Leszek Blanik in action at the 2008 Beijing Games – from:sport.tvp.pl
Article by Giovanni Manenti
Since when China has become part of the Olympic Panorama – i.e. since the 1984 Los Angeles Games – she has rapidly climbed the hierarchies in various Disciplines, including Artistic Gymnastics which currently sees her occupy fourth position in the related “All Time Ranking”, behind only the Soviet Union, the United States and Japan…
Furthermore, its path in the various editions has been fluctuating, going from the 11 Medals with 5 Golds in 1984 – obviously favored by the absence of the Soviet area countries – at just two or four years later in Seoul, and then, after an overall constant performance – 8 laurels in Barcelona 1992, 6 in Atlanta 1996 and 7 in Sydney 2000 – running into an unexpected “flop” ai 2004 Athens Games, where Chinese gymnasts get only one Gold with Teng Haibin in Pommel Horsewhich they combine with three bronzes.
According to many observers, this poor result is to be seen in relation to a plan by the Asian Federation tending to bring the their athletes in top condition for the 2008 Olympic event which will see China host the Games for the first timeaiming above all to train gymnasts for the top step of the podium…
A hypothesis subsequently supported by the outcome of the three editions of the World Championships in the four-year post-Olympic period, which saw China win four medals (2 gold, one silver and one bronze…) at the Melbourne 2005 World Championships, and then eight of its representatives (5 in the men’s field and 3 in the women’s field…) climb exclusively to the top step of the podium the following year in Aarhus, same spoils achieved in 2007 in Stuttgartbut with a different distribution (5 gold, 2 silver and one bronze…).
It is therefore logical to expect a notable performance from the home gymnasts when they have to perform on the platforms of the “Beijing National Indoor Stadium” of the Chinese capital where the artistic gymnastics competitions take place from 9 to 19 August 2008 …
On the inaugural day, the qualifications of the men’s general team competition which, in addition to designating the 8 teams that will take part in the Final on the following 12th August, serve to establish the finalists of the individual specialtieswith the Chinese placing two athletes in the Rings and Pommel Horse, and one in the Free Body, Barre and Parallel Bars, vice versa, failing to qualify any of their representatives in the Vaulting.
This is by virtue of the decision, for the leading man of this tool, i.e Li Xiaopeng – World Champion at the Tianjin 1999, Debrecen 2002 and Anaheim 2003 exhibitions – to give up the second test available to him in qualifying, to concentrate (now 27 years old…) on the Team Competition and the Parallel Bars, where he won the Gold Medal…
The absence, therefore, of the home athlete, favors more than ever a race open to any prediction, even if his favors go to the Romanian Marian Dragulescubronze four years earlier at the 2004 Athens Games and World Champion at the Melbourne 2005 and Aarhus 2006 Games…
To be able to question the superiority of the 28 year old from Bucharest what happened during the 2007 European Championships held in Amsterdam, where he injured his back during his floor exercisepreventing him from participating in the subsequent World Championships in Stuttgart, and then resuming training only a few months before the Games.
Here, therefore, the credentials of the grow Reigning World Champion, the Polish Leszek Blanik, born on 1 March 1977 in Wodzislaw Slaski, a city of over 50 thousand inhabitants located in Silesiaon the border with the Czech Republic, which is therefore offered, now 31 years old, the last opportunity to make his “Olympic Glory” …
Furthermore, for one’s own country, it would be a matter of seeing for the first time one of its representatives climbed to the top step of the podium at the Games in artistic gymnasticswhich moreover Blanik had completed on his Olympic debut in 2000 in Sydney, when the Gold was won by the Spaniard Gustavo Deferr – who we have already discussed – who then confirmed himself four years later in Athens, bringing the Iberian country the only two victories in that Discipline.
A circumstance that also represents hope for Blanik, who, after the reported Olympic bronze, had also made his mark on the occasion of the World Championships in Debrecen 2002 and Melbourne, winning silver in both cases …
In Hungary, preceding him (9.818 to 9.675) was the aforementioned Li Xiaopengwith the then 25-year-old Pole sandwiched between two Chinese, considering the bronze of Yang Wei, whose performance was rated 9.631 by the judges, as well as by the Australian post-Olympic world championships – after Blanik missed the Athens Games – the second position comes between the Gold (9.693 to 9.587) of the remembered Dragulescu and the bronze of his compatriot Alin Jivan.
