Dalaloyan Brilliant in Euros Qualifications

Our national champion, Artur Dalaloyan, showed up and showed out for the men's qualifications yesterday. He hit all six of his routines and is sitting in second less than eight tenths behind Oleg Verniaiev in the AA. There's also some good distance between him and the other six Top 8 qualifiers but, as you know, he'll have to do it again in finals for it to really matter. The two highlights for me personally were his p-bars and vault. On PB, his body lines are shown off to full effect, and the only blip to the routine came at the end with a controlled but big step on the dismount. On vault he nailed his two vaults, the roche and the yurchenko triple, for a pleasantly surprising top three finish to qualify for that vault final. I think his medal chances depend entirely on himself since he can get crazy with the roche and is known to over rotate it and roll out. But other than that, he shows beautiful leg form on both vaults and is capable of standing them up with ease when he's having a good day. First place qualifiers, Dragelescu and Radivilov, have their own consistency issues with their difficult vaults, so the door's not necessarily closed to Artur even if Verniaiev improve in finals. Dmitrii Lankin also tried to make the vt ef but a bad landing on the first vault kept him two tenths out of the final.

Top 8 all-around 

1. VERNIAIEV Oleg (UKR) 85.966
2. DALALOYAN Artur (RUS) 85.198
3. HALL James (GBR) 84.473
4. HEGI Oliver (SUI) 84.297
5. ARICAN Ferhat (TUR) 82.631
6. IGNATYEV Nikita (RUS) 82.498
7. YUSOF Eddy (SUI) 82.482
8. DAVTYAN Artur (ARM) 82.132

At least one Russian qualified into each final. On pommel horse, David Belyavskiy handled the pressure of one of his weaker events very well, scoring an amazing 15.0 on the apparatus, only two tenths behind Olympic legend Krisztian Berki. David made the Olympic finals on this apparatus and I'm ecstatic that he looks so terrific and up to form. In fact, he has the highest difficulty so excuse what I said about him being weak, he's just terribly unpredicable. 

1. BERKI Krisztian (HUN) 15.200
2. BELYAVSKIY David (RUS) 15.000
3. BERTONCELJ Saso (SLO) 14.733
4. MERDINYAN Harutyun (ARM) 14.700
5. HEGI Oliver (SUI) 14.633
6. SELIGMAN Robert (CRO) 14.433
7. VERNIAIEV Oleg (UKR) 14.433
8. ARICAN Ferhat (TUR) 14.366

On floor, Dmitrii Lankin successfully landed his liukin (a triple somersault) for a fourth place finisher with 14.433. His landings were a problem though. Very skittish, but the difficulty of the routine is not overwhelming him so it's something he can clean up on. A lot of tenths out there, Dmitrii, a lot of tenths.

1. ZAPATA Rayderley Miguel (ESP) 14.800
2. DRAGULESCU Marian (ROU) 14.666
3. SHATILOV Alexander (ISR) 14.466
4. LANKIN Dmitrii (RUS) 14.433
5. VERNIAIEV Oleg (UKR) 14.400
6. DOLGOPYAT Artem (ISR) 14.391
7. BULAUSKI Pavel (BLR) 14.333
8. CUNNINGHAM Dominick (GBR) 14.333

Lankin continued his success on rings, qualifying in sixth and placing ahead of well known specialist, Ibrahim Colak of Turkey. The scores are just as tightly packed in the parallel bars final, where Olympic and World medalists will clash against some other worthies: Olympic champion, Oleg Verniaiev, will be hoping to give a better performance in the final as will David Belyavskiy (Olympic bronze medalist), both of whom tied each other and lost marks for not holding their positions for the standard two seconds. Form wise, they were their normal standard of excellent. I didn't expect to see Nagorny in this final, but since it's not an event he's competitive in, I hope he can just give his best effort and continue to build his consistency since it will eventually count for AA (which he's not doing here). The high bar was the most disappointing event for me. I don't think men are good on this apparatus anymore? David survived his routine but a 14.266 doesn't exactly cry for attention. Then you realize he's in second with that 14.266 and say woohoo! It's actually good for me to see this because I hadn't realized how weak the field was in HB, as it'll matter for our boys next year when they have the team event. I thought Russia was some singular headcasey team but apparently no one's good at swinging anymore so if we survive the event not too much damage will be done (at the European level anyways). 

High Bar

1. HEGI Oliver (SUI) 14.466
2. BELYAVSKIY David (RUS) 14.266
3. HALL James (GBR) 14.200
4. KOVACEVIC Anton (CRO) 14.166
5. BRAEGGER Pablo (SUI) 14.166
6. BOULET Edgar (FRA) 14.133
7. DEURLOO Bart (NED) 13.866
8. VERNIAIEV Oleg (UKR) 13.733

Rings

1. PETROUNIAS Eleftherios (GRE) 15.366
2. TOVMASYAN Artur (ARM) 15.033
3. TULLOCH Courtney (GBR) 14.933
4. DAVTYAN Vahagn (ARM) 14.866
5. RADIVILOV Igor (UKR) 14.833
6. LANKIN Dmitrii (RUS) 14.766
7. COLAK Ibrahim (TUR) 14.733
8. KONSTANTINIDIS Konstantinos (GRE) 14.700

Parallel Bars

1. NGUYEN Marcel (GER) 15.166
2. ARICAN Ferhat (TUR) 15.133
3. DAUSER Lukas (GER) 15.100
4. VERNIAIEV Oleg (UKR) 14.900
5. BELYAVSKIY David (RUS) 14.900
6. YUSOF Eddy (SUI) 14.500
7. NAGORNYY Nikita (RUS) 14.475
8. HEGI Oliver (SUI) 14.466

Full results can be found here.