tumbling, tramp, diving, acrobatics, circus, cheer, dance, martial arts, X sports … and more
The Men’s Junior TEAM competition was exciting.
High praise from John Crumlish:
Brits greatest junior team at men’s European Championships
Here’s the post from British Gymnastics:
GB junior men retain European gymnastics title
The junior level is high. Top Juniors often graduate immediately on to their nation’s senior Team.
Click PLAY or watch highlights on YouTube.
Tony Retrosi has worked with Manila for 10 years as a guest coach.
He knows the Gymnastics superstar very well.
Tony wants people to know just how hard she’s worked:
The True Measure of a Gymnast: More Than Looks
She was the gymnast who impressed me most.
At Men’s Europeans, it was AA champ Illia Kovtun who impressed me most.
With both these superstars, I can’t understand how and why they are so good. So consistent in competition.
Manila is very difficult for a judge to deduct. Her movements so fluid. On Beam she shares that kind of quality with Sanne Wevers & others of the Dutch system.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
The top 24 gymnasts (maximum 2 / nation) advance to the All-around Final Sun, Aug 23rd, 2026.
This was my first look at the NEW young gymnasts from Russia. They are already astonishingly good.
The top gymnasts here may well move quickly on to their Senior teams. DUKHNO Arsenii, for example, was World Jr Champion 2025. A year later he was 2nd AA at Senior Europeans.
LEYKIN Danila was 4th at World Juniors last year. He’s already qualified to compete for USA with their senior team in 2026.
The battle between Great Britain and World Gymnastics 2 was a thriller.
Both fantastic, with completely different styles. WG 2 very technical. Skills are done with excellent form and line.
GBR is high energy. The goal to compete the highest difficulty possible. They definitely took risks today. And it paid off.
The most impressive gymnast in subdivision 1 of JR. Men’s European Gymnastics Championships Zagreb was Tomasz Le Khac. 78.698.
Still not strong enough on Rings at age-17. Everything else is world class.
He was 13th AA at Jr Worlds 2025 with 77.432.
Remember the name.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
From European Gymnastics:
Today, the 2026 Men’s European Championships in Artistic Gymnastics got underway in Zagreb, and the opening day certainly lived up to expectations. The battle for the All-Around podium was fierce, with just the finest of margins separating the leading gymnasts.
It was ultimately Illia Kovtun, competing for Croatia at his first major competition, who claimed the top spot with an outstanding performance, scoring 82.833. He also topped the Parallel Bars standings.
Arsenii Dukhno came very close, finishing just 0.001 points behind Kovtun to take the silver medal. Daniel Marinov completed the podium in third place with a score of 81.899.
Congratulations to the medallists!
GOLD – Illia Kovtun (CRO) 82.833
SILVER – Arsenii Dukhno (WG2) 82.832
BRONZE – Daniel Marinov (WG2) 81.899
Two Russians and one Ukrainian standing together on the podium. So far as I could see, the Russian delegation (World Gymnastics 2) made no effort to politicize their return to international Gymnastics.
Rules were in place to avoid unnecessary controversy.
Olympics.com – Illia Kovtun wins men’s all-around title in Zagreb in front of excitable home crowd
Click PLAY or watch Kensley on YouTube.
Read Lauren’s LIVE blog of the final subdivision.
Graphics from Escore10 on Facebook.
The gymnasts from Putin’s dictatorship were very, very impressive.
YES it was a storybook ending for Illia to win in his adopted nation.
YES it was a fantastic performance for Illia who’s not competed for quite a while.
But rejudging those routines MIGHT result in a different ranking. I did feel there was some home score advantage in Zagreb.
Reflect on the past.
