Beno and Lucija Sunday Heroes

Today, the final act of the 19th World Challenge Cup in Koper took place at the Bonifika Arena, where Lucija Hribar brought joy to the home crowd with a silver medal on the beam, and Beno Kunst secured a bronze on the vault. In addition to them, Zala Trtnik also competed in the beam final, finishing in 5th place.

Slovenian camp were centered on Beno Kunst. On Friday, he made small mistakes in both of his landings, so today was a chance for redemption. He competed as the sixth gymnast. Beno opened the final with a vault that earned him a score of 13.500. He received a slightly lower score of 13.466 for his second vault. With an average score of 13.483 and the support of the home crowd, he climbed onto the podium. Only two competitors remained who could threaten Beno’s medal. One of them was the favorite to win, Spaniard Unai Baigorri, who, however, made a major mistake on his first vault and ended up in 8th place. After the final routine, Beno could finally celebrate his very first bronze medal. “I’m satisfied with my performance. Even though I made a small mistake on my first vault, it was still better than in qualifications, just as I had promised. I was pushed slightly forward due to the height, which I wasn’t fully prepared for. The second vault was executed really well, and that’s what brought me the medal. The whole town of Brežice came to support me, which gave me an extra boost. Now I’m looking forward to the European Championships, where I’ll present the same two vaults as I did today for the home crowd. My main goal is to place among the top 16, but we’ll see where I end up after all the routines, mine and the others’,” said an overjoyed Beno. The winner was Taiwan’s Wei-Sheng Tseng with a score of 13.883, while silver went to Czech gymnast Ondrej Kalny with a score of 13.833, just 0.05 points behind.

The beam routines followed, opened by Lucija Hribar with an excellent performance that earned her a score of 12.700 and temporarily placed her at the top of the leaderboard. Next came the performance of the favorite to win, Britain’s Georgia-Mae Fenton, who had already topped the qualification round. With a beautiful routine and a high score of 13.166, she took the lead and held it until the end. In the second half of the final, another Slovenian gymnast, Zala Trtnik, took the stage. She delivered an excellent routine but received a lower-than-expected score of 12.366, finishing in 5th place. “I’m really happy with the routine, especially because I managed to perform it cleanly twice in a row now – and in front of a home crowd. Personally, I thought today’s routine was even better than the one in qualifications, but the judges didn’t quite see it the same way. I’ll be making some changes to the routine for the European Championships – the start value will be slightly higher by a few tenths, and I hope to perform it just as well as I did here,” said Zala. Lucija remained in second place until the end of the competition, earning her second medal of the weekend. Third place went to Brazil’s Gabriela Boucas, who scored 12.633.

This year, there were no Slovenian representatives in the parallel bars competition. The gold medal was won by France’s Cameron-Lie Bernard with a score of 13.800. The silver went to Turkey’s Ibrahim Colak, who scored 13.366, while the bronze was claimed by Spain’s Nestor Abad with a score of 13.300.

The competition continued with the women’s floor exercise, where the final performance by a female gymnast at this year’s World Challenge Cup in Koper was delivered by local athlete Lucija Hribar. This was Lucija’s third final appearance, and the physical fatigue began to show, as she experienced some difficulty with her tumbling passes. She received a score of 11.966 and placed 7th. “I’m very happy with how today went, as it turned out really well in the end. I started on beam, where I performed a really beautiful routine. I’m very pleased that I managed to do that, because I hadn’t done such a clean routine all season. I’m also really happy that I earned a medal and the highest score in front of the home crowd. I’m satisfied with my floor routine as well — I performed it the way I know how. There were a few more mistakes than on Friday, but I’m still happy that I finished without a fall. Now my focus is on the European Championships, which I’m really looking forward to,” said a pleased Lucija after her performances in Koper. The final part of the competition had a strong Brazilian presence. Brazil celebrated a double victory, with Julia Coutinho taking gold with a score of 13.100 and Gabriela Rodrigues Barbosa securing silver with 12.733. The bronze medal went to Britain’s Abigail Roper with a score of 12.666.

The last to compete were the finalists on the horizontal bar, where the Brazilian gymnasts mirrored the success of their female teammates by claiming the top two spots. Lucas De Souza Bitencourt took home the gold medal with a score of 13.500, while Patrick Sampaio earned silver with 13.466. Italy’s Manuel Berettera was delighted to take bronze with a score of 13.400.

With that, the 19th World Challenge Cup in Artistic Gymnastics came to a close. This was the last major competition before the upcoming European Championships. For the Slovenian team, the event on home soil was a great success, as they collected a total of five medals. On Saturday, Teja Belak and Lucija Hribar each claimed a gold medal, with Anže Hribar joining them on the podium with silver on floor. Today, Lucija Hribar delighted the Bonifika Arena crowd once again with silver on beam, while Beno Kunst earned bronze on vault.