The pommel horse final at the European Championships was both predictable – Rhys McClenaghan won – and somewhat unexpected – Max Whitlock made a weird mistake and then both Robert Seligman and Saso Bertonceli managed to hit their routines and had exactly the same D and E scores which allowed them to share silver.
Well, Nikolai Kuksenkov isn’t so happy about the results as he thinks the Russians were judged more strictly than the silver medalists and they are the ones who should’ve shared the podium with McClenaghan. Kuksenkov told the media:
“I have mixed feelings after the pommel horse final – it’s very disappointing that we were judged so badly. Even people who don’t know much about gymnastics saw that the Slovenian and the Croatian gymnasts did their routines obviously worse than David and I did. I thought that we would get the second and third places, I don’t know why we were judged so strictly. You could see it in their work because the Croatian [would get deducted] half a point on his dismount, he doesn’t hit the handstand and the Slovenian had leg separations. It’s not a complaint, gymnastics is a subjective sport but not to this extent”.
“Regarding my performance, we originally decided to upgrade the routine adding one element but after Max Whitlock fell, we decided to do the regular routine. I did it here all days and did it well. Perhaps, I was looked at more strictly because I competed earlier [than the medalists”.
“The positive moment of the championships was that it ended on a good note, I didn’t make mistakes and beautifully executed the routine I was preparing. Yes, the difficulty was somewhat not enough but you don’t know what awaits you so my father and I made the right decision and I did it beautifully. I have the resources for upgrading, I did the trusted routine all three days, but somehow I can’t add another element yet. If I risked it here today, I’d be told: well, what did you chase, who did you want to surprise?”
Kuksenkov believes he is likely to make the Worlds team as the main selection events are over and now the men’s team will mostly be preparing for the Worlds at the training center:
“The nationals and the Russian Cup are over already, so there won’t be any additional selections except for the verifications. I think that the team is 90% decided already after the competition in Glasgow. There could be some changes, but I doubt there will be”.
For Kuksenkov, the first major international competition since Rio was quite hard but he’s overall happy with the results:
“I’m more tired mentally than physically because it was the first serious competition in two years, it was really a lot of stress for me. I was preparing for such a long time and when you don’t compete you keep thinking about the fact that you used to be at one level and you’re striving to get there now but can’t get there. Finally, all the injuries and calamities are over, I had a lot of experiences at these European Championships, I’m very happy with the competition”.
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