Yesterday, the Russian men’s team won in the team final at the European Championships in Glasgow. For the team, this competition became sort of a dress rehearsal before the World Championships which will take place in Doha this fall. The team made some mistakes in the final but they still won gold with a four-point lead over the second place, Great Britain.
Nikita Nagornyy told the media that the team’s main goal this year is to qualify to the Olympics by placing in the top-3 in the qualification at Worlds:
“The World Championships in Qatar are in two months, we will have to compete as a team there as well. The team has to make the top three, it’s our main goal. I hope that we’ll be able to manage it, we will give our 100% in preparation. It would be awesome and a relief for us if we could qualify to the Olympics this year already”.
David Belyavskiy added that for him it was also important to win a team medal at Worlds since he doesn’t have one:
“We have two months to work on the mistakes that we made at the European Championships and to improve the execution quality. It’s not a huge deal if we won’t earn the Olympic spot at Worlds this year, because then we will have next year to do it, we will just have to work harder. Our main competitors are Japan, China, the USA, and Great Britain. We have a chance to fight well and earn medals, if we compete successfully, of course. The biggest dream is a team medal from Worlds which we don’t have yet. Anything can happen in gymnastics, it’s an unpredictable sport”.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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