The very first words Nikita Nagornyy said after finishing his last routine of today’s all-around competition were “Happy birthday!” It’s his coach’s birthday today and this was Nagornyy’s way to congratulate him:
“This medal is a gift to my coach, it’s his birthday today. Earlier today, I wished him a happy birthday and he said to me that your performance will be my present today. And he hinted that I needed to win today. This motivated me. I thought that it would be cool to give him such a cool gift.”
The other motivation was surprisingly not the bronze medal in the all-around at Worlds but the loss in the floor final there. Nagornyy said he was so sure he would win gold on floor there, he was devastated when it did not happen because of his mistake on the last pass:
“After last year’s World Championships, I was very upset and I was hung up on the major mistake I made on my last pass during the floor final. And that cost me a medal. For three days, I was sticking that pass but on the fourth day, I made a mistake. I don’t know whether it happened because I relaxed early but I was upset about it for a long time. For about a month, I couldn’t let it go that I relaxed and allowed myself to make such a mistake. After obsessing about it, I figured out what I needed to change and arrived here with a different mindset.”
He was also very happy with the fact that his main competitor here was also his friend, so they could cheer on each other and help each other:
“I want to note that when you compete with your friend and your teammate, it is very different from when you compete against someone else. We did what we were supposed to do, we got a good result, we are ahead of the others by four points and we secured the top two medals for Russia.”
He made four finals but not quite on his best events. A mistake on floor kept him out of the final, since both Dalaloyan and Lankin did better. He doesn’t think he has a very high chance for a medal on either pommel horse or rings but hopes to get on the medal podium on parallel bars:
“I’m in the pommel horse final and the competitors are very strong there, they will not let me get into the top three. But I will try and I will do my routine, perhaps I will upgrade it a bit, and if I do everything cleanly I might have a chance for a medal on pommel horse. It’s the same for rings, the competitors in the final are all rings specialists who already have medals on this event. I have a chance to win a medal on parallel bars if I do my routine as well, I did in the qualification and today.”
Photo: E. Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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i prefer artur is very strong but also elegant like alexey nemov don’t like nikita is like a usa gymnast in ncaa pure show but not what artistics gymnastics should be , honestly
I cannot wait to watch this comp later. I read along with the live blog and it sounds like he was just about perfect. I really enjoy his gymnastics; well, pretty much the entire Russian men. They are phenomenal. Love the Japanese too. Tokyo is gonna be 1 hell of an exciting time in men’s tam final. Really looking forward to it. I know we have quite a ways to go, but I am anticipating a really exciting competition between Japan and Russia. Well the Chinese too, but mainly those 2. Good vibes to all that they remain healthy and injury free.