The day of the European Men’s Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Rimini began on a high note for Italy yesterday, with four medals won in the morning thanks to the Italian Juniors. In the afternoon, however, our Seniors were not able to do as well: the two finalists in the individual apparatus, Mario Macchiati and Yumin Abbadini, both placed seventh on the parallel bars and on the bars.
On the Junior apparatus, Tommaso Brugnami triumphed first, with two gold medals in floor exercise and rings and a silver on vault, then his colleague Manuel Betterera shone, taking home a bronze in the performance on parallel bars .
Bitter and regretful afternoon, however, for the Italian gymnasts in the absolute continental event. The first final to be staged was that of vaulting, an unpredictable specialty which also did not feature even one Italian athlete among the eight qualified for the final round. It was the British Jarman who triumphed with a score of 14.88, behind him the Armenian Davtyan (14.85) and the Ukrainian Chepurnyl (14.74). The second final of the day featured the first Italian, Mario Macchiati, who had scored 14.60 points last Wednesday, qualifying in sixth position. The man from the Marche starts off well, with clean movements and good execution. However, a sudden loss of alignment on the vertical causes him to lack grip, falling in the middle of an exercise that would certainly have earned him a place at the top of the rankings. Stopping at 13.30, with a difficulty of 5.7, Macchiati is in seventh and penultimate place. Gold for the Ukrainian Kovtun who scores a 15.63 exercise; Cypriot silver with Georgiou and bronze to the Swiss Seifert.
Then it’s barre time. Yumin Abbadini gets mocked at the end of the exercise: overall a good performance which however has to stop at a hard 13.83 which makes the gymnast slip to seventh position and eliminates the possibility of a medal for our team on a Saturday that promised more . A double gold medal for Kovtun, behind the Lithuanian Tvorogal and the Cypriot Georgiou. However, the Italian athletes say they are satisfied with the exercises they showed yesterday afternoon, mocked by emotion and sometimes by too much enthusiasm in the executions. Nothing is lost. Appointment this afternoon for the senior men’s team final, to which Italy qualified during the first day of the tournament. Overall, the Italian haul currently includes a bronze medal signed by Abbadini in the individual event, two golds and a silver by Brugnami and a bronze by Berrettera.
