Merci, Baku

Belarusian gymnasts have won three medals at the World Cup

Two gold medals and one bronze — our gymnasts showcased impressive performances at the World Cup in Baku. Yahor Sharamkou confirmed his status as one of the world leaders by winning the floor exercise and taking third place in the vault, while Alena Tsitavets had no equal on the uneven bars event.

Alena Tsitavets made her international debut in adult competitions only last year and quickly established herself as a formidable competitor. In her first season at this level, she took silver and bronze on her signature gymnastic apparatus — uneven bars. The 16-year-old Belarusian gymnast also got off to a great start in the new competitive year. In Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, she excelled in her event in the qualification round, leaving no chance for her rivals in the final.
“It was an unexpected medal for me — very pleasant and long-awaited,” the athlete told the press service of the Belarusian Gymnastics Association. “In terms of the base value, the combination remained the same as before. Therefore, considering the performance, I understood what kind of grade I could get. I hope this result will give an impetus to successful performances in other competitions.”
Yahor Sharamkou did not expect such a successful performance from himself either. The athlete, who turned 26 on March 4th, showed the fourth result in the floor exercise qualification, but performed significantly better in the final and rose to the highest step of the podium.
The following day, he earned a bronze medal in addition to the gold: only Ukraine’s Nazar Chepurnyi and China’s Mingqi Huang managed to beat the Belarusian in the vault. The athlete shared his analysis of the performance, “I understood that in the floor exercise — if I do everything without mistakes — I would be able to claim medals; the complexity allowed it. As for the vault, I saw after qualifying that I could climb the podium. We have prepared well for the World Cup stage; we have held two training camps at Staiki [Olympic Training Centre]. I am pleased that the hard work has brought results. A new cycle, new rules — I had to partly rearrange the combination. I wanted to understand myself in a competitive rhythm what level I was at, whether it would work out or not, whether I would have to get a more complicated programme or vice versa — it was not easy in this regard.” 
The next stage of the FIG Gymnastics World Cup is scheduled to take place in Antalya on March 20th-23rd. Yahor Sharamkou, Alena Tsitavets and Nikita Parfenovich will vie for medals in this tournament. Moreover, Belarusian rhythmic gymnasts will very soon start performing at the World Cup stages. It is planned that Alina Harnasko and Anastasiia Salos will come out to the carpet at the April competition, which will also be hosted by Baku. 

By Tatiana Litvinova