The current European champion pulled himself out of an incredible situation during the exercise after his buckle grips came off and instead of getting off the apparatus, he repaired it and did the exercise to the end, which many compared to Janica’s ride on Sljemen without a pole.
Croatia won two bronze medals on the last day of the 14th edition of the World Cup in Gymnastics – GOOD World Cup Osijek! Tin Srbić stood on the horizontal bar podium, and his club colleague Tina Zelčić is third on balance beam!
In the incredible atmosphere in the Gradski vrt sports hall, the gymnastics spectacle was watched live today by the President of the Republic of Croatia Zoran Milanović, the President of the World Gymnastics Federation Morinari Watanabe, the first man of the Croatian Olympic Committee Zlatko Mateša, the Secretary General of the Croatian Olympic Committee Siniša Krajač, the representative of the President of the Parliament Hrvoje Šimić, and numerous other guests.
Current Olympic silver medalist and newly minted European champion Tin Srbić lit up the City Garden with an incredibly brave exercise during which an unusual situation happened to him – the buckle grips came off, which he managed to fix during the permormance and “survive” the exercise to the end. That courage led him to bronze with a score of 14.166. Brazilian Caio Souza (14,300) won gold, his countryman, former world champion Arthur Mariano, won silver with the same rating as Tin. This is Tin’s 22nd medal in the 29th World Cup final in his career.
“My seventh final here, sixth medal and second bronze. I’m very happy with how it turned out in the end. In the middle of the exercise, I made a big mistake on the Kolman element, I got too close to the bar, my buckle grip got untangled, not all the way, half way through, and it’s really hard mentally. I couldn’t think about the rest of the exercise, just how to fix it. I was taught that when that happens, I get off the apparatus because it’s dangerous. I couldn’t go down there. I could, but I wanted to make it to the end,” said Tin Srbić after an extremely risky performance in Osijek.
“I fought until the end. I had no choice in front of this incredible audience, I could not give up in front of the president of Croatia. I didn’t want to disappoint them. I wanted to show everyone that you should fight to the end no matter what. And regardless of the fact that I may have been the main favorite for the gold in this final, it is always important to fight to the end. Every medal is good, every outcome and fight like this is important not only for sport but also for life. I learn a lot from each of my performances, so I learned from this one as well. I am happy that this first part of the season ended like this”.
Many later commented that he managed to pull this off like Janica Kostelić in that incredible ride on Sljemen without a pole.
“I’m glad that at least in that context I’m associated with Janica even though I’m not on her level yet. Hers was a little more painful than mine though. Mine was mentally exhausting because I didn’t know if I would land from the bar or not. It was very dangerous. Here, I tried the exercise that I will do in the fall at the World Championship, I just need to train a lot”.
After the podium, Tin had a short talk with President Milanović.
“He said that this is a sport that is fascinating to people, to him and to everyone else, he said that few people in the world can do what we do. He said that he was glad that the sports hall was full, that he came to see us because it was relaxing for him. I’m glad he came and enjoyed himself”.
Bronze medalist Tina Zelčić took care of the double Croatian podium in Osijek and her second in her career, after the silver two weeks ago in Varna. In the final, in which we had two national team members, Tina shared the 3rd place with Naomi Visser from the Netherlands (12.666, start 4.6), and with the same score, but start 4.7, Christina Zwicker was fifth. Australian Georgia Godwin (13,900) won gold, and Slovakian Barbora Mokosova (12,700) won silver.
“I am very happy. This is my first final in Osijek. I know that the performance was not like in the qualifications, two days ago I performed the exercise much better, I had one leg lift for a deduction of 0.5 for sure, it was uncertain until the end. There were three identical final scores, 12,666. I feel sorry for Christina, it would be great if she was on the podium too. Two weeks ago in Varna, I won my first medal, it was my big wish, and here my goal was to enter the final. Just to feel that great atmosphere, incredible audience. This is one of the best World Cups and I end up winning bronze. Perfectly. The fans were great, and we are especially glad that President Milanović watched us live,” said Tina Zelčić.
Christina Zwicker, just like two years ago, finished in 5th place in the final in Osijek.
“For the first time in my life, I have a “wooden medal”, a step to the podium, and I guess you have to feel that once. The grade was the same as the bronze girls, but because of my higher starting grade, I ended up below them. Nothing, there will be a short rest, and then preparations for the WC, which for me will also be qualification for the Olympic Games. I hope to see you next year in Paris”, wished Christina Zwicker.
The current world and European champion and Olympic bronze medalist, Armenian Artur Davtyan (15,033) won the gold in the men’s vault, and his colleague from the national team Artur Avetisyan (14,666) won the gold on the rings. After yesterday’s gold on the vault, today the Australian Georgia Godwin added the one on the floor (13,400).
In today’s World Cup final in Osijek, the first man of FIG, Morinari Watanabe, also enjoyed the third time.
“I enjoyed it and I am always surprised by what I see. I have visited many competitions and rarely any gymnastics competition has the honor of having the president of the country come and watch the competition. I’m really surprised with that. Your president revealed to me himself that he is a big fan of gymnastics and sports. Whoever I talk to in the world of gymnastics tells me that the competition in Croatia and Osijek is truly fantastic. You have become very famous in the world. You are welcoming and hospitable to everyone and everyone is talking about this competition. I like to come to Croatia often because the president of the Croatian Gymnastics Association, Marijo, is like my younger brother. I really respect what he does in his country for gymnastics,” Watanabe said and promised to come to Osijek again.
“I heard and saw that the city is being renovated a lot, that a new hospital is being built, that a new sports stadium will be opened. This is a very nice place and I want to see what has been built”.
Results: https://dwcosijek.gymscoring.com/live/1/results.html
