SENIORS, All-around,   

Marian Dragulescu - the new European Champion

ROTATION 1
Marian Dragulescu started his quest for the gold with a bang on floor. 9,712 for a great floor routine, capped off with a double-double dismount that stuck to the mat. Roman Zozulia, however, had problems on his double layout dismount - only 9,050. Also starting poorly was Denis Savenkov of Belarus, who came off pommels.
Local hero Blaz Pulic swung an unusual one armed giant to one armed Gienger on high bar to huge cheers from the home crowd.
After one rotation, Dragulescu is in the lead followed by Rafael Martinez (Spain) and Martin Konecny from the Czech Republic.


Krukov - wihout chances totay!

 ROTATION 2
With the trend to increasing specialisation more evident than ever, the all-around competition is becoming weaker and there is room for names from smaller countries such as Lithuania or Armenia in a final that used to be dominated by the powerhouses.
Martin Konecny was confident and strong on rings, dismounting with a triple back for a 9,200. After a weak start on floor (8,80) Russia's Nikolai Kryukov clawed his way back up the ranks with a solid performance on pommels for a 9,675.
Igors Vikhrovs vaulted a double twisting Tsukahara to stay in contention.
Marian Dragulescu swung pommel horse well enough to stay in the hunt for the title, but the surprise leader after two rotations is Spaniard Rafael Martinez, who showed a strong and smooth pommels routine (9,662). Dragulescu is second with Konecny third. Vikrovs and Kryukov are now tied for fourth.

ROTATION 3
Leader Martinez ran into trouble on rings when he missed a combination of strength moves and struggled through the rest of his routine.
Konecny only managed a 9,025 on vault. Kryukov looked good on rings until he put his hands down on his triple back dismount.
Dragulescu took his chance after Martinez' mistake and went clean on rings (double double dismount). However, his strength moves are clearly not up there with the best, which was refelected in his score of 9,412.
Another solid routine from Vikhrovs on parallel bars proved that he is not a specialist.
Roman Zozulia, in ninth place after two events, worked his way up with a strong rings routine, just a small hop back on his full-twisting double layout dismount.
Dragulescu takes over the lead ahead of Martinez and Zozulia. Vikhrovs stays in fourth.

ROTATION 4
Dragulescu sticks his handspring double front with a half twist.
Igors Vikhrovs swings a strong high bar set capped off with a triple back and still stays in fourth place - perhaps he is asking himself what he needs to do for a medal?
Zozulia dashes his hopes on vault when he falls backwards to his hands on his handspring double front vault.
Vlassios Maras pulls out all the stops on high bar and himself up to fifth place.
After four events the top two remain the same, now Denis Savenkov is third and Maras moves up to fifth.

ROTATION 5

<< Martinez is smooth and flowing in his parallel bars routine for a 9,625.

Konecny was on fire on high bar with a full-twisting Kovacs; piked Tkachev-straddled Tkachev-piked Tkachev -Gienger for a 9,712.
Dragulescu did not have much to offer on parallel bars with a struggled routine and step on his double pike dismount.

Maras had problems on his first tumbling run when he punch a walkover out ofhis 2 1/2 twist.
Meanwhile, Savenkov kept himself interesting with a very good high bar routine, ending with a double twisting double layout.

Zozulia is not giving up and kept his cool on parallel bars for a 9,637.
Going into the final rotation, Dragulescu leads Martinez by four tenths. Savenkov is third and Vikhrovs is still fourth.

ROTATION 6

Zozulia finished his day with good effort on high bar - piked Kovacs, hop 11/2 and a double twisting double layout (step back). Enough for a medal?
Konecny's neck may have been sore after his floor routine which featured three tumbles landed in forward roll.
Martinez threw a piked Tkachev and nearly every stalder version in the CdP to take a medal in the all-around. But what colour will it have?
Kryukov finishes an unsuccesful outing by failing to catch his Gaylord. He went back up and repeated the skill - caught this time, only to put his hands down on his dismount.
 Savenkov demonstrated clean tumbling (2 1/2 - punch front-double front to forward roll;very nice double piked dismount) for the bronze.


Savenkov (BLR)

The final competitor of the evening, Dragulescu caught his full-twisting Kovacs very close to bar and struggled on the following giant, but his 9,225 was enough for the gold.

 << ... and the winner is: Marian Dragulescu !!
All in all, the level of competition was not worthy of an all-around final of a European Championships 
with many falls and instabilities. Under the 5-3-3 format, very few federations entered more than one gymnast in the all-around.
Gold and silver medal winners Romania and Belarus had only one all-arounder whereas bronze medal France had no gymnast in the all-around at all.

While the level of specialists is amazing, the all-around - once considered the most prestigious title -  seems on the way out.
Nora Schuler  

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