Zsófia Kovács won a silver medal in the individual all-around on Friday at the European Gymnastics Championships in Antalya.
The 23-year-old athlete collected a total of 54.899 points over the four times and was only 0.133 points behind the gold medalist Jessica Gadirova of Great Britain. Kovács showed great practice three times and was in the lead, but on the ground she was almost seven-tenths of a point behind Gadirova, the Olympic bronze medalist in Tokyo, so she had to settle for second place.
“I’m already very happy with the silver medal around my neck, I really only needed a little bit for the gold”
– evaluated the DKSE competitor in the Hungarian association’s newsletter.
Kovács said that she felt that he had kicked the handrail at the limit, which now meant five tenths, moreover, the room was silent at the time, the judges could also hear the sound, so it was not even possible that he might not notice them because of the lyrics.
“If you have that, then you also have the gold, so deep down I’m a little disappointed because I really wanted to win after Cluj. Overall, however, I can’t be disappointed with the second position, because I kept my place in the qualifiers. In the future, I will try to get on top of the podium,” said Zsófia Kovács.
She added that he burst into tears when it turned out that her English rival had won because even though he is the world champion on the floor, Kovács hoped that she would not be able to do her exercise perfectly.
“The same thing happened in Cluj, there I was leading after the beam, and there too a member of an English pair of brothers overtook me on the ground. Regardless, I can’t be dissatisfied or disappointed, and this medal gives me a huge boost for the individual finals, I will concentrate a lot, because I definitely want to win more medals. This second place gives me new strength, and what I achieve in the individual finals will be icing on the cake.”
– concluded the competitor.
Women’s national team captain Imre Draskóczy drew attention to Kovács’ poise. She pointed out that the gymnast did have a handicap, but she showed how strong her body was, and after the barrier she finally won the silver medal with a “fantastic performance”.
“All our respect and joy belong to her, I trust that her success will not end at this European Championship. Zója Székely started with a difficult beam, but skillfully caught up on the other three times”
– summed up the national team captain.
János Trenka, Zsófia Kovács’ coach, called it joyful that her student performed the best beam exercise of her life.
Kovács, a two-time European champion in jumping and a one-time European champion in the half hurdles, also placed 2nd in Cluj-Napoca in 2017. was in the individual composite.
The other Hungarian participant in the current final, Zója Székely, finished 17th with 49.332 points, after achieving a lower-than-expected score on beam with her exercise, and was 5.7 points behind the score of the gold medalist British gymnast.
“The fact that I was able to enter the individual composite finals was already a great gift for me. I’m sorry that I messed up the beam at the start, but after that I was able to pull myself together and did three successful exercises”
– Székely evaluated her performance.
Results:
women’s individual all-around, European champion:
Jessica Gadirova (Great Britain) 54.899 points (Vault: 14.100, Vault: 13.466, Beam: 13.533, Floor: 13.933)
2. Zsófia Kovács 54,899 (14,100/13,700/13,833/13,266)
3. Alice D’Amato (Italy) 54,500 (14,000/14,400/13,000/13,100)
…17. Zója Székely 49,332 (13,000/13,433/10,666/12,233)
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