David Belyavskiy last medalled in the all-around at the European Championships in 2015 when he was silver (two years before that he was the all-around champion). This year, an AA gold is not very likely because he would need to beat his teammate Nikita Nagornyy but he has a great chance to get another silver. Belyavskiy finished second in the all-around qualification and also qualified to pommel horse, parallel bars, and high bar finals.
Belyavskiy told MatchTV he hopes to improve in the all-around final.
Q: It’s been a year and a half without international competitions. Recently, after the Russian Championships, you said that you haven’t had enough time to feel the competition rhythm. Were you able to do that now?
A: With every competition, we get better and better, the competition experience is coming back, so I came here with a different mindset.
Q: You started on floor, was that convenient for you?
A: It’s the Olympic system. If you want to be among the leaders, you’ll start on floor anyway because that’s where the subdivision starts [for the leaders] at the Olympics.
Q: It’s just that you got a 0.3 deduction on floor.
A: Yes, because I stepped out of bounds but that’s ok, it happens, it’s not a major mistake.
Q: On pommel horse, at the end, there was some sort of an issue before the dismount.
A: Yes, there was an issue, I didn’t manage to get into the handstand properly and needed to figure my way out of it. I see that I’m third so far.
Q: Vault?
A: I’m very happy with my vault, I managed to do 100%, everything that we planned.
Q: Bars?
A: There were some minor issues. There wasn’t anything major but many minor ones. I need to be cleaner and get rid of them.
Q: Was the all-around score as expected?
A: I expected to score a bit higher but wasn’t able to do everything. It’s good that everything went without serious mistakes or falls, so I’m happy with my performance.
Q: How comfortable you were wearing a mask between routines?
A: Not comfortable at all. You did floor and got out of breath but you have to put the mask one and somehow manage to catch your breath in it. I had to lower it a bit because it’s impossible. But my attitude towards it is simple – if I must, I must. What’s bad is that you can’t recover between routines if you compete last on one event and among the first on the next one and there will be too little time to rest, especially in a mask.
Q: A year ago you set a goal to bench press 100 kg – do you stay at this level?
A: I did it but I’m not staying at this level. I just decided to try it back then to see if I could.
Q: The whole situation outside the competition – saying at the training center, masks, and so on – did it really bother and distract you?
A: No. When I go home, I wear a mask to all the malls and to my daughter’s daycare, so I’m used to it already.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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