Gymnast Nikita Nagornykh became European champion in all-around

Russian gymnast Nikita Nagorny won the all-around at the European Championships in Szczecin, Poland, scoring 88.665 points in six exercises. Russian Artur Dalaloyan came second (87.832), bronze went to Cypriot Marios Georgiou (84.398).

“I dedicate the victory to my coach Anatoly Zabelin, today is his birthday,” Nagorny told reporters. “Before leaving for the finals, I congratulated him, and he said: “You don’t need to congratulate me, you can congratulate me after the competition.”

The last time before this, David Belyavsky won gold in the men's individual all-around at the European Championships among Russian athletes - at the 2013 championship in Moscow. For the first time in Russian history, two Russian gymnasts won gold and silver at the European All-Around Championships. Soviet athletes Valentin Mogilny and Sergei Kharkov were able to take first and second places in 1990 at a tournament in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Nagorny is a silver medalist at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in the team all-around, and also has silver (team all-around) and bronze (individual all-around) at the World Championships. At the European Championships, this victory was the 22-year-old athlete’s fifth and first in the all-around.

22-year-old Dalaloyan is the current world all-around champion; he won gold at the 2018 World Championships in Doha in floor exercise. The athlete became European champion four times.

Later on Friday, competitions will take place in the women's individual all-around, and on April 13 and 14, medals will be played on individual apparatus.