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| Coaches and gymnasts of Russia enjoy their silver medal at yesterday's European Championships. The gymnasts are, left to right : Alexander Balandin, Anton Golotsutskov, Emin Garibov, David Belyavski, Denis Ablyazin. Picture courtesy of the RGF. |
Russia's men yesterday consolidated their recent improvements with a second place in the senior team event that emphasised their strength as individual apparatus specialists. The team had to carry weak third scores on certain events : in particular, pommels and high bar, where Golotsutskov was surely a compromise selection. Had they eliminated just one of the four falls they suffered during the course of the competition, silver could have become gold.
It wasn't a bad result then, for the Russians, and we still have today's event finals to look forward to. I hope the gymnasts' experiences here will prepare them for a stronger performance in London in a few weeks' time, when it will really matter. Good luck to them all!
The full results can be found at the UEG website, or you can view the image below.
I am happy for them thought they fight for first place !
ReplyDeleteYes I agree with your assessment that they can put up 2 good scores but the 3rd score is pretty low for most of the events
ReplyDeleteI am curious how they will pick the team members for the Olys whether focusing on EF specialists (i.e Anton) or maximizing team score potential
However, Anton's spot is becoming questionable having failed to medal on VT at Euros plus while Ablyazin medaled on VT (and he placed 3rd on SR as well!, plus he has a good FX routine). Or maybe Anton just hasn't peaked yet but I guess we will see in the coming weeks!!