Maria Paseka’s Cheng vault was better in the qualification where she fell but still not quite what she wanted to. Nevertheless, she managed to win gold at her first major competition since the surgery and left Szczecin quite happy:
“I wanted to reclaim the European Champion title, I managed to do it and I’m very happy. Although, I’m still processing it. I needed to win this medal to calm myself down.”
Paseka said that she was quite ill during the qualification, which affected her results there, but felt much better by the time of the final:
“At first, as usual, things weren’t working out for me. The first subdivision is very hard, it was the first time I competed in the first subdivision. Plus, I got sick here, I had a cough and fever but, with the help of our doctor, powered through. This affected how I competed in the qualification, but I felt much better now. I was worried that I wouldn’t feel better by the time of the final. In addition, my back started hurting a bit when I was still in Moscow.”
Paseka feels she’s getting back in shape more and more with every competition:
“It’s standard for me that when I get back [after an injury], the first competition is a miss because I still don’t understand what’s going on. At the second competition, in Qatar, I placed higher. Here, I needed to see for myself if I could reclaim the champion title and I could! My main motivation is that the Russian anthem is playing [during the medal ceremony], I want to hear it all the time.”
Photo: E. Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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