Two years after Munich, gymnast De Munck again takes European Championship silver on horse vault

NOS Sports•today, 7:48 PM

Turner Loran de Munck has won European Championship silver in the horse vaulting event for the second time in his career.

Since his silver medal two years ago, De Munck’s performance has deteriorated somewhat, but in Rimini the 24-year-old De Munck showed his class again. A beautiful exercise with a tiny flaw gave him a score of 14.933.

Only the Irishman Rhys McClenaghan, two-time world champion and three-time European champion in this event, did better: 15,300.

De Munck convincingly achieved a second European Championship silver medal on horse vaulting

How difficult horse vaulting is became clear when multiple Olympic, world and European champion Oleg Vernyayev fell off the apparatus early in his exercise.

The Ukrainian – the number two in the all-around final – was the best in the qualifications, but could now immediately put a top ranking out of mind.

The surprising European all-around champion, the Cypriot Marios Georgiou, made no mistake.

In fact, Georgiou increased his starting value by half a point compared to the qualifications and concluded an almost flawless exercise with a broad smile.

In the end, his practice was only good enough for bronze.

However, Georgiou did not come close to the scores of De Munck and McClenaghan. Both will make a bid for Olympic gold in Paris next summer, although the competition from, for example, the United States and Japan will be stiff.

‘Lord of the Rings’ was once Yuri van Gelder’s nickname. That nickname now belongs to the Greek Eleftherios Petrounias, who was the first man to become European champion in the rings section for the seventh time.

He shared the record with the Hungarian Krisztian Berki, who was the best on horseback vaulting six times between 2005 and 2012.

On the floor section, the title went to the British Luke Whitehouse. The 21-year-old Englishman surprisingly won the European title in this event last year, but was certainly not the favorite in Rimini.

That honor went to Ukrainian-born Israeli Artem Dolgopyat, the reigning Olympic and world champion.

In the qualifications, Dolgopyat was almost half a point better than Whitehouse with a top score of 15.200. But in the final Dolgopyat, whose trademark is the stable landing, also proved vulnerable.

After an impressive combination, he stepped one foot outside the lines, was deducted a tenth and that cost him the gold. Whitehouse remained clear and kept the Israeli 0.033 behind him: 14.866 at 14.833.