Tweet

Romania's Cătălina Ponor rose to the occasion and lifted the home-country audience into a frenzy when she won the gold medal on balance beam as the European Championships concluded Sunday in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. Pictured: Ponor with silver medalist Eythora Thorsdottir (Netherlands) and bronze medalist Larisa Iordache (Romania)

Romania's Cătălina Ponor rose to the occasion and lifted the home-country audience into a frenzy when she won the gold medal on balance beam as the European Championships concluded Sunday in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.

"I'm very excited," said the 29-year-old Ponor, who outscored silver medalist Eythora Thorsdottir of the Netherlands by half a point, with Romanian Larisa Iordache in third. "My hands are still trembling, I worked a lot for this medal. I wanted it wholeheartedly."

Olympic champion Sanne Wevers (Netherlands) finished fifth after a large wobble (full-twisting wolf jump) and missed connections. Great Britain's Becky Downie withdrew from the balance beam final after suffering an elbow injury during Saturday's uneven bars finals. She was replaced by teammate Claudia Fragapane.

Angelina Melnikova of Russia earned the women's floor exercise title over all-around champion Ellie Downie of Great Britain, who took silver, and Thorsdottir, who won the bronze.

Men's all-around gold medalist Oleg Vernyayev of Ukraine placed first on parallel bars and third on vault, and men's all-around silver medalist Artur Dalaloyan of Russia placed first on vault, over floor exercise champion Marian Drăgulescu (Romania).

In the last event of the competition, Switzerland's Pablo Brägger delivered what he considered to be his optimal performance to win gold on high bar. Teammate Oliver Hegi won silver over pommel horse champion David Belyavsky (Russia).

"At the end of my routine, I was just shocked," Brägger told IG. "I was so happy that it worked perfectly."

Russia was the most successful nation in Cluj with eight medals (three gold, three silvers and two bronzes). The British won six (1-3-2), Romania (2-1-1) and Ukraine (2-0-2) won four, Hungary won three (0-2-1), and Switzerland (1-1-0), France (1-0-1), Germany (0-1-1) and the Netherlands (0-1-1) each won two. Greece and Belgium each won one gold, while Armenia won one bronze.

The next European championships will take place in Glasgow in 2018.

Read full coverage in the May 2017 issue of International Gymnast magazine; and exclusive behind-the-scenes profiles on various 2017 Europeans competitors in upcoming issues. To subscribe to the print and/or digital editions, click here.

External Link: Official Website

2017 European Gymnastics Championships
April 23, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Balance Beam Final			D	E	ND	Score
1.	Cătălina Ponor		6.2	8.366		14.566
2.	Eythora Thorsdottir		5.6	8.466		14.066
3.	Larisa Iordache		6.0	7.966		13.966
4.	Ellie Downie		5.3	8.133		13.433
5.	Sanne Wevers		5.6	7.841	0.1	13.341
6.	Zsófia Kovács		5.0	8.133		13.133
7.	Marine Boyer		5.7	7.266		12.966
8.	Claudia Fragapane		5.1	7.433		12.533
9.	Tabea Alt		5.7	5.366	0.1	10.966

Women's Floor Exercise Final			D	E	ND	Score
1.	Angelina Melnikova		5.4	8.700		14.100
2.	Ellie Downie		5.4	8.666		14.066
3.	Eythora Thorsdottir		5.5	8.300	0.1	13.700
4.	Kim Bui		5.2	8.366		13.566
5.	Lara Mori		5.4	8.166		13.566
6.	Pauline Schäfer		5.1	8.433		13.533
7.	Claudia Fragapane		5.5	8.333	0.3	13.533
8.	Yelena Yeryomina		5.0	8.466		13.466