Finally managed to make it his own the world title in 2007 in Stuttgart, having narrowly prevailed (16.512 to 16.500) over a third Romanian, namely Ilie Daniel PopescuBlanik is training for the Olympics, also winning the Olympics at the beginning of May 2008 European Championships scheduled in Lausanne, having the better (16.562 to 16.400) over the Belarusian Dmitri Kaspiarovich, with Popescu completing the podium…
Continental Review which has, in essence, a repeat three months later in Beijing, given that all eight finalists are Europeanand for the Pole there is the very tempting opportunity of being able – right at the turn of his 30s – to combine a world, European and Olympic title in a single two-year period.
Of the 2007 World Championships they only qualified for the Final the Romanian Flaviusz Koczi and the Spanish Isaac Botellawhile continental finalists reach the final act the silver Kaspiarovich and the Russian Anton Golotsutskov, fourth in Lausannein addition obviously to the returning Dragulescu, who in qualifying he demonstrated that he had fully recovered by recording the best score of 16.762 with a second test even rated 16,900 by the Jury…
The surprise of the qualifiers comes from 22 year old Frenchman Thomas Bouhail, in his Olympic debut, who achieved an average of 16.662 points, preceding Blanik who collected 16.587 from the Jurysame “score” also by Kaspiarovich and Koczi.
Scores are indicative only, given that in the Final which takes place at 7.30pm local time on 18 August 2008, the gymnasts all start again from scratch, with the results made up of the sum of the marks assigned by the Judges with the difficulty coefficient and, therefore, the average of the same between the two tests available…
Furthermore, with 7 of the 8 finalists (with the sole exception of the Spaniard…) proposing exercises with the same difficulty coefficient (7,000) in the first test available to them, here we go Dragulescu presents himself as the most serious candidate for Gold with a performance rated 9.800 for a total of 16.800 and 0.200 thousandths of an advantage over Blanikwho precedes (16.600 to 16.575) Bouhail.
With a serious claim on the top step of the podium, the 28-year-old Romanian – who has never has never won an Olympic Gold, compared to 8 world titles and as many continental ones – is perhaps guilty of presumption, presenting it as a second piece of evidence an exercise with a difficulty coefficient of 7,200 compared to his opponents’ 7,000, resulting in falling during the landing phase and the score of 8.750 obtained brings him to an average, between the two performances, of 16.225 which virtually excludes him from the podium…
This is because Golotsutskov, regular like the vast majority of Russian gymnasts, replicates the score of the first test almost to the hundredth (16.450 compared to 16.500) for an average of 16.475 while the transalpine debutant confirms his place revelation of the Games obtaining the best score in the second series with 16.500, for a total average of 16.537 that only the Polish is able to undermine…
Once on the platform, Blanik – the first to perform a double frontal jump in a pike position, which will take his name – commits a slight indecision in landing, a circumstance which costs him 0.250 thousandths less than Bouhail, thus equaling his overall average of 16.537 but this does not compromise his “Olympic Glory” because, in the event of a tie, the regulation – which had previously seen the award of “double Gold” – predicts that the victory goes to the one who obtained the best mark in the two vaults.
With the fulfillment of every athlete’s career dream, Blanik can rightly abandon the business, still waiting for one of his compatriots to match his featwhile Dragulescu vents his anger to the World Championships in London 2009, where he completed his Palmarès with the two latest world titles Vaulting and Floor Exercise…
And Bouhail…!? Well, he would have plenty of time to redeem himself and, in fact, he makes it his own the world title in Vaulting in 2010 and came close to the podium the following year – in the process stands out in the Continental Reviews of Milan 2009 and Berlin 2011 – except that in December 2011 he suffered a very serious accident while training ahead of the 2012 London Games which forced him to stop training…
But that’s a whole other (bad…) story…
2024-04-08 18:42:21
#BEIJING #GAMES #LESZEK #BLANIK #WINS #NONCHINESE #GOLD #VALLET #SportHistoria
