the winner is determined by the sum of the results in the qualification and the final.

Marinov also won the uneven bars competition and was in the top three in the vault, pommel horse and floor exercises.

According to Dalaloyan, this is a great achievement for the young gymnast.

“By age, Daniel can still compete at the European Youth Championships, and he is already competing with men.

Most importantly, it is highly competitive.

I think Daniel will continue to grow and add in complexity, confidence and stability.

He is a good gymnast,” said the Olympic champion in a comment to Sport24.

So far, Marinov really lacks stability.

At the April Russian Championship in Kazan, he fell eight times in two days, but he drew conclusions and this time showed a decent result.

“I prepared much better for the Russian Cup, I knew what my mistakes were when I start to worry at an adult start.

And he worked much better than in preparation for the previous tournament, ”the athlete explained on Match TV.

Egor Sharamkov also drew attention to himself.

In floor exercises, the Belarusian beat the experienced Kirill Prokopiev by only 0.034 points.

As a result, the organizers decided to award both gold medals.

Aleksey Rostov won the first place on the crossbar.

According to the results of the qualification, the athlete was a substitute and got into the application after Nagorny was removed from the tournament, which this time limited himself to performing only in the all-around.

The 28-year-old gymnast managed to pull himself together in the final and show the maximum on his profile apparatus.

In other types of the program, Belyavsky and Ablyazin took turns climbing to the highest step of the podium.

David - in the exercises on the horse, Denis - in the vault and on the rings.

After the tournament, the athletes admitted that they were not going to end their sports career and would still try to compete at the next Olympics.

“Before Paris, we will prepare, perform, and then we will see how it will be with health.

All athletes say that they will finish after the Games, but then they still go on.

It is very difficult to leave the sport when he gave him so many years of his life, ”Ablyazin explained.

Melnikova Tournament

If for men Dalaloyan played a new role for himself, then for women the first tournament as a judge was held by Aliya Mustafina, who ended her sports career last year and is now the head coach of the Russian women's youth team.

As Rodionenko said, she evaluated the floor exercises during the qualification.

“It’s common for coaches to become judges for a while, this work allows you to better know the rules that change with a certain frequency,” the specialist explained.

The start of the all-around final was overshadowed by Elena Gerasimova's injury.

On the vault, she landed unsuccessfully on her knees.

Doctors quickly reacted: they fixed the leg with a bandage and carried the girl off the platform on a stretcher.

And then the fans were waiting for a real fight for gold, which unfolded between Tokyo Olympic champions Angelina Melnikova and Vladislava Urazova.

Everything was decided in floor exercises, before which a native of Rostov-on-Don had a slight advantage of 0.2 points.

However, fatigue made itself felt, and the athlete made several mistakes.

Whereas Melnikova, who had only been training for the Russian Cup for a couple of weeks and had problems recovering throughout the tournament, gave a great performance and ended up winning.

Later, Angelina admitted that she was choosing between a full combination and a simplified one, but decided to take a chance.

At the same time, she said that she sometimes lacks the purity of the execution of the elements.

“The work on this is very painstaking, and I have all-around and sometimes I just don’t have enough time to work on cleanliness, because I need to develop both endurance and combinations,” Melnikova explained.

Angelina also pleased the fans on separate apparatuses.

The gymnast won floor exercises and vault.

On uneven bars, she lost to another Olympic champion, Victoria Listunova, who had not yet fully recovered from a foot injury and was declared at the Russian Cup in only one type of program.

"Bone fracture in the left foot.

Therefore, I don’t make jumping shells at competitions.

In training, I slowly run and jump, but since the injury was serious, we decided not to do the all-around for now.

In principle, I could recover without any problems and do it, but I would like not just to do it, but to show the level, new combinations.

Leg injury, probably accumulated.

I hit my left foot more than once, in the end it didn’t work out, and there was already a serious injury, ”said Listunova.

On the last day of the competition, Melnikova earned another silver on beam.

Here, 17-year-old Yana Vorona was ahead of her by 0.433 points.

Moreover, the Olympic champion for the first time in three days did without a fall on this projectile.

After the start, she admitted that she was not even happy with the result, but simply with the implementation of the program.

“I have a new combination, the difficulty has increased by half a point.

For me, this is a huge step.

More satisfied with floor exercises.

I know what I have to go out and do, this is my signature projectile.

I have a log like this, I did it - it's good, I didn't - and that's okay.

Today was also very difficult.

Masseurs, doctors, trainer helped a lot.

The muscles are tired, ”concluded Melnikova.