Artem Dolgopyat, the 2017 Worlds silver medalist on floor, came to Glasgow with an injury – he is still recovering from a stress fracture in his ankle. Nevertheless, he decided to compete on floor, his best event, at the European Championships. In 2017, he finished 4th in the floor final at Euros, and this year he finally won his first Euros medal – a silver. The Israeli team also finished 10th in the team competition, a historic finish that gives hope they will be able to finish in top-24 at the World Championships this year and will qualify a team to the next year’s Worlds.
Dolgopyat told the Israeli media that only two weeks before the Euros, he was not sure if he’d be able to compete because of the injury:
“Two weeks before [the Euros] my participation was still in question. After a month of being injured, I tried training floor but the pain was still too strong. We thought we’d give up on competing on floor in order to save me for the World Championships. But slowly I started coming back”.
In 2017, Alexander Shatilov won bronze in the floor final at Euros but then he had to miss the rest of the season due to an injury (and the birth of his baby boy which coincided with Worlds). This year, Shatilov who is still recovering from an injury, had a less difficult routine and finished behind Dolgopyat. Nevertheless, the younger gymnast looks up to Shatilov:
“He’s a big person for me. He has many achievements and I’ll always look at him with admiration. He raised the whole sport of artistic gymnastics in Israel and gave me the goal to aspire to”.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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