"VAN" (Sports Desk - 26.08.2026) :: Great Britain retained their European team title in men's artistic gymnastics, narrowly beating the Russian team that competed under a neutral flag at the European Championships held in Zagreb from 13-23 August.
Led by the European champion on the horizontal bar Joe Fraser, who also won the bronze medal on the parallel bars, the British team, which also included bronze medalists Harry Hepworth (floor) and Scott Sol (vault) as well as Jonas Rushworth and Courtney Tulloch, achieved a total of 246.728 points.
Returning after a five-year absence caused by the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian team, which included Arsenii Duhno, the silver medalist in the all-around, won the silver medal with a total of 246.158 points, a difference of only 0.570 points compared to the two-time European team champions. The bronze medal went to Switzerland (242.094 points).
The all-around was won for the first time by the Croatian Illia Kovtun, a former gymnast under the colors of Ukraine (23 years old) who has been officially competing since July for Croatia, the country where he has lived since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
Illia Kovtun is also the new European champion in parallel bars, while the Israeli Artem Dolgopyat became the European champion on floor for the third time in his career, having already won the continental gold on floor in 2020 and 2022, in addition to four silver medals. Olympic floor champion at the Tokyo Games and silver medalist in Paris, he also became world champion on this apparatus in 2023.
In the rings final, the gold medal went to Armenian Artur Avetisyan, who overtook Russian Ilia Zaika due to a higher execution score, both finishing the competition with the same score (14.400), and the reigning champion Eleftherios Petrounias (Greece) missed out on winning a new continental gold medal, instead obtaining the third bronze medal, with a score of 14.366.
Artem Dolgopyat (Israel) won the floor final with 14.466 points, ahead of Russian athlete under a neutral flag Arsenii Duhno (14.333 points), who took second place. In the all-around competition, Britain's Harry Hepworth (14.300 points) completed the podium, a year after winning the silver medal on this apparatus.
Italian Gabriele Targhetta won the pommel horse title (15.133 points), a year after winning the bronze medal, ahead of two athletes from Armenia: reigning champion Hamlet Manukian (15.000 points) and reigning vice-champion Mamikon Khaciatrian (14.900).
Nazar Chepurnyi (Ukraine) won the vault final with 14.566 points, followed by Aleksei Usacev (Russia*) with 14.399 and Scott Sol (Great Britain) with 14.199.
And the spectacular uneven bars final was won by Joe Fraser (Great Britain) with 14.300 points, followed by Marios Georgiou (Cyprus) with 14.200 points and Savelii Sieedin (Russia*) with 14.066.
The short period until the World Championships in Rotterdam can be a positive one for adjusting some of the executions of some of these athletes who will certainly fight for world medals alongside gymnasts from the USA, China, and Japan. A spectacular world competition is expected.
Cr-AIPS
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