Andrey Medvedev is a two-time European silver medalist on vault but a medal at Worlds has so far been out of reach, despite five previous appearances at World Championships. This year, he finally made the vault final and will try to win a medal on Sunday.
In 2018, at the World Championships in Doha, Medvedev hoped to qualify to the vault final but tore his elbow ligaments on his first vault in the qualification round. The culprit was the Taishan vaulting table that, according to the gymnast, was too hard. When Medvedev learned that Taishan equipment would be used in Kitatyushu, he understandably felt apprehensive, he told Gymnovosti:
“Before the competition, when I learned that the World Championships would use Taishan, I got upset, of course. I remember how I tore ligaments in my left elbow on the first vault in the qualification in 2018. The [Taishan] vaulting table is very different from Spieth, so it was another one of the issues that made these World Championships more anxiety-inducing for me. I think, that this vaulting table is so different from Spieth or Gymnova, from the modern tables. It’s my personal opinion but I think it doesn’t meet the competition standards. I’m in touch with other vault specialists and many guys from different countries are unhappy because the table is very hard, it requires a different work rhythm, different angles, and, the most important, it’s not safe. It’s not safe if you’re preparing on Spieth or Gymnova, on other modern tables. So, regarding the Taishan table, I’m very unhappy with it even though I managed to land both my vaults today, do them well and make the final. If I competed on a different table today, I would have done higher difficulty. But we decided not to risk it because I think I wouldn’t have been able to do my 6.0 vault here.”
Some other gymnasts also expressed their concerns regarding the equipment. For example, Angelina Melnikova said about the vaulting table on Instagram:
“The Chinese vaulting table is very hard and doesn’t rebound at all, which makes it harder to push off the table that doesn’t help you at all and doesn’t propel you. When you put hands on it, it doesn’t help you to block off it. You have you look for options and change the technique a bit, for example, to jump higher onto the vaulting table, so that your hand fly a bit further and you would flip thanks to inertia.”
Medvedev also noted that training for the World Championships was challenging in various ways:
“My preparation process was far from perfect. I’ve been fighting extra weight, it’s a new annoyance that’s been really bothering me. There were breaks in the training process and I also got sick before the departure, so, all in all, I can’t say that I came here in perfect shape, far from it. But at the current stage of my career, at the level I compete at, I believe I don’t have to be in the top physical shape to win. It was more important for me to prepare myself for the competition mentally, so that I would be calmer and with a clear head, and could do my vaults confidently, without thinking about anything.”
Medvedev qualified to the vault final in 5th place, scoring 14.716 for his two vaults. He will compete in the final this Sunday at 4:25 pm Kitakyushu time. Watch the final live on the FIG Youtube channel.
