Lefteris Petrounias made history in Rimini.
The 33-year-old Olympic gold medallist in the rings and a legend in the sport around the world won his 7th gold medal at the European Championships in the Italian city.
The Greek performed his program last in the rings final among the eight finalists, scored 15,000 points (degree of difficulty: 6,300, degree of execution: 8,700) and triumphantly returned to the European top!
At the same time, he sent the strongest message ahead of the Paris Olympic Games, as the European competition in Rimini was his first and only official competition this year before the big summer rendezvous.
The silver medal was won by Azeri Nikita Simonov with 14.900 points, edging out last year’s winner, Egyptian-born Turk Adem Asil, who also scored 14.900 points but was third because he had a lower individual execution score.
The 33-year-old “lord of the rings”, who was the top performer in the qualifier on Wednesday (24/04) with 14.966 points, is now the most successful specialist of all time at the European Championships, leaving behind Hungary’s Christian Berky, who won six titles on the side horse between 2005 and 2012.
Prior to this year’s seventh European title, Petrounias’ seventh European title came after a bronze medal on his debut in the event in 2011 in Berlin, then six consecutive wins 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, counting his triumphs at three World Championships (2015, 2017, 2018), the 2015 European Games and of course the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
The ranking of the final
Lefteris Petrounias (Greece) 15,000
Nikita Simonov (Azerbaijan) 14,900
Adem Asil (Turkey) 14,900
Vincenz Heck (Austria) 14,800
Artur Avetisyan (Armenia) 14,800
Courtney Talloch (Great Britain) 14,700
Salvatore Maresca (Italy) 14,566
Ibrahim Cholak (Turkey) 14,500
Petrounias’ medals
2011 Berlin Bronze
2015 Montpellier Gold
2016 Bern Gold
2017 Cluj-Napoca Gold
2018 Glasgow Gold
2021 Basel Gold
2022 Munich Gold
2023 Antalya Bronze
2023 Rimini Gold
