Ilya Kovtun defended the title of European champion in parallel bars exercises.
The Ukrainian team won the third medal at the European Championship 2024 in artistic gymnasticswhich takes place in Rimini, Italy. Ilya Kovtun won gold in the parallel bars exercise.
The 20-year-old Ukrainian triumphed with a score of 15.633 points.
In the fight for the gold award, a native of Cherkassy ahead of Cypriot Marios Georgiou (14.866 points) and Swiss Noe Seifert (14.833 points), who became silver and bronze medalists, respectively.
Another Ukrainian, Nazar Chepurny, took sixth place, receiving a score of 13.866 points.
For Kovtun, this is the second gold in a row at the European Championships in parallel bars exercises. In 2022, he became a silver medalist in this discipline.
In total, he now has six medals at continental championships. In addition to three European Championship awards on parallel bars, Ilya has two bronzes in the individual all-around and a bronze in the horizontal bar exercises.
Kovtun’s medal is the third for Ukraine at Euro 2024 in artistic gymnastics and the first gold. Earlier, Oleg Vernyaev won silver in the all-around, and Nazar Chepurny won bronze in vault.
The European Men's Championship in Rimini will last until 28 April. And from May 2 to May 5, the women's continental championship in artistic gymnastics will take place.
Recall that the previous Euro 2023 in artistic gymnastics, where men and women competed, the Ukrainian team finished with four awards (one gold ” and three “bronzes”), taking fifth place in the medal standings.