Led by reigning European champ David Belyavskiy, double Olympic medalist Denis Ablyazin and newly nationalized citizen Nikolai Kuksenkov, the Russian men romped the competition to win the team gold medal on the second day of competition at the 2013 Universiade, giving the host nation both team titles.
The dominance of the Russians, which have sent their A-teams to Kazan, isn’t wholly surprising given the overall international level at this meet, but it doesn’t make their overall performance any less impressive. As a dry run for the World Championships in Antwerp, it basically couldn’t have gone better for a team hungry for redemption after finishing a disappointing sixth as a team last summer in London. Russia hit and hit and hit, tallying 273.15 points to win the gold over Ukraine, which scored 269.95 points.
But the meet was also a success for Ukraine. The Ukrainian men, like the Russians, sent brought their A-game in the form of European bronze medalist Oleg Verniaiev, European p-bars champion Oleg Stepko and Euro rings gold medalist Igor Radivilov. While they didn’t quite measure up to the Russians, especially on Russian territory, the Ukrainian men signalled that they will be a force to contend with in Antwerp this fall.
