Fresh from his successes at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships and at the Baku European Games, 21 year-old Ukrainian gymnast Oleg Vernyayev has turned in another impressive performance, this time at the 2015 Gwangju Summer Universiade student games in South Korea.
Vernyayev, from Donetsk, has so far won six medals – two of them gold.
The gymnast, a hot favorite at the games in the men’s artistic
gymnastics, on July 6 dominated the men’s individual all-round event, which
combines all six men’s apparatus – the floor, pommel horse, rings, vault,
parallel bars and horizontal bar.
In taking the gold, Vernyayev outstripped Japanese silver-medalist Shogo Nonomura by nearly three points. The following day,
he earned his second golden medal on the parallel bars – his favorite event.
But the Ukrainian gymnast wasn’t
done for the day: He also earned bronze for the vault and on the rings – his
first medal on this apparatus, as well as a silver for the floor exercise, which
he said on Facebook had perhaps been his most prized medal.
“I’m happy with my
results,” Vernyayev told the Universiade’s FISU-TV, although he said he
hadn’t done as well as he would have wanted. But coach Gennadiy Sartinskiy was
satisfied with the results, which rounded off Vernyayev’s previous victories
this year at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships – where he won gold
for the all-round and parallel bars, and at the Baku European Games – when he
also won gold for the all-round and vault.
According to Vernyayev, training is the key to his success.
“If you work, things
will go [well]. The more you try, the more you will succeed,” he told German
sports club Cottbus GymCity.
And the young gymnast does indeed work a lot, and has been training since
kindergarten, he says.
“I had too much
energy, so my mum and dad took me [to the gym], and I stayed,” he said,
explaining about how he got into gymnastics. Training first in his native
Donetsk, he then moved to Kyiv.
His efforts have paid off,
if his recent success is anything to go by. Moreover, his coach is continuing
to push him forward to compete more, and win more.
“Whenever we do a
competition, my aim is to win,” Vernyayev said.
In spite of his excellent
results, fame has yet to affect his life, as people don’t even recognize him in
the streets.
“The sport is not
that popular,” Vernyayev said.
Vernyayev also complained that the Ukrainian team lacks the proper equipment for
training. The apparatuses they use are different from the ones used in official
competitions, the Ukrainian gymnast told sports channel Xsport.
Despite the difficulties,
the Ukrainian team at the 2015 Universiade is producing some impressive results,
and as of July 13 was ninth in the medals table, with six gold medals.
The event in South Korea,
which runs until July 14, has this year attracted more than 20,000 participants
from more than 170 countries.
Kyiv Post summer intern Yves Souben can be reached at [email protected].
