Marios Georgiou of Cyprus crowned 2024 European all-around gymnastics champion
Marios Georgiou of Cyprus not only claimed his nation's first-ever artistic gymnastics European Championships all-around title winning the men's competition with a score of 84.265 at the Fiera arena in Rimini, Italy on Wednesday (24 April) but Cyprus made the team final for the first time, AND Georgiou claimed a quota berth for Paris 2024 while he was at it.
"I'm very happy for my medal," a smiling Georgiou told Olympics.com after the competition, "and also the first team final for Cyprus, which is a first time in history, and first time in history for that..." Georgiou holds up the gold medal around his neck... "so we are so, so happy.
"I think today was the most stressful day of my gymnastics career," he revealed, of the goal to make a third Olympic Games by being the top eligible all-around gymnast in today's competition. "To qualify for Paris, it was [such a] difficult and stressful day but at the end of the day, it just went well.”
Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev secures silver (84.031) with Italy's Yumin Abbadini rounding out the podium with bronze to the delight of the home crowd (83.765).
"I'm very happy and I can't believe I'm third in Europe," said an equally smiley Abbadini of his win in front of home fans. "It's been an incredible experience being here at home and I'm really happy to achieve this."
Cyprus also secured a berth in the team final for first time, claiming the eighth and final place in the showdown on Sunday (28 April) alongside top qualifiers Ukraine, GB, Spain, Switzerland, Italy – the defending team champions from 2023 - Türkiye and Israel.
European Gymnastics Championships showdown
The first subdivision of three finished with Hungary's Krisztofer Meszaros leading the all-around competition on 83.398 but the big names were to come in the following two sessions.
It was in subdivision two that Super Mario made his mark. Jostling with team-mate Ilias Georgiou – no relation - the pair went head-to-head for top spot until Ilias finally cracked on the pommel horse, coming off the apparatus in the fifth rotation of six. Yet the support within the team was palpable and helped the side to their history-making moment in making the team final.
It was in the second rotation that the Ukrainians also appeared with Illia Kovtun starting strongly on his favoured apparatus – the parallel bars – in which he went on to top score with a mark of 15.266 to make him favourite for the apparatus final on Saturday (27 April). It was also the highest mark of any gymnast on any apparatus.
The 2023 all-around bronze medallist faltered on floor exercise with two falls to put him out of the running for medals this time out but his teammate Verniaiev, who has returned to the fray after a four-year ban for doping was reduced to two years on appeal, stepped up for the embattled nation to take silver.
Italy were thrilled to have a man on the podium in the form of Abbadini who claimed bronze, and who was part of the fabled team that won gold in Antalya in 2023. The 22-year-old national all-around champion from 2022, moved his success on to the international stage, and will be hoping, along with his compatriots, to defend their team title in four days time.
Defending all-around champion, Adem Asil of Türkiye, fell on his first apparatus in the third subdivision, which also saw Joe Fraser's ambitions curtailed for GB after falling three times on his first apparatus, the pommel horse, to score 10.000.
A tricky time on parallel bars left Fraser's compatriot Jake Jarman, the world vault champion and 2023 European all-around silver medallist, just off the podium in fourth (83.431). Meszaros finished fifth.
In a preview of the mouth-watering prospect of the apparatus finals taking place on Friday (26 April) and Saturday (27 April), the reigning world champions on pommel horse and floor exercise, respectively, Rhys McClenaghan, competing for Ireland, and Artem Dolgopyat (Israel), competed at the same time on their respective apparatus, both going clean to make the finals with outstanding performances.
The apparatus finalists are listed below.
- As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's individual all-around results
1 Marios Georgiou CYP 84.265
2 Oleg Verniaiev UKR 84.031
3 Yumin Abbadini ITA 83.765
4 Jake Jarman GBR 83.431
5 Krisztofer Meszaros HUN 83.398
6 Illia Kovtun UKR 83.331
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's floor finalists
Artem Dolgopyat 15.200
Luke Whitehouse GBR 14.766
Jake Jarman GBR 14.533
Krisztofer Meszaros HUN 14.333
Nicolau Mir ESP 14.233
Unai Baigorri ESP 14.166
Leo Saladino FRA 14.100
Jim Zona FRA 14.066
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's pommel horse finalists
Oleg Verniaiev UKR 15.166
Rhys McClenaghan IRL 15.133
Loran De Munck NED 15.000
Filip Ude CRO 14.766
Matteo Giubellini SUI 14.600
Gagik Khachikyan ARM 14.600
Marios Georgiou CYP 14.266
Levan Skhiladze GEO 14.266
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's still rings finalists
Eleftherios Petrounias GRE 14.966
Adem Asil TUR 14.933
Vinzenz Hoeck AUT 14.900
Salvatore Maresca ITA 14.766
Courtney Tulloch GBR 14.7000
Ibrahim Colak TUR 14.666
Artur Avetisyan ARM 14.633
Nikita Simonov AZE 14.633
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's vault finalists
**(**Qualifying scores – average of two vaults)
Nazar Chepurnyi UKR 14.900
Igor Radivolov UKR 14.833
Jake Jarman GBR 14.833
Casimir Schmidt NED 14.566
Artur Davtyan ARM 14.416
Luke Whitehouse GBR 14.400
Luca Giubellini SUI 14.316
Illia Kovtun UKR 14.316
Dominick Cunningham IRL 14.150
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's parallel bars finalists
Illia Kovtun UKR 15.266
Noe Seifert SUI 14.733
Nazar Chepurnyi UKR 14.700
Cameron-Lie Bernard FRA 14.666
Marios Georgiou CYP 14.633
Artur Davtyan ARM 14.416
Thierno Diallo ESP 14.500
James Hall 14.333
Nicolau Mir ESP 14.266
European Artistic Gymnastics Championships 2024: Men's high bar finalists
Illia Kovtun UKR 14.600
Robert Tvorogal LTU 14.533
Marios Georgiou CYP 14.500
Joel Plata ESP 14.466
Tin Srbic CRO 14.333
Alexander Myakinin ISR 14.333
Yumin Abbadini ITA 14.333
Akseli Karsikas FIN 14.133