Nikita Nagornyy won the all-around at the Russian Championships by a landslide. Vladislav Poliashov who got silver lost to Nagornyy by about 6 points over two days. Nikita Ignatyev took bronze, while Dmitrii Lankin had a very unfortunate performance in the final, scoring five points lower than in qualifications and only taking the fourth place as a result.
Nagornyy didn’t have a flawless day but was so much better than the rest that his mistakes didn’t matter. He told TASS that he was able to do less than he wanted to but he cared about clean execution, not the scores:
“Unfortunately, I was not able to do what I planned for myself for today. I was able to do only 50%. There were mistakes on pommel horse, rings, and parallel bars. I haven’t been competing for scores in a long time – the way when you look at the scores during the competition, try to calculate them and figure out what you need to do next. Competition motivates, of course, but sometimes there are such goals in your head that motivate you much more.”
Valentina Rodionenko noted that Nagornyy was especially ready on the day of the final:
“He’s really stronger [than the rest of the field]. He was more focused than ever, he managed to do everything. If he keeps competing like that we hope that he can be an Olympic champion.”
Today, Nagornyy continued his domination. He had some issues on floor which left him with a silver medal but he then took gold on pommel horse and rings. Nagornyy will compete in all three finals tomorrow.
Photo: Elena Mikhaylova, Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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