Daria Skrypnik became the standout individual gymnast today at the European Youth Olympics, taking a medal in every event - gold in team, all around and bars, bronze on beam and silver on vault and floor. In fact the Russian girls did very well, with every single gymnast earning a medal besides her team gold - Eremina a bronze on vault, and Ilyankova bronze in the all around and bars. An emerging team in this competition were Belgium and in particular rising star Axelle Klinckaert, who won both golds on this final day, on beam and floor, as well as the silver in the all around (very close - tie break with Skrypnik).
In the men's event, I think it is fair to say that Britain had the upper hand, taking the team gold. Their leader was Joe Fraser who won the AA and parallel bars gold. Hamish Carter took silver on floor behind team mate Gianni Regini-Moran. It was quite a surprise, given his team's record on the piece, when Russia's elegant Alexander Sychugov won pommel horse with an immaculate routine, and then Maxim Sinichkin of Kazan made a strong display on rings to take gold there, too. But today the boys didn't do quite as well, with Sinichkin finishing fifth on parallel bars while Britain's Joe won another convincing gold. Arnaut ended up fourth on high bar. The team didn't qualify a competitor to vault final, or to floor, after an error filled first day.
Russian national coach for the MAG juniors, Vladimir Kirillov, pointed out that their top competitor, Andrei Makolov, was absent through injury and could have changed the outcome of the competition as he had better D values. His AA total of 86 at the recent Russian junior championships WOULD have well out scored Joe Fraser - but then competition is competition, and ifs and buts abound everywhere.
A characteristic of the judging at this competition was a proliferation of ties - there were, for example, three amongst the eighteen gymnasts in the girls' AA final, and more across event finals. Not all of the D and E scores have been published, which makes it difficult to conclude why this should have been so, but it does seem likely that there was a fair amount of 'boxing' of the E scores, with insufficient differentiation. Tie break procedures favour execution over difficulty, but this is a disappointing outcome for gymnasts, fans and coaches, and surely the judges should be able to score decisively.
Live streaming for this competition has been sporadic. Isn't it time that the UEG and/or FIG developed its own livestream, like BGTV or USA gymnastics?
Link to complete results - http://tbilisi2015.com/en/gymnastics-results
Today's results are below for quick reference. CONGRATULATIONS to all the participants, final lists, medallists and gold medallists! A great show!!
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