19. April 2015  
Montpellier, FRA  
Artistic Gymnastics

37th MEN's Europeans Artistic Gymnastics 2015

Oleg Verniaev (UKR) - after 15 years the first all-around title for Ukraine again!

60 years after the first European Championships for men (1955, Frankfurt / Main), the European Union of Gymnastics (UEG) leads the 37th European Championships for Men by the last, every two years, now in its 6th times as a so-called Individual Championships, it means without team competition.
* On Friday Oleg VERNIAIEV (21) from Ukraine, the bronze medalist two years ago won, as expected, the  European all-around title. He beat the defending ECh champion (Moscow 2013) Russia's  David BELYAVSKIY as well as the ECh third in 2011 (Berlin), the British Daniel PURVIS.
Oleg VERNIAIEV, the gymnast with the most competition starts in this Olympic cycle, that denote also by some as the "European Uchimura", was the most succesfull gymnast, after winning his second title at the parallel bars final on Sunday. But best nation was Great Britain with the two gold medallists Kristian THOMAS on floor exercises and Louis SMITH on pommel horse and Sam Oldhams bronze medal on high bar. European champion on rings was Eleftherios PETROUNIAS from Greece,  Nikita NAGORNYY won the only one title for Russia at the vaulting table and at the end Croatia was happy about the gold medal on high bar by Marijo MOZNIK. 

* The International Gymnastic Camp (IGC / USA) supports the 2015 ECh GYMmedia reports.

37th MEN's EUROPEANS 2015
   - Artistic Gymnastics, Montpellier -
___________________________
♦ Friday, Apr 17 (6.30 pm local time)
   MEN's ALL-AROUND FINAL
* The ECh all-around gold medal went to Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine with Belyavskiy of Russia in silver. British champion Daniel Purvis has taken the European Championships men’s all-around bronze medal in a nail biting competition in Montpellier. He demonstrated his coolness under pressure throughout the competition with no major errors and highlights coming on floor and parallel bars as he totalled 87.423 points overall for the bronze medal and Britain’s Sam Oldham in sixth position.
Heading to the final apparatus, the pommel horse, just 0.007 of the bronze Dan knew that he had to remain composed and he pulled out a stunning routine to clinch his second European all-around medal having also taken bronze in 2011. Sam Oldham produced a masterful high bar performance amongst his highlights, having suffered injury at the Commonwealth Games last year he was delighted to be back competing in a major championships all-around final and will have hopes of being amongst the medals in high bar on Sunday.

 1. VERNIAIEV, Oleg (UKR)  - 89,582

  2. BELYAVSKIY, David (RUS)  - 88,131

  3. PURVIS, Daniel (GBR)  - 87,423
    ►► Detailed results

  ► AA Final Qualifiers  ► AA Final, start list
  ► Live scoring  (Longines)

* Historical Review:
  > Europe's All-around best  (- since 1955)
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Kristian THOMAS (GBR)

MEN's Apparatus FINALS, Part I
* Saturday, Apr 18
  F L O O R  EXERCISES

Kristian THOMAS (GBR) showed beautiful execution in his floor routine to take the gold medal just ahead of Russia’s David Belyavskiy who had more difficulty but also more deductions. Pablo Braegger (SUI) took the bronze medal.  A bit of drama on floor for Zapata (ESP) who was allowed to do his exercise again after an error in the timing. When his score was posted he was in third place but a line penalty was not included so the score had to be changed which dropped him to fifth place.

1. THOMAS, Kristian   (GBR)  - (6.2) = 15,166
2. BELYAVSKIY, David       (RUS)  - (6.6) = 15,066
  3. BRAEGGER, Pablo (SUI)  - (6.5) = 14,941
   > Detailed results

Louis SMITH (GBR)

POMMEL HORSE

Great Britain’s Louis SMITH was King of the pommel horse again. He seems so relaxed on this difficult apparatus, combining difficulty with excellent execution. He was almost half a point ahead of silver medal winner, Harutyum Merdinyan of Armenia. Italy’s Alberto Busnari was delighted with the bronze, showing of his trademark handstand travels. Russia’s Matvei Petrov, who qualified in second place, fell unfortunately.

