Croatian representative Tijana Korent missed out on the bronze medal on vault by only 0.17 points, while last year’s floor winner Aurel Benović from Osijek finished sixth due to a fall on the second diagonal
Croatia remained one step away from a medal on the first final day at the 14th edition of the World Cup in Gymnastics – DOBRO World Cup Osijek. In the superb atmosphere in the Gradski vrt sports hall, our experienced member of the national team Tijana Korent was just 0.17 points too short for the bronze on the vault. Last year’s winner on the floor, Aurel Benović from Osijek, ended the competition in sixth place due to a fall on the second diagonal.
Tijana Korent reached 4th place in her 9th final in Osijek and 42nd overall in the World Cup with a score of 13.049 (12.866 and 13.233). Australian Georgia Godwin won gold (13,333), Hungarian Csenge Maria Bacskay won silver (13,099), and Canadian Denelle Pedrick won bronze (13,066).
“I can’t say that I’m dissatisfied, but I’m still a little sorry that I didn’t win a medal in front of the home crowd. It was really small things that separated me and that third place. That’s the sport, someone has to be fourth. All eight finalists fought for that podium, we all wanted the same, but this time the medals were fairly distributed”, said Tijana Korent after the fourth place.
“I did my performance very well, especially the second jump for which I got the highest score so far in my career, 13.233, that makes me happy because I see that I can improve. I hope that soon I will be able to strengthen my jumps and be competitive for medals in the competitions that await me in the second part of the season. Now I’m going to prepare, there’s a short break in July, but there’s not much time because we start the new World Cups in September. I had planned to do more difficult jumps here, but in February I had a knee injury that lasted for 2 months and all that threw me back. Now I feel better than ever and I intend to continue even stronger”, announced Tijana Korent.
Aurel Benović, who a year ago lifted the entire Gradski vrt sports hall to its feet with gold medal, this time did not make it to the podium. A fall on the second diagonal cost him dearly. Although the rest of the exercise was excellently done, there was no chance for more than 6th place (13.066). Bulgarian Eddie Penev was the best today (14,100), silver is Ahmet Onder from Turkey (13,800), and bronze is Hungarian Krisztofer Meszaros (13,733).
“I’m satisfied, it couldn’t have gone better than this. I pulled the exercise to the end regardless of the fall on the second diagonal, I’m proud of that. Given that I’ve been battling a cold and a wrist injury for days, I gave 300% of myself. Now I’m going to rest a bit, this first part of the season was quite tiring and long, and then in about 10 days we turn to preparations for the World Championship that awaits us in Antwerp in the fall, which is also the hunt for the Olympic Games” , said Aurel Benović.
One golden medal remained in Osijek. The current European champion, Ukrainian Illia Kovtun, who has been training and lives in Osijek for more than a year, celebrated at parallel bars with high grade (15,133). The bronze Olympian from Tokyo, Ferhat Arican (Turkey) is silver with 14,966, while the bronze is Brazil’s Caio Souza (14,533).
Gold on pommel horse, as well as silver, are taken by two Armenians – champion Gagik Khachikyan (14,766) and runner-up Artur Davtyan (14,600). Kovtun added bronze on pommel horse to the gold from the parallel bars (14,500).
In the final of the uneven bars, the winner is perhaps the biggest name of the women’s part of the competition in Osijek, Naomi Visser from the Netherlands with a convincing 14.333, ahead of the Australian Gergie Godwin (13.700) and the bronze medalist Slovakian Barbora Mokosova (13.300).
Tomorrow, on the last day of the DOBRO World Cup, which starts at 3 p.m., the hunt for medals will be our Olympic silver medalist and current European champion on horizontal bar Tin Srbić and his two club colleagues Tina Zelčić and Christina Zwicker in the balance beam final.
The live broadcast is also on program of HRT (Croatian national television).
Results: https://dwcosijek.gymscoring.com/live/1/results.html
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Filip Ude the HGS (Croatian gymnastics association) – Lifetime Achievement Award
As part of this year’s DOBRO World Cup, for the third time in a row, Education for licensed coaches and judges of the Croatian Gymnastics Federation, as well as the Annual Assembly of the Croatian Gymnastics Federation, are being held in Osijek. Today, in its introductory part, the Assembly also had a ceremonial part in which awards were given to the best Croatian gymnasts in 2022 as well as their coaches. Ana Đerek (GK Marjan) and Filip Ude (GK MZ Macan) are the best gymnasts in sports gymnastics, Tamara Artić (GK Vindija) is the best senior in rhythmic gymnastics, while in the category of young hopefuls the laureates are Mila Prpić (GK Vita) and Marko Kenđel (GK Petrinja ) in sports and Bianca Ema Gajšak (GK Maksimir) in rhythmic gymnastics. The best coach in women’s sports gymnastics is Miroslav Končarević, who together with Ana Đerek won a double victory in the World Cup (beam and floor) in 2022. Igor Kriajimskii, who last year with Filip Ude was a finalist at the World Championship in Liverpool and the European Championship in Munich, is the best coach in men’s sports gymnastics.
“In September, I will celebrate 30 years since I joined gymnastics. I am proud of this award, but it will not force me into retirement, you will not get rid of me yet”, said Ude with a laugh.
All prizes were presented to the laureates by the State Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Sports and the representative of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia at this competition, Josip Pavić.
“The Ministry of Tourism and Sports cooperates very well with the Croatian Gymnastics Federation, which can be seen in the many competitions that we co-finance. Honestly, as a former athlete, waterpolo player, I am a little envious of the athletes and members of the HGS (Croatian gymnastics association), because this is an Association that has raised the bar very high with its work, results and the increasing number of children in gymnastics,” said Josip Pavić.
