Iurii Busse (RUS) and Anastasia Bachynska (UKR) top YOG qualification event

An important competition for Europe’s junior gymnasts born in 2003 (girls) and 2001-2002 (boys) as they had only one chance to grab an entry ticket for their country to the third summer edition of the Youth Olympic Games. 54 boys and 43 girls aimed for Argentina in the Azerbaijani capital Baku where they competed in the splendid National Gymnastics Arena.

Ukraine’s Anastasia Bachynska cruised to victory with the top score on beam and the third score on vault and floor. With a total of 54.299 she had a margin of more than a point over silver medallist Carolann Heduit (FRA) and third-placed Daria Belousova of Russia. Italy’s talented Asia D’Amato posted the top score on vault while European Youth Olympic Festival Champion Ksenia Klimenko was the best on both bars and floor but a disastrous beam exercise, scoring only 9.700, dropped her to seventh place in the all-around.

In the boys’ competition the two Russian participants, Iurii Busse and Sergey Naidin, went head-to-head, posting top 3 scores on respectively 5 and 4 apparatus. Busse proved to be the most consistent, his all-around score of 80.731 beating Naidin’s 80.297 by less than half a point. Third place went to the talented Hungarian Krisztian Balasz who finished 4 tenths ahead of Great Britain’s Adam Tobin.

The first 17 girls, with a limit of 1 per country, secure participation for their country at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires (ARG) from 6 to 18 October 2018. For the boys, the top 16 made it, as Iceland got allocated a spot by the IOC’s Tripartite Commission.

Results

Girls top 8 AA

1. Anastasia Bachynska (UKR) 54.299
2. Carolann Heduit (FRA) 53.266
3. Daria Belousova (RUS) 53.066
4. Asia D’Amato (ITA) 52.832
5. Elisa Iorio (ITA) 51.731
6. Amelie Morgan (GBR) 51.433
7. Ksenia Klimenko (RUS) 50.998
8. Csenge Maria Bacskay (HUN) 50.966

Boys top 8 all-around

1. Iurii Busse (RUS) 80.731
2. Sergei Naidin (RUS) 80.297
3. Krisztian Balasz (HUN) 79.332
4. Adam Tobin (GBR) 78.931
5. Lay Giannini (ITA) 78.531
6. Yumin Abbadini (ITA) 78.465
7. Samad Mammadli (AZE) 77.931
8. Krisztofer Meszaros (HUN) 76.898