Tjaša Kysselef with gold and Lucija Hribar with bronze cause for Slovenian joy in Koper

Koper, 3 September 2021 – The first final day in Koper was marked by Slovenian representatives Tjaša Kysselef and Lucija Hribar. The first won gold in the vault and the second bronze in the uneven bars. The only Slovenian representative in the finals, Sašo Bertoncelj, finished the last home game in sixth place. The victory in the floor exercise was won by the Russian Kiril Prokopev, on the pommel horse the Albanian Matvei Petrov won, on the uneven bars was the first Slovak Barbora Mokosova, and on the still rings the Austrian Vinzenz Hoeck.

Saturday’s finals began with the men performing the floor exercise. The vaultwas won by the top three from the qualifiers, the ranking was reversed in first and second place. The victory on the floor exercise was won by the Russian Kiril Prokopev with a score of 14,650, the Canadian William Emard finished the competition in the second place with a score of 14,550, and the Ukrainian Illia Kovtun in the third place with a score of 14,300.

The floor exercise was followed by the final decision of the women vault competition, where the last to perform was Slovenian Tjaša Kysselef, who received two tenths of a better grade than in the qualifications, winning with a score of 13,825. In second place was Hungarian Csenqe Maria Bacskay with a score of 13,725, and Ukrainian Yana Fedorova won a bronze medal with a score of 13,300. At the last domestic World Cup, Kysselef was fifth, she experienced the first place in front of the home spectators very emotionally: “I am purely emotional. I’ve struggled with the leap for the last few weeks in recent weeks that the outcome ended up being better than I expected. I wanted to perform the jumps as I know how. I didn’t expect to jump with such ease. I really didn’t expect that, “said Tjaša immediately after the match, where the whole family accompanied her to the stands.

This was followed by a men’s performance on the pommel horse, where Sašo Bertoncelj competed for the last time in his career at the domestic World Cup. “This is one of those mistakes out of all 15 appearances in the final of the domestic World Cup, which will make me the least worried. I said yesterday that I was going for all or nothing, that was a wish. I wanted to show that I was still able to do a harder exercise, that was the goal. But it was quite emotional, at home, in front of home fans and family, when you look at them it’s not easy. “

They decided on a more difficult exercise together with coach Sebastijan Piletič, with whom they are still improving their form until the upcoming World Cup: “Whenever you know that something is coming to an end, the feeling is a little different. We agreed that it goes with the harder execution of the exercise. Despite finishing his career, he is in the middle of the season, and if he wants to compete with the best, he has to do a harder exercise. “

The victory on the horse with handles was won by the Albanian Matvei Petrov with a score of 14,650, in second place with the same final score, but due to a lower starting score by the Ukrainian Illia Kovtun, and in third place with a score of 14,200 by the Croatian Filip Ude.

In Koper, the competitors on the two-height barbell stepped on the competition podium next. Where the second Slovenian medal of the day was taken care of by Lucija Hribar, who improved her result from the qualifications and received a score of 12,900, which was enough for a bronze medal. “I feel excellent. I am satisfied with my exercise, which I performed even better than in the qualifications. My whole family was in the stands, home matches are always something special, “said Lucija after the competition. Tomorrow she will have two more final appearances on the shaft and the ground floor.

The schedule in the first two places remained the same as in the qualifications, in the first place the competition with a score of 13,650 was finished by the Slovak Barbora Mokosova, and in the second place by the Hungarian Zoja Szekely with a score of 13,350.

Andrej Mavrič, the coach of the women’s national team, was also enthusiastic about the two medals of the women’s part of the national team: “I am very happy that Tjaša finally managed to get to this first place and managed to overtake the Hungarian. Lucija also finally showed in the match what she has been showing in training for a long time. The result and the medal are here. “

The men finished the first final day by competing in rounds. The gold medal was won by the Austrian Vinzenz Hoeck from the qualifications with a score of 14,800, the silver medal was won by the Russian Ilya Kibartas with a score of 14,400, and the bronze was won by the Italian Andrea Cingolani with a score of 14,200.

The first final day was officially opened by the President of the Gymnastics Association of Slovenia Damjan Kralj and the guest of honor, the President of the International Gymnastics Association (FIG), the Japanese Morinari Watanabe. In the light of the Figa Electoral Congress, which will take place in Antalya, Turkey, in early November, he also decided to visit Slovenia.

The last final performances are scheduled for tomorrow in Koper. Men will compete in the vault, barbell and pole vault. The women will be on the shaft and the floor, and Slovenian Lucija Hribar will also perform on both tools.

Schedule

Finals – Sunday, 5 September 2021

• 15:00 – vault, men;
• 15:30 – balance beam;
• 16:00 – parallel bars;
• 16:30 – floor exercise, women;
• 17:00 – horizontal bar.