1. SMITH, Louis                 (GBR)  - (6.9) = 15,800
2. MERIDINYAN, Harityum  (ARM)  - (6.7) = 15,333
  3. BUSNARI, Alberto     (ITA)  - (6.8) = 15,200
   > Detailed results

 

Eleftherious PETROUNIAS (GRE)

S T I L L  R I N G S

Greece’s Eleftherios PETROUNIAS grabbed his first European title, on his specialisation, rings, showing both the highest difficulty and execution mark. Defending Champion Denis Ablyazin tied for second with former Champion Samir Ait Said, which got the French crowd to go wild. Dutch veteran missed out on a medal by only 33 hundreds of a point.

1. PETROUNIAS, Elefterios (GRE) - (6.8) = 15,866
2. AIT SAID, Samir             (FRA)  - (6.8) = 15,566
2. ABLIASIN, Denis             (RUS)  - (6.8) = 15,566
          > Detailed results

Nikita NAGOTNYY (RUS)

* Final Day 2: Sunday:

  V A U L T   > Qualifiers  &  > Start lists

Russian defending Champion Denis Ablyazin and fellow Olympic medalist Igor Radivilov (UKR) were outperformed by the young Russian Nikita NAGORNYY who showed two well-executed vaults to take his first European title. 

  1. NAGORNIY, Nikolai (RUS) - (6.0/5.6) = 15,099
  2. ABLIAZIN, David     (RUS) - (6.4/6.2) = 15,083
  3. RADIVILOV, Igor    (UKR)  - (6.0/6.0) = 15,083
             > Detailed results

Oleg VERNIAIEV (KR) - most successfully gymnast!

  PARALLEL  BARS

European and World Champion on parallel bars, and the new all-around champion, Oleg VERNIAIEV successfully defended his title, scoring 15.866 which was more than half a point more than Marius Berbecar (ROU) and Christian Baumann (SUI) who tied for silver, narrowly beating Azerbaijan’s Oleg Stepko.

  1. VERNIAIEV, Oleg      (UKR) - (6.9) = 15,866
  2. BAUMANN, Christian (SUI)  - (6.4) = 15,300
  3. BERBECAR, Marius   (ROU) - (6.7) = 15,300
           > Detailed results

 

Marijo MOZNIK (CRO)

  H I G H  B A R
Croatian Marijo MOZNIK showed his trademark skill (layout Tkatchev half) on his way to the gold medal on high bar. Sam Oldham (GBR) took the silver medal and former World Champion Vlasios Maras (GRE) took the last medal of these Championships.

  1. MOZNIK, Marijo  (CRO) - (6.7) = 14,833
  2. OLDHAM, Sam   (GBR) - (6.5) = 14,766
  3. MARAS, Vlasios  (GRE) - (6.6) = 14,666
             > Detailed results
  ►► FINAL RESULTS, ALL

Verniaiev - top favorite also for the final!

  ... what happened until now:

♦ Thursday, Apr 16
   - MEN's Qualification rounds
* Thursday, April 16, took place the three subdivisions of qualifications for all-around final (Friday) and the two apparatus finals at Saturday and Sunday .... 
→ 2015 ECh male participants, all
⇒ SUBDIVISION 3 (> Subdiv. 3 - Start list)
Rotation 1 --- Deurloo and Zapata rocked floor with a 14.966 and 15.008 respectively. Stepko scored 15.300 on parallel bars, to be narrowly outscored by his teammate Petro Pakhnyuk (15.366). Strong performance on rings by Goossens.
Rotation 2 ---: great floor exercise by Kristian Thomas, unfortunately Max Whitlock stumbled on his typical flairs. Fahrig vaulted a Roche and a Kasamatsu 1,5 to take 5th on vault.
Rotation 3 ---: Awesome pommel horse routine by Louis Smith. He takes the lead with 15.800. Whitlock struggles on his first element, getting penalised in execution and missing out on the final. Radivilov is strong on vault with a Dragulescu and a Kasamatsu 1,5.
Rings specialist Van Gelder shows nice strength elements and a full-twisting double layout to take 5th place.
♦♦ MEN's Qualification: All-around :
1. Verniaiev  (UKR) - 89.832;  2. Stepko    (AZE) - 86.856; 3. Purvis        (GBR) - 86.731
4. Davtyan  (ARM)  - 86,498;  5. Barkalau (BLR) - 86,165;  6. Belyavskiy (RUS)  85,864
   ►► Detailed AA  results
      ► AA Final Qualifiers

