Olympic champion Eleftherios (Lefteris) Petrounias took silver in the Rotterdam rings final on Saturday 24 October, scoring 14.333 with a flawless routine at the 54th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.
The 35-year-old finished behind China’s Lan Xingyu, who scored 14.766 and claimed his first world title on the apparatus.
Armenia’s Artur Avetisyan completed the podium with 14.233. The Greek gymnast won Olympic gold on the same apparatus at Rio 2016.
For Petrounias, it is a fifth medal at a world championship and his second silver, after Antwerp in 2023. He also won world gold in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
How the Rotterdam rings final unfolded
Petrounias had barely qualified, reaching the Rotterdam rings final in eighth place because of a poor dismount. Still, he showed his class and experience once again when it mattered.
His 14.333 also put him ahead of Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka, who placed fourth with 14.133. Russia’s Ilia Zaika finished fifth on 14.100.
Turkey’s Mehmet Ayberk Koşak came sixth with 13.800, while Great Britain’s Courtney Tulloch placed seventh on 13.366. Glen Cuyle of Belgium rounded out the eight-man field with 12.833.
The men’s competition closes on Sunday 25 October with the vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar finals.
Results from every session sit with the International Gymnastics Federation and the championship organisers.
A growing medal collection
The silver adds to a collection that already includes his 11th European Championship medal, a bronze in Zagreb in August, and a World Cup gold in April.
In Zagreb, Avetisyan and Zaika had both edged him. This time, however, both men finished behind him in the Rotterdam rings final.
Petrounias has now won world medals in 2015, 2017, 2018, 2023 and 2026. Only Lan stopped him from a fourth world gold.
(Source: ERT News)
