Coming to the European Games, Petro Pakhniuk planned on fighting for a medal in the all-around final and hoped to qualify to pommel horse and parallel bars finals, even though he knew it would be a tall order with the one-per-country rule for the event finals. He ended up placing fourth in the all-around final and winning a surprise bronze medal on floor:
“After yesterday’s all-around final I was just devastated. Placing fourth is always hard but somebody has got to be fourth. So, today was my only chance for a medal. Especially since I didn’t get into “my” finals, the ones that I was actually preparing for – pommel horse and parallel bars – where Oleg Verniaiev competed. But I made the floor final… I have no idea how this happened but I won a medal there. I was preparing all the events but I did not expect to do floor at a high level, plus some other guys didn’t do everything they are capable of. Well, that’s the sport and for me, this medal is dearer than any gold, any silver. I’ve got only one medal here but it’s mine!”
“To expect a medal on floor… I have ankle injury, I got a deltoid ligament tear last year. I’m not doing all the difficulty I used to do when I was young, in my best years, but I was still preparing something for the all-around. Each event final is different. At the European Championships, there were three 15+ scores. Now Artem Dolgopyat didn’t make the final, Alexander Shatilov didn’t either, they just didn’t get to this final but I did. That is, the strong guys didn’t make it but the ones like me did. I didn’t expect it, I wasn’t even thinking about the medal, I just knew I had to do my job.”
“All my routines are hard for me and to do them all, especially cleanly… The podium training is six events, the qualification is six events, then we only had a day of rest and then the all-around final – going full out on all six events again. It’s eighteen routines over four days. And then I needed to compete again in the event final. I’m ready to do bars every day but to do floor four days in a row – that’s hard for me. You’ve seen how I did floor in the all-around final – I was barely breathing, barely running.”
Last time, at the inaugural European Games, Pakhniuk competed for Azerbaijan. He said he felt much more comfortable representing Ukraine:
“I feel like I’m in the right place. This is my country, the one I’m representing. I feel in the right place, free, wanting to achieve something. In a strange country, you’ll always feel like a guest.”
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