⇒.. best of Apparatus:
♦ Floor               (→ FX results)
1. Korosteljev (CRO) - 15.233; 2. Braegger (SUI) - 15.166; 3. Belyavskiy  (RUS) - 15.066
.
♦ Pommel horse (→ PH results)
1. Smith  (GBR) - 15.800;  2. Petrov   (RUS) - 15.566;  3. Busnari  (ITA) - 15.433
.
♦ R i n g s            (→ SR results)
1. Petrounias (GRE) - 16.000;   2. Abliazin (RUS) - 15.800;  3. Vahagn (ARM) - 15.666
.
♦ V a u l t  (→ 1VT results)  (→ 2VT results)
1. Nagornyy   (RUS) - 15.050;  2. Thomas  (GBR) - 15.050;  3. Davtyan (ARM) - 14.999
.
♦ P a r a l l e l   b a r s    (→ PB results)
1. Verniaiev  (UKR) - 16.000; 2. Berbecar  (ROU) - 15.566;  3. Baumann (SUI) - 15.366
.
♦ H i g h  b a r    (→ HB results)
1. Braegger  (SUI) - 14.866;  2. Oldham  (GBR) - 14.766;  3. Barkalau (BLR) - 14.733

► App. Finals Qualifiers
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* After the second of three subdivisions Oleg Verniaev (UKR; 89,832) took the clear lead after the qualication rounds in front of Azerbaidjan's Oleg Stepko (86,856) and Great Britains Daniel Purvis (86,731), followed by Artur Davtyan (ARM; 86,498), Byelorussian Dmitri Barkalau (86,165) and titleholder David Belyavskyi (RUS; 85,864/ rank 6). Six different athletes took the lead at the 6 different apparatus and the final qualifiers lists ...!
⇒ SUBDIVISION 2 (> Subdiv. 2 - Start list)
Petrov (RUS) scored a massive 15.566 (7.0) on pommel horse to take the lead. Italy's Cingolani vaulted to 14.420 and a second place on this event. Barkalau's high bar score of 14.733 (6.5) takes him into second there.
Ablyazin shows an amazing rings routine, difficult and great execution for 15.800 (6.8). His teammate Ignatyev scores 15.133 so they go 1-2. Verniaiev landed very low on his 2,5 twists punch full. Trefilovs scored 14.900 on pommel horse to reach second place.
Gorgeous rings routine by Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE) to take the lead with a huge 16.000 (6.8). Russians Nagornyy and Ablyazin performed massive vaults. Nagornyy a fantastic Dragulescu and a Kasamatsu 1,5. Ablyazin had some problems on landing his Tsukahara full-in and his RO half on 2,5 twists off but the difficulty of the vaults keeps him in third place.Great crowd for a compulsory exercise!
1000 fans for Loan His and Louise Vanhille.Verniaiev leads the all-around. Slovenian Klavora was fabulous on floor scoring 14.933 to move into second.
Yermak vaults a clean Kasamatsu full. Teammate Verniaiev's Dragulescu is huge but he sits down his Kasamatsu 1,5. Busnari (ITA) shows his trademark handstand travels on pommel horse and finishes with a beautiful dismount to score 15.433 and moves into second place.
...
* Intermediate Results - SUB 2
   - All-around:
1. Verniaiev (UKR) 89.832;   2. Purvis (GBR) 86.731;        3. Davtyan (ARM) 86.498
4. Barkalau (BLR)  86,165;  5. Belyavskiy (RUS)  86,165;  6. Kuksenkov (RUS)  85,439

    > Intermediate results sub 2

⇒ SUBDIVISION 1 (> Subdiv. 1 - Start list)
Oldham vaults a Kasamatsu 1,5 and Purvis put his hand down after his Yurchenko 2,5. Problems on parallel bars for both Russians. Truyens (BEL) struggles on pommel horse and comes of the apparatus. Zonderland and Augis show diffcult p bars routines.
Belyavskiy strong on high bar with a spectacular one-armed giant and German giant. Kuksenkov struggled again, it's not a good day for him. European, World and Olympic Champion Zonderland fell on his Kolman-Gaylord II combination.
Purvis solid on p bars while Oldham had a hop after his double piked dismount
** All-around - Sub 1:
1. Purvis    (GBR) 86.731;  2. Davtyan (ARM) 86.498;  3. Belyavskiy (RUS) 85.864
    > Intermediate results sub 1

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