Russia overcomes slow start to win European gymnastics title

Nikita Nagornyy kept his nerve during the last high bar exercise to help Russia win the men’s team gymnastics final at the European Championships yesterday.

A day after Russia badly struggled on the apparatus in qualification, Nagornyy avoided risks in an unspectacular but solid routine for 13.966 points. The score raised his team’s total to 257.260, nearly four points clear of runner-up Britain, and more than 10 ahead of third-place France.

Trailing Russia by just over one point at the last rotation, Britain failed in its quest for gold after both Dominick Cunningham and James Hall lost grip during their high bar exercises.

Britain was the last team to beat Russia at European team championships, in Montpellier in 2012.

With Nagornyy, David Belyavskiy and Nikolai Kuksenkov, Russia fielded three gymnasts from the team that won silver at the 2016 Olympics, making it a strong favourite to land its third straight European title.

However, it got off to a slow start as Nagornyy failed to score 14s on floor and pommel horse, as did Dmitrii Lankin on the rings.

Russia gradually took control and performed near flawlessly on the parallel bars as both Belyavskiy and Artur Dalaloyan scored over 15.4, setting up the showdown for the title with Britain on the high bar.

Appearing in its first major team final, Turkey came close to an upset as it led the competition after three of six rotations.

However, it lost sight of a medal and dropped to fifth place after Ahmet Onder stumbled at the end of his floor exercise, scoring just 11.833 points, and the team ultimately placed seventh.