Armenia gymnastics team head coach: They tried to create problems for us in Turkey but it had opposite effect

By Lusine Shahbazyan

They tried to create problems for us in Turkey, but it had the opposite effect. Hakob Serobyan, the head coach of the Armenian national artistic gymnastics team, who returned home last night from the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antalya, Turkey, told about this to reporters. 

"I highly appreciate the work of our boys in Turkey. We expected a victory from Artur Davtyan in the Vault, as he is the current world champion and was the favorite in this exercise. We did not expect a medal from him, but a gold medal. He lived up to all of our expectations. His task was very difficult in this European championship. He was doing six tools to get Olympic ranking easily. It was unexpected that he reached the final in the Pommel Horse. We have more complex performers—Harutyun Merdinyan, Gagik Khachikyan—on this instrument, but we did not expect Artur to reach the finals. He fought well and won a medal. I am proud of him.

"I am very satisfied with our overall result; a whole set of medals: gold, silver, bronze. Last year we had only gold and silver. Hamlet Manukyan ‘scared; everyone's eyes in Turkey with his two-time championship in the World Youth Championships.

"I should note that the youth tournament was very peaceful there [in Turkey], but it was a little different during the senior European championship days; they were causing some problems. Our flag moment, [taking] doping [test] late night. It all angered me a lot, but it had the opposite effect. Our boys were taken out of bed at 5am to take doping [test], which upset me. Why our team... It felt like they were annoying us on purpose. I officially approached and said, they told me from the side that they are doing [it] on purpose, we should do the opposite, and it happened: European champion, vice-champion, bronze medalist. Artur was more inspired by those incidents and won a gold medal.

"Vahagn Davtyan's silver medal made us all very happy. It was a tight battle in the Rings final. The current world champion, the Olympic champion, and Vahagn Davtyan were fighting for the medal. The third place was taken by the Olympic champion. We were ready, but we didn't expect it. Vahagn Davtyan was very worthy. I'm glad it worked out," said Serobyan.

Team Armenia finished the aforesaid European Championships with three medals. Artur Davtyan became the gold medalist in the Vault, Vahagn Davtyan became a silver medalist for the second time in the Rings, Artur Davtyan won bronze in the Pommel Horse.

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