Artur Dalaloyan won the first Worlds AA medal for Russia in nine years (Yuri Ryazanov won bronze in 2009) and the first gold in 19 years (Nikolai Kryukov was the World AA champion in 1999). Nikita Nagornyy won the bronze medal while Xiao Ruoteng of China became the silver medalist, losing to Dalaloyan in a tie-break.
In the mixed zone, Dalaloyan said that he’s still trying to process what happened:
“It still hasn’t sunk in, there’s so much going on, I’ve given so many interviews, but I’m trying, I’m trying… In order to process it completely, I just need to go to my hotel room, to sit and think about what happened, to rethink everything, and then it will sink in. For now, there is a lot of confusion and I’m tired”.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet. I need to go back to my hotel and think about it.” Artur Dalaloyan (in Russian but this is the jist) pic.twitter.com/MUGmrHdV9J
— The Gymternet (@thegymterdotnet) October 31, 2018
Two days ago Valentina Rodionenko blamed the second-place finish of the Russian MAG on Artur Dalaloyan despite the fact that practically the whole team made mistakes in the final and that 0.05 deduction could have come from anyone. Dalaloyan was indeed devastated after the team final and probably blamed himself after his fall on parallel bars but perhaps laying the blame on him was not the best pep talk strategy?
Redemption. pic.twitter.com/xOZL47MIaE
— Yang Boo! 👻 | #1 Zhang Jin hypeman (@shirai_iii) October 31, 2018
Well, if it wasn’t, we certainly won’t be able to persuade Rodionenko she was wrong, as today, she claimed that she expected Dalaloyan to do well and even claimed to R-Sport that her pep talks helped him perform so well:
“It didn’t work out for him a bit in the team final but he managed to do it in the all-around. Everything’s fine. This victory is not unexpected, it was natural. The guys had to win medals with their difficulty and execution. We talked a lot to Artur in order for him to forget that mistake on parallel bars in the team final and the guy got himself together. He’s really stronger [than the Chinese]. The only event which hasn’t yet gotten to the level is pommel horse but he proved that he’s stronger on other events. I hope it’s not his last medal here”.
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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