With Four Saturday Finals Guaranteed, Slovenian team strongly opens the 2024 Koper World Challenge Cup

Koper, 30 May 2024 – Thursday’s qualifiers in Bonifika in Koper were extremely successful for Slovenia, as the Slovenian national team qualified for four finals on Saturday. Luka Bojanc qualified for the finals with third score on the still rings, Anže Hribar with a fifth mark on the floor exercise, Lucija Hribar was sixth on the uneven bars and Gregor Rakovič with a seventh higest score on the pommel horse.

Gregor Rakovič and Kevin George Buckley opened the qualification for Slovenia on the pommel horse, with Gregor going third. He executed a very clean exercise and received a score of 13.900 for it. After the performance, when he did not yet know that he had qualified for Saturday’s final, he said: “When the whole hall cheered just before the start of my competition – that was something new for me, and above all, something unexpected!” I’m glad it helped with a good performance and that it did not add additional pressure. I am satisfied with the exercise, because I did the exercise to the best of my ability at the current moment. Towards the end, my strength was slowly running out and I started shaking. I knew that I was doing the best exercise and that I was getting closer and closer to the end. This is exactly the part that the psychologist and I work on a lot. I know I need to focus on the current movements and not everything else. In summary: for the current situation – superb!“.

Kevin said after the performance: “I’ve had some problems with training the last few weeks because it’s been hard to get motivated after the European Championships, the biggest game of the season. I’m glad I finished the exercise, even though I made two minor mistakes. However, all this is part of sport.” Kevin will be the Slovenian athlete with the most starts: “Today I have still rings still waiting for me, and tomorrow I have parallel bars and high bars. My goal is to do the exercise as I know how and then hope for a final.” When we asked him what he was looking forward to the most, he was clear: “Finals. Even if I won’t competet in them, I’m looking forward to cheering on my teammates and hoping for a medal in front of the home crowd.“

After the performances on the horse, coach Aljaž Vogrinec was also rightly in a good mood: “Both Gregor and Kevin did a superb job with the performance, especially Gregor’s performance was beautiful, and good scores followed it. Kevin made a small mistake when he hit the pommel horse, but he fought through the exercise towards the end. I admit that I am quite satisfied with what was shown.”

Jordanian Abu Al Soud Ahmad won the pommel horse qualification with a high score of 15.200, followed by Ukrainian Kovtun Illia and Croatian competitor Mateo Žugec.

Gregor Turk and Anže Hribar performed on the ground floor. Anže already knew five minutes after the end of his performance that he managed to qualify for Saturday’s final: “I am very satisfied because I did the exercise as I expected. It could be a little better, but I’m still very satisfied. On Saturday I will change the routine to a more difficult one, two tenths more difficult. I hope that there will be the same support from the stands on Saturday as there was today.” In front of him, Gregor, who has recently been struggling with several problems, said: “I am not the completel satisfied with my performance. It was my first international competition iof such scope n front of the home crowd. I’m glad I was able to perform, but it wasn’t ideal. I made some minor and some major mistakes in the rehearsal, but still it was a good experience for me. Next week I have Šalamun’s memorial in Maribor waiting for me, and then a rest to heal my sore finger.“

Franci Rojc, coach of Anže Hribar, was very satisfied after the ground floor qualifications: “I am very satisfied. For the qualifications, we decided to show a lighter composition, which paid off. I am also very satisfied with the performance, but of course I hope that we can show an even more difficult exercise in the final.” Gregor Turk’s coach Sebastijan Piletič said after his protégé’s performance: “The performance was not the best, but considering the fact that only a week ago he had a big problem with his finger, he did a solid job with his performance. He is progressing nicely, slowly, and I believe that he will be able to show something more already in the fall.“

In the parterre qualifications, the Ukrainian representative Kovtun Illia was the best with a score of 14.250, followed by the representatives of Israel and France, Dolgopyat Artem and Saladino Leo.

Most Slovenian representatives took part in the still rings. Tin Štros (he performed as an out-of-competition competitior), Kevin George Buckley and Luka Bojanc. Luka Bojanc, who qualified for the World Cup final in Koper for the first time in his career, was overjoyed after qualifying: “I am very satisfied with the match. I really benefited from competing second to last in line, which allowed me to tactic, so I chose an easier exercise. Of course, this will not apply to Saturday’s final, when I will compete with a more difficult exercise and I hope to at least repeat today’s ranking.“

Kevin said after the match: “The practice wasn’t bad, but there was too much unnecessary movement. I made a bigger mistake with the jump because I started too much, because for the last two weeks I had a problem of not “rotating” the somersault enough, but in the end I obviously had a little too much of it. Tomorrow the goal is to come back after today, so I have more than enough motivation.“

After the performances in the rounds, Sebastijan Piletič said: “I am especially happy that Luka finally managed to do the exercise the way he knows how. He had various problems, most recently with his shoulder, but he managed to get himself together for the competition, so we will be able to watch him in the finals. Kevin did a nice job, but it’s not yet difficult enough that he would have to do a jump in order to be competitive, but unfortunately he didn’t succeed.“

On the first day, only Lucija Hribar presented herself from the Slovenes with an exercise on the uneven bars, where she reliably qualified for Saturday’s final with the sixth qualification mark. Lucija said after the competition: “I am very satisfied with my performance, I performed the exercise as the trainer and I had set it. What I like most is that I was able to perform in front of the home audience. I hope that in the final I can show that I can do this exercise even better, especially the jump.“

Her coach Nataša Retelj was very satisfied with what was shown: “With the exception of a slightly worse jump, the whole exercise was very nice. We really wanted this final and we are extremely happy that we managed to do it.“

Tomorrow, the second day of qualifications will be held in Koper. Men will compete on vault, parallel bars and pole vault, while women will compete on beam and floor. Slovenia will be represented on beam by Lucija Hribar and Zala Trtnik, and in the men’s competition Beno Kunst on vault and Kevin George Buckley on parallel bars and pole. Qualification starts at 16:00.