On August 21, 2022 in Germany, o Lefteris Petrounias equaled the feat of Hungarian side horse specialist Christian Berky, who held the all-time record of six titles in the same event (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012).
Tonight at European Championship of gymnastics, the 33-year-old “golden” Greek Olympian managed to do what no other gymnast in the 69-year history of the institution (from 1955 until today) has done.
He became European champion for 2024 after a great performance in the final of the hoops, he reached the nine medals in the event, including 7 gold and two bronze.
The Greek gymnast passed with the best performance from the preliminary (14,966 points), in the final he collected 15,000 surpassing his main rival and last year’s European champion in Antalya, Adem Asil (Turkey)who scored 14,900 points.
Petrounias was the last to perform his program in the final among the eight finalists, collect 15,000 points (difficulty rating: 6,300, performance rating: 8,700) and triumphantly returned to the top of Europe!
At the same time, he sent the most resounding message ahead of the Olympic Games of Paris, as the Rimini European was his first and only official match this year before the big date of the summer.
The silver medal was won by Azerbaijani Nikita Simonov with 14.900 points, edging into a tie with last year’s winner, Egyptian-born but Turkish-born Adem Asil, who also got 14.900 points but finished 3rd because he had a lower individual execution score.
Before this year’s seventh European title of Petrounias, they had preceded the bronze metal on his debut at the event in 2011 in Berlin, followed by six consecutive wins in 2015 in Montpellier, 2016 in Bern, 2017 in Cluj, 2018 in Glasgow, 2021 in Basel and 2022 in Munich, as well as another bronze last year in Attalia.
At the same time, he reached a total of twelve gold medals in major events, including his triumphs in three World Championships (2015, 2017, 2018), the European Games of 2015 and of course the Olympic Games “Rio 2016”.
In the rest of Friday’s (26/04) finals, the British Luke Whitehouse (14.866 b.) emerged European champion in floor exercises, ahead of the Israeli Artem Dolgopiat (14.833 b.) and the Hungarian Christopher Mesaros (14.600 b.), while in the pommel horse the Irish Rhys McClenaghan (15,300 m) prevailed, with 2nd the Dutchman Laurent DeManck (14,933 m) and 3rd the Cypriot Mario Georgiou (14,800 m), who won another medal in Rimini after the triumph in the combined individual, which was combined with the Olympic qualification.
The results in the final of the hoops:
1. Lefteris Petrounias (GREECE) 15,000 b.
2. Nikita Simonov (Azerbaijan) 14,900 b.
3. Adem Asil (Turkey) 14,900 b.
4. Artur Avetisyan (Armenia) 14,800 b.
4. Vincent Heck (Austria) 14,800 b.
6. Courtney Tulloch (Great Britain) 14,700 b.
7. Salvatore Maresca (Italy) 14,566 b.
8. Ibrahim Colak (Turkey) 14,500 b.
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