The first day of Szombathely was marked by the return of Oleg Verniaiev and by somewhat unexpected double gold medals for Israel.
While Artem Dolgopyat was a clear favorite going into the floor final (he had the highest difficulty in that field), Ofir Netzer made the final from the 8th place. Throughout her senior career, she took quite a few fourth places in the vault finals but never got on the medal podium at any major international competitions (except for the last year’s Maccabiah Games which basically featured mostly Israeli field). She certainly had enough difficulty to place well in the final but she often struggles with execution. Fortunately, it was a very good day for her – she landed two clean vaults while many of her competitors made major mistakes in the final. Laurie Denommee of Canada took silver on vault, going to this competition soon after competing at the Panamerican Games in Colombia. Dominika Ponizilova of Czech Republic took bronze at her very first World Cup.
Dolgopyat showed off his newfound confidence and won floor without any major issues. He still could be cleaner but considering the fact that he only trains three hours a day and is still coming back from a leg injury, his results are absolutely incredible.
Oleg Verniaiev had his first international competition since the surgeries in January (he competed for Saar club in Bundesliga earlier this month) and won silver on floor. He then proceeded to win gold on pommel horse. It is a joy to finally see healthy and rested Verniaiev and he’ll compete in two more finals today – he qualified to the finals on vault and parallel bars.
Joel Plata of Spain took bronze on floor. Alexander Shatilov who was the floor guy in Israel before Dolgopyat is still getting his difficulty back after his injury and isn’t yet at the level where he can win medals but he is consistently making finals and took fifth place here.
On pommel horse, Saso Bertoncelj of Slovenia took silver following Verniaiev, while Shogo Nonomura of Japan won bronze. Nonomura also won gold on rings, where bronze was taken by his teammate Kenta Chiba and Ali Zahran of Egypt won silver.
Filip Ude of Croatia, one of the medal favorite in the PH final, had a very unfortunate routine with two falls.
Swedish Jonna Adlerteg, the silver European medalist on bars, predictably won gold here with Barbora Mokosova of Slovakia winning silver and Paula Raya of Spain winning bronze.
The event finals in Szombathely continue today. You can watch the live stream on the Olympic Channel (US only) at 3pm local time.
Photo: Israeli Olympic Committee
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