Nguyen wins parallel bars gold

He landed his Tsukahara with a somersault more or less solidly and earned 16,500 points for that. The second vault, the Dragulescu, a handspring into a forward double somersault with a half turn was just a perfect. He had a small step out but got 16.225 points which gave him a combined total of 16.362 points. With that, the 24-year-old was able to win the gold in front of a sold out arena.

Neither Igor Radivilov nor Oleksandr Yakubovskyi, from Ukraine were able to land any of their jumps solidly. Next up was all around silver medalist and floor European Champion Flavius Koczi. His Tsukahara with triple twist was perfect and the Romanian received 16.375 points for it. Unfortunately, his second vault was landed on his knees and earned him only 15.850 points so that he ended up in fourth place.  

Anton Golotsutskov from Russia showed the Dragulescu, as well. Yesterday’s rings bronze medal winner was happy with 16.300 points. His second vault, a Tsukahara double somersault earned him 15.950 points and a combined total of 16.125 points. That was enough for the 25-year-old to gain another bronze medal.
Samir Ait Said from France was able to land both his vaults solidly. 16.262 points earned the 22-year-old the silver.  

Afterwards, the women were up on beam. European Champion Anna Dementyeva didn’t make the smallest error and dismounted with a front vault into a somersault and triple twist. The judges rewarded her routine with 15.350 points. That secured her the gold medal.

Italian Carlotta Ferlito presented difficult somersault combination and showed a perfect 2,5 twist dismount. The 16-year-old earned 14,500 points and the silver medal. Her teammate Elisabette Preziosa was up last and managed to gain the bronze medal. She received 14,325 points for her elegant and original routine. The Italian team was thrilled about the silver and bronze medal.

The eight parallel bars finalists came into the arena accompanied by cheering. Again, Marcel Nguyen’s Tsukahara dismount worked perfectly. He had the most difficult routine of the field – his planned element score was 6.7 – and he received 15.525 points. Since he was up first, he had to wait until everyone else was finished but in the end he won gold. The arena was ecstatic!

Epke Zonderland came in second. His double somersault was landed solidly and the perfect ending to his elegant and clean routine. 15,300 points were what the judges gave him. Last of the field was Greek Vasileios Tsolakidis. He, too, presented a clean routine and his 15.075 points were enough to earn him the bronze medal.