Alexander Shatilov has struggled for a while with his floor routines following an injury in 2017 Last week, he finally managed to perform a clean routine a won gold at the Doha World Cup. He is now competing for an Olympic spot against his teammate Artem Dolgopyat who has two wins at the World Cup series (Dolgopyat did not compete in Doha). Winning in Doha was also a historic moment as it meant that the Israeli anthem was played in the arena. Until last year, Israeli gymnasts were not able to compete in Doha and in the past, Israeli athletes competed in some Arab countries in neutral uniforms and without the Israeli flag or anthem. While the organizers of the gymnastics competitions in Doha made sure that the Israeli delegation felt safe and welcome, there were negative reactions in the press during the World Championships and the local channel, Al-Kass, purposefully cut the Israelis out of the video frame when streaming the competition.
Shatilov talked to Ynet about competing in Doha and winning the gold on his birthday:
“I had a double celebration. The final happened to be on my birthday, I managed to arrange a present for myself and it turned out quite nicely. I felt great at the competition and, generally, I feel like I’m in a good place. Unfortunately, in Baku, I caught a virus a few days before the competition, I wasn’t feeling well and could not do what I was supposed to. Now, in Doha, both in the qualifications and in the final, people saw that I had good execution. I don’t remember, in recent years, gymnasts who got such a good execution score, so you could see my joy at the end.
I did not make special changes [in my floor routine], but I’m putting more emphasis on the execution and working on it in training. The goal is to be precise in every movement and every landing, and, in the final, I just managed to do it throughout the whole routine.”
Shatilov got 8.733 for his execution in the final, indeed a very high E score on floor.
On competing in Qatar and hearing the Israeli anthem playing there:
“It was an unusual destination, but I did not pay much attention to it. From my perspective, it was a regular competition, just like any other, even though I know I made history as the first Israeli Olympic athlete to win gold in Doha, and this made the victory even more joyful. I want to point out that even when we were there for the World Championships, there were Israeli flags on the screens and there was no prohibition on [Israeli] symbols. There were no restrictions this time either and the announcer said that we were from Israel, so, in this aspect, everything was normal. I also received positive responses from the locals, I didn’t hear any booing from the crowd and didn’t feel any hatred directed towards me.”
On trying to qualify to his fourth Olympic Games:
“I think that the road to the Olympics is still long despite the fact that there is not much time left. There are still important competitions on the way, including two European Championships and the World Championships at which it will be possible to qualify a spot via the all-around competition or by placing high in an event final, and this is my main goal. There’s only one spot for the Apparatus Cup series winner, but I’m trying all the ways and not looking at just one option, I’m not ruling anything out.
It’s important to note that Artem Dolgopyat is also in great shape in recent years, he’s qualifying to the event finals and winning medals at the European and World Championships. Now I also got back in shape and floor is the flagship event for Israeli gymnastics.”
Photo: Israeli Gymnastics Federation
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