Hakob Serobyan, head coach of the Armenia artistic gymnastics team, summed up the World Gymnastics Championship in Stuttgart, Germany, during a press conference.
“I’m pleased with the first day of the World Championship; we needed to qualify for the final and fight there. There were 205 gymnasts there. Our guys were the last to perform and we had calculated everything. I didn’t take the risk with Artur Davtyan and simplified his exercises because he could fall during the jump and lose the qualification. I made the exercise 2 points easier.
Artur Tovmasyan’s task was to reach the final. He reached it on the 8th position conceding only 0.3 points to the 1st place.
Harutyun Merdinyan did what he had to do but his rivals have grown, besides, the judges were very strict towards everyone. There were even very strong countries that failed to win Olympic qualifications. If Artur Davtyan didn’t do a step in the rings final he would become a world champion, but he did it. Artur’s knee is operated and maybe there is some psychological problem, some fear during the landing,” the coach said.
Speaking about the possibilities to win more qualifications Hakob Serobyan said there were chances but not great.
“The European Championship during which there will be only one qualification, will be held in Baku and we will hardly take part in it and two rounds of theWworld Cup will be held there, too. Though the president of the European Federation has given us security guarantees the fans’ behavior at the stands is unpredictable,” he said.
In the end Hakob Serobyan told that in the Olympic Games Artur Davtyan will participate in the vault exercise. As for his activity as a judge in the Olympic Games there is no clear information yet, it will be known after the World Cup in Germany.