BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 26. We will try to win gold medals in both the team and individual competitions at the upcoming European Championship, Azerbaijani gymnast Mikhail Malkin, who won gold at the World Cup in Baku in the tumbling program, told Trend.
"The final day of the World Cup was not easy. In the first final I planned to make a more difficult combination of elements, but in the end I completed the easier one. The score was good enough to reach the second final. And there was a desire to demonstrate the complex combination of elements with which I became the world champion. But I haven’t done it for a long time, so at first my coach Adil Huseynzadeh and I decided to demonstrate something stable in order to pass “cleanly.” I agreed, but then approached the mentor with the words: “Let's take a risk?!” During the exercise, my teammate Adil Hajizadeh shouted words of encouragement, this also helped me a lot," Malkin noted.
The gymnast admitted that after the qualification, which took place the day before, he and Adil Hajizadeh expected to win gold and silver in the finals, respectively.
"We planned that two athletes from the country would rise to the podium. Now the plan is to continue training, keep in shape, strengthen combinations in order to be fully ready for the European Championship just as I was ready for the World Championship," he added.
To note, the World Cup on trampoline and tumbling took place at the National Gymnastics Arena in Baku from February 23 through 25. A total of 300 gymnasts from 32 countries took part in the competition.