David Belyavskiy would have liked to get to his third Olympics in a better shape – he had an ankle injury before the Russian Cup and was limited to four events there. In the qualification at the Tokyo Olympics, he struggled on floor and ended up placing over .6 behind his teammate Artur Dalaloyan which takes him out of the all-around final (Nikita Nagorny is currently sitting in second). Belyavskiy said it was a bit upsetting not to make the final but his main goal at these Games is a team medal:
“I’m feeling great, everything that I planned worked out today. We’ll wait till the evening to see who made which finals. The only thing was that I wasn’t able to do everything on floor but it’s only qualification, so it’s not a big deal. I got a bit upset that I didn’t make the all-around final, but it’s ok, it means it was meant to be this way. The most important thing is the team, I say this at every competition.”
“I am happy that our qualification went well and I did well on pommel horse. I was focused. Now I can exhale after the last even. Next, the most difficult thing will start – a fight for medal. Looks like we made all the finals we were supposed to make, all the guys accomplished their tasks.”
Belyavskiy is currently the seventh qualifier to the event final on pommel horse and the fifth on parallel bars with one more subdivision to go.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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