Armenia’s Artur Davtyan won the gold medal at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships being held in Antalya, Turkey over the weekend.
In the vault final, the World and European Champion scored 15.033 points, brilliantly performing both jumps.
Britain Jake Jarman (15.016) won the silver medal, while Igor Radivilov (14.750) of Ukraine won the bronze medal.
The Armenian team won three medals—one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Vahagn Davtyan won a silver medal in ring exercises, while Artur Davtyan won a bronze medal in the pommel horse exercises on Saturday.
Artur Davtyan and the entire Armenian team got a hero’s welcome at Zvartnots International Airport when they returned home on Sunday.
“I am very happy and proud to return from Turkey with a gold medal. It was a tough fight in the Vault. Englishman Jake Jarman made his jump four-tenths higher. My second jump, which was very clean, gave me the gold medal. The difference in points between me and my English competitor was small, but I am happy that I won a gold medal. It was difficult, but I successfully did what I was doing in training,” Artur Davtyan told reporters, News.am reported.
“I am very happy that I was able to raise our [Armenian national] flag while the national anthem played. It doesn’t matter whether you are in Turkey or another country; the fact that you are a winner in all of Europe is a happy thing,” added Artur Davtyan.
Armenia’s gymnastics team head coach Hakob Serobyan also told reporters that he was pleased with the results.
He did add, however, that the tournament’s organizers in Turkey had created some problems for the Armenian team, explaining that the Armenian team members were subjected to random drug tests at 5 a.m.
“It felt like they were doing this on purpose,” Serobyan said, adding that the incident had the opposite effect and motivated the Armenian athletes to compete harder.
