On August 21, 2022 in Germany, Lefteris Petrounias equaled the performance of Hungarian side horse specialist Christian Berky, who held the absolute record of six titles in the same event (2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012).
And yesterday (26/4) at the European Championships of gymnastics the 33-year-old «golden» Greek Olympic champion managed to do what no other gymnast has done in the 69 years of the institution's history (from 1955 until today).
He became European Champion for 2024 after a great performance in the final of the rings, he won nine medals in the event, including seven (!) gold and two bronze.
The Greek gymnast passed with the best performance from the qualification (14.966 points), in the final he scored 15.000, surpassing his main rival and last year's European champion in Antalya, Adem Asil (Turkey), who scored 14.900 points.
Petrounias was the last to perform his program in the final among the eight finalists, scored 15,000 points (difficulty: 6,300, performance: 8,700) and triumphantly returned to the top of Europe!
At the same time, he sent the strongest message ahead of the Paris Olympic Games, as the European Games in Rimini was his first and only official race this year before the big summer rendezvous.
The silver medal was won by the Azeri Nikita Simonov with 14.900 points, beating last year's winner, Egyptian-born but competing for Turkey, Adem Asil, who also scored 14.900 points but finished third because he had a lower individual performance score.
Prior to this year's seventh European title, Petrounias had won a bronze medal on his debut in 2011 in Berlin, then six consecutive victories in 2015 in Montpellier, 2016 in Bern, 2017 in Cluj, 2018 in Glasgow, 2021 in Basel and 2022 in Munich, as well as another bronze last year in Attalia.
At the same time, he reached a total of twelve gold medals in major events, including his triumphs in three World Championships (2015, 2017, 2018), the 2015 European Games and of course the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
In the other apparatus finals on Friday (26/04), British Luke Whitehouse (14.866 b.) became European champion in floor exercises, ahead of Israeli Artem Dolgopiat (14.833 b.) and Hungarian Christopher Mesaros (14.600 b.).), while in the side horse event, Ireland's Reece McClenahan (15.300 b) won, with the Dutchman Laurent DeMank (14.933 b) second and Cypriot Mario Georgiou (14.800 b) third, who won another medal in Rimini after his triumph in the combined individual event, which was combined with Olympic qualification.
The results in the final of the rings:
1. Lefteris Petrounias (GREECE) 15,000 b.
2. Nikita Simonov (Azerbaijan) 14,900 b.
3. Adem Asil (Turkey) 14,900 b.
4. Artur Avetisyan (Armenia) 14,800 b.
4. Vincents Heck (Austria) 14,800 b.
6. Courtney Talloch (Great Britain) 14,700 b.
7. Salvatore Maresca (Italy) 14,566 b.
8. Ibrahim Cholak (Turkey) 14,500 b.
