Petrounias Tops European Rings Qualification

Greek Olympic champion Lefteris Petrounias delivered a stellar performance at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Leipzig, securing first place in the rings qualification round with an impressive score of 14.700.

His routine, featuring a difficulty score of 5.700 and an execution score of 9.000, earned him the highest mark among competitors, guaranteeing his spot in the final on Friday, May 30.

Petrounias will face strong competition in the final, including Turkey’s Adem Asil (14.533), Great Britain’s Courtney Tulloch and Harry Hepworth (both 14.400), Armenia’s Artur Avetisyan (14.300), France’s Samir Aït Saïd (14.233), Azerbaijan’s Nikita Simonov (14.033), and Armenia’s Vahagn Davtyan (13.866).

Reflecting on his performance, Petrounias acknowledged a challenging start to the season, citing two significant errors in his dismount due to multiple program changes. “I had a tough beginning this season with two serious mistakes on the dismount because we made many adjustments to the routine,” he said. “But this was a stepping stone for the first half of the season, leading up to this point and looking ahead to the World Championships.”

Petrounias expressed confidence in his score of 14.700, describing it as “a gold-medal score” for this stage of the season. He hinted at further improvements, noting that a cleaner dismount could push his score to 14.900. Looking toward the Los Angeles Olympics, he plans to build on his current routine, potentially increasing the difficulty to 5.8, 5.9, or even 6.0, depending on his competitors’ performances. “We’ve found the core of the routine, and now we’ll add elements to stay competitive,” he added.

Source: pagenews.gr