Silver bar: Russians won four medals at the World Gymnastics Championships

The World Gymnastics Championships have ended in Rotterdam. Our national team, left without leaders among women, was unable to win gold. Nevertheless, the Russians have four medals on their account, including in the most prestigious form of the program — the team all-around.

Team competitions

Our men's team of athletic gymnasts arrived in the Netherlands with an optimal composition, but not without adventures. Savely Sredin, Ilya Zaika and Mukhammadjon Yakubov arrived late due to a delay in issuing visas. The leader, Daniel Marinov, had a high fever on the eve of the World Cup and was woefully out of time with his preparations.

Nevertheless, the Russians performed well in qualifying, taking third place.

— It's clear that after two days without sleep and without food, and all this time in flight, it's hard to go out and do the all-around, so I was worried about Savelia Sedina the most. At the same time, we have one fall for the whole team, and this is my fall on the free," Marinov argued on Match TV.

By the final, our athletes had time to recover. And apparently, they didn't waste it.

The Russians competed for medals with three more national teams. And they didn't flinch! Unlike the competitors, the athletes from Great Britain and China had especially many mistakes at the very end. In the end, the Japanese won the gold (251.928 points). Our athletes won silver (250,329), and Chinese athletes won bronze (249,193).

Golden Glow: Russia won nine medals at the European Championships in rhythmic gymnastics

Our national team returned to the continental championship and won the unofficial team competition.

This performance earned us not only a medal, but also a license for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. The teams ranked in the top 3 at this World Cup received tickets to the Games.

Unfortunately, the girls could not achieve the same result. Although we were third in qualifying. Even without the leaders who stayed at home due to visa problems — Angelina Melnikova, Anna Kalmykova and Victoria Listunova — only the powerful teams of China and the United States were higher. Moreover, our team lost less points to the Americans in their optimal composition for today.

However, in the final, the confident performances went somewhere. After several falls and mistakes, the Russians fell back to the sixth position.

— There was an understanding that even in the best case scenario it would be difficult to fight, — head coach Dmitry Andreev confirmed on Match TV. — It seems to me that when the girls finished third in the qualification, they believed that they could claim medals. We began to live with these thoughts, rather than focusing on how to fulfill our programs.

The success of the Grove

In the team all-around, Lyudmila Roshchina fell on uneven bars. But she didn't dwell on that mistake. In the individual all-around, the 18-year-old gymnast immediately showed that she was ready to fight with the strongest: she outlined her claims to a medal already in qualifying, becoming the third after Algerian Kaylia Nemour and American Skye Blakely.

In the final, the fight started anew. Lyudmila performed strongly in the vault and uneven bars, and after two exercises she took second place — Blakely was ahead (28.600), and the closest pursuer, Chinese Ke Qinqin, was 0.433 points behind Roschina.

Projectile out of turn: Russians took silver at the World Cup and qualified for the 2028 Games

Gymnasts became the first representatives of the country to receive tickets to the Olympics in Los Angeles.

As a result, Lyudmila was able to hold her position and took the silver. It became the Russian's first personal podium at the World Championships. A year ago in Jakarta, she finished 11th in the all-around, and in 2026 she already won the European Team Championship.

"She's just a smart girl, she did the impossible," Valentina Rodionenko, a former senior coach of the Russian national gymnastics team, told Izvestia. — That day with the team competition was a lesson, because then she was the first to make a mistake and set a bad tone. I drew conclusions and gathered myself. She could have made a better log, but let's not talk about it. Lyudmila was afraid to fall. She usually makes the log better. It could have been the first place, but nevertheless silver is a great result, and we applaud Lyudmila for that. I've gained a lot of experience.

The drama of the Spirit

In the men's individual all-around, two were close to winning awards at once. In the final, Marinov scored 83.297 points based on the results of six exercises. The Russian was 0.234 points behind the bronze medalist, Briton Joe Fraser.

For Arseny Dukhno, the finale was much more dramatic. Before the final exercise, Arseny was in second place and lost to Japanese Daiki Hashimoto by only 0.101 points. To maintain his position, the Russian had to cope with the crossbar, a projectile on which the Japanese are traditionally very strong.

But at the beginning of the performance, Arseny fell, and then made a few more inaccuracies. As a result, he received 11.566 points for the exercise and dropped to seventh place. What a shame!

Final competitions

The penultimate competition day did not bring any awards: Ilya Zaika, who took fifth place on the rings, was the closest to the medal.

And already on Sunday, October 25, the results improved significantly. At first, Dukhno got very close to the bronze medal: he ended up in fourth position, losing 0.016 points in the vault to Sebastian Sponevik from Slovakia. Arseny finished only sixth on the uneven bars. But it was in this discipline that Russia won another medal: Marinov completed his program cleanly and took third place. Daniel scored 14,866 points, losing only to Croatian Ilya Kovtun (15,733) and Chinese Jingyuan Zou (14,900).

His award was not the last. Soon Sergey Naidin became the bronze medalist on the crossbar (14,800). Only Japanese Shinnosuke Oka (14,800) and Taiwanese Tan Jiahong (14,966) were higher.

As for women, Roshchina, unfortunately, has not been able to consolidate her success in the individual all-around. In the floor exercise final, Lyudmila took only seventh place, scoring 13,100 points.