After the all-around final where Nikita Nagorny won bronze, he apologized to the fans and was visibly upset with the results.
Nikita Nagorny’s personal coach Anatoly Zabelin believes he will get over it soon:
“Nikita has nothing to apologize for. Personally, I only had happy feelings. I think it’s quite respectable to earn two medals at Olympic Games. Obviously, we wanted more but it’s life. The guys gave so much during the team final that they were competing on fumes in the all-around. Nikita didn’t have major mistakes but he erred a little on floor, a little on pommel horse, a little on horizontal bar, and it all accumulated. But everyone makes mistakes in gymnastics. Of course, Nikita got upset – he knew that if the circumstances were more beneficial, the result could be higher. But, on the other hand, I’m just sure that this frustration will be over soon.”
Nagorny hasn’t yet competed his triple pike on floor in the finals here and Zabelin is not yet sure that the element will make an appearance in the floor final:
“Of course, Nikita and I discussed upgrades – whether to put his named triple pike in the floor routine or not. And we are still discussing it – after all, we still have a floor final ahead of us. But it’s simple – in the team final, you have to avoid any risk, everything has to be as reliable as possible. Same in the all-around. Nikita knew that so, he approached this issue very competently. Perhaps, we’ll risk it – this will depend on how Nikita will feel. He’s an adult, I need to talk to him and to ask his opinion. At competitions, I usually stay mostly silent but Nikita is the opposite, he keeps talking about something from dawn till dusk. Although, surprisingly, he hasn’t been talking much in Tokyo. All his energy went towards getting himself together for the results.”
The World Championships will take place in a few months, a unique occurrence, since Worlds aren’t normally held in Olympic years. Zabelin doesn’t yet know whether Nagorny will go to Worlds:
“Will we go to the World Championships this year? This is definitely a premature question – we need to finish the Olympics first and then think about the future and make decisions. But retirement is definitely not on the table.”
Photo: Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation
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