Men's Vault Final			D	E	ND	Score	Average
1.	Artur Dalaloyan		5.6	9.466		15.066	14.933
			5.6	9.200		14.800
2.	Marian Drăgulescu		5.6	9.066		14.666	14.733
			5.8	9.000		14.800
3.	Oleg Vernyayev		5.6	9.166		14.766	14.649
			5.6	9.033	0.1	14.533
4.	Zachari Hrimèche		5.6	9.033		14.633	14.616
			5.6	9.000		14.600
5.	Artur Davtyan		5.6	9.266		14.866	14.583
			4.8	9.500		14.300
6.	Dominick Cunningham		5.2	8.800		14.000	14.133
			5.6	8.766	0.1	14.266
7.	Igor Radivilov		6.0	7.766	0.3	13.466	14.033
			5.6	9.000		14.600
8.	Andrey Medvedev		0.0	0.000		0.000	6.733
			5.2	8.266		13.466

Parallel Bars Final			D	E	ND	Score
1.	Oleg Vernyayev		6.4	9.066		15.466
2.	Lukas Dauser		6.4	8.966		15.366
3.	Nikita Nagornyy		6.4	8.866		15.266
4.	David Belyavsky		6.4	8.833		15.233
5.	Eddy Yusof		6.0	9.000		15.000
6.	Marcel Nguyen		6.5	8.300		14.800
7.	Ferhat Arıcan		6.3	8.333		14.633
8.	Oliver Hegi		5.6	6.266		11.866

High Bar Final			D	E	ND	Score
1.	Pablo Brägger		6.8	8.133		14.933
2.	Oliver Hegi		6.2	8.300		14.500
3.	David Belyavsky		5.7	8.666		14.366
4.	James Hall		5.7	8.633		14.333
5.	Edgar Boulet		5.8	8.533		14.333
6.	Bart Deurloo		6.0	7.133		13.133
7.	Anton Kovačević		6.1	6.966		13.066
8.	Oleg Vernyayev		6.0	5.700		11.700

Tweet

When Sooner senior Allan Bower opened the meet on floor exercise, he stuck just about every landing. It was a trend that carried over for the rest of the evening at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y. Oklahoma easily had more dismount sticks than any other team, and each perfect landing was rewarded with up to 0.20 bonus.

Allan Bower (Oklahoma)

To be fair, OU did not have a perfect meet. Defending all-around champion Yul Moldauer spun off the pommel horse while attempting a flared spindle, freshman Matt Wenske put a hand down on his Lopez vault (Kasamatsu-double twist) and Bower broke on high bar. The errors from Moldauer and Bower cost them a shot at the all-around title, which went to Stanford senior Akash Modi, who tallied 87.90. Moldauer placed second with 87.60 and Bower was third with 87.30.

Moldauer did win event titles on floor and rings, but that was never the goal. Oklahoma was on a mission to win its third consecutive NCAA team title. Illinois held the lead after two events, with the Sooners in second. Then Oklahoma started hitting routines on rings and sticking dismounts. Senior Thao Hoang stuck a full-twisting double layout, and both Moldauer and Bower stuck tucked double-doubles.

Oklahoma expanded its lead in the second half of the meet and won its 11th NCAA title, scoring 431.950. Ohio State grabbed second with 423.700, and Illinois finished third with 422.100. Stanford, runner-up to OU last year, dropped to fourth with 421.500.

These scores indicate that Oklahoma, which hasn't lost a meet since the 2014 NCAAs, is clearly in a class of its own. This victory pushed OU past Illinois, which has 10 titles, and next year the Sooners can catch Penn State, which leads all schools with 12 NCAA victories.

Minnesota, which was in sixth place for much of the night, probably hoped for better than fifth (414.200). But the Golden Gophers started slow on high bar but finished well on parallel bars.

Nebraska, which posted the highest floor total of all six teams (71.500), was holding onto fifth place until its last event, pommel horse. That's where the Cornhuskers struggled and posted their lowest event total of the night (66.55). Still, it was the first time Nebraska had qualified to the team finals in quite a while.

Other event champions: Stephen Nedoroscik (Penn State) won pommel horse; Anthony McCallum (Michigan) successfully defended his 2016 vault with a high Tsukahara-double pike; Modi defended his title on parallel bars, sticking his full-out dismount; and Robert Neff (Stanford) won high bar.

Read complete coverage of the men's NCAA Championships in the May issue of International Gymnast magazine.