Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov won his first big medal at the 2018 Melbourne World Cup – gold on pommel horse. He was one of the top qualifiers on pommel horse at this year’s Worlds. In his first ever final at Worlds, he took fifth place and believes that now he knows what he needs to do in order to medal in Stuttgart.
Kurbanov talked to Olympic.kz about his experience:
“At the World Championships, I did a routine full of difficult elements. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do them correctly, I didn’t get them to perfection. Mostly, the reason was my lack of confidence which prevented me from fighting for a medal. Now I have three months until the first competition in 2019 in order to get the necessary consistency”.
Some teams with limited travel budgets leave the competition right after the qualification round and only those who made an AA or event final remain for longer, together with their coaches. Kazakhstan’s team left early, so Kurbanov says he felt alone during the final and that affected his performance:
“The fact of making the final didn’t really affect my mental game. But earlier my team was my main source of support. They were always behind me, I felt their support. However, they could not stay for the final. I was almost alone, the arena was full of spectators and everyone was watching me. I was very excited and nervous. [In the days leading to the final], I tried to distract myself, not to think about the final and spend my days as usual. But nothing could help me in the days before the final, my anxiety was growing every day. I’ve been waiting for the final for more than a week, it affected me”.
Kurbanov is very optimistic about the next year’s Worlds and believes that the team which made top-24 in Doha, will be able to get into the top-12 and qualify to the Olympics next year:
“It was a very significant experience. And now I know for sure what I need to do at the next World Championships. Our team managed to surprise everyone with our performance. I’m sure that in Stuttgart we will be able to qualify to the Olympics. We’re a young team and we have a lot ahead of us. And the next year we will only be stronger, myself included. I realized one thing: there’s no gymnast I can’t beat”.
Photo: Kazakhstan’s National Olympic Committee
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