Members of the Armenia gymnastics team Artur Davtyan won a Tokyo 2020 qualification and Artur Tovmasyan qualified for the finals in the rings exercise of the World Gymnastics Championship underway in Stuttgart, Germany.
In a conversation with the ANOC press service, Hakob Serobyan, head coach of the Armenia gymnastics team, spoke about the athletes’ performances.
“As for Artur Davtyan everything was calculated. The countries that had already got qualifications through their teams were out of the competition. We needed Artur to win a qualification in the all-around event. I decided to put the stress not on the vault which was more risky but on the all-around event. Because if he won a qualification both in the all-around and vault event he would lose one of the qualifications, in that case the one of the all-around exercise. There was no point to risk and fulfill a complex jump. In case of a mistake we could have lost everything. I calculated how many points we needed. Artur got the task and fulfilled it wonderfully. A part of the program is already done. We must work hard and prepare for Tokyo 2020, “the specialist said.
Speaking about Artur Tovmasyan, Hakob Serobyan noted he had to be psychologically well-prepared.
“Three of eight participants qualified for the final have already qualifications. Thus Tovmasyan’s work gets easier. He should move ahead of two athletes who don’t have qualifications and here also we will have a qualification. This is, of course, the minimal part of the program. Undoubtedly, a medal would make us happier,” the coach said.
As for Harutyun Merdinyan the coach said that the 35-year-old athlete had been the last to perform,” He failed to fulfill the most difficult part. The important here was to perform the exercise accurately.”
Earlier, Artur Tovmasyan had scored 14,566 points at rings and qualified for the final with the 8th position. The final will take place on October 12.