Armenian Gymnasts Win One Gold and Three Silver in European Championships

BERN — 2015 world pommel horse bronze medalist Herutyun Merdinyan has won gold medal at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Bern with a score of 15,366 points. The win marked the first ever European title for independent Armenia and the first for an Armenian gymnast since Albert Azaryan in 1955. Three other members of the Armenian gymnastics team, Artur Davtyan, Vahagn Davtyan and Artur Avetisyan, became silver medalists.

Artur Davtyan scoring 15,316 points on the vault became a silver medalist. The gold medal was won by Ukraine’s Oleg Vernyaev (15,399).

Vahagn Davtyan scored 15,633 points on still rings and became a European silver medalist. The winner on rings was Greek Petroounisa Eleftherios.

Armenia’s Artur Avetisyan became a silver medalist on the vault in the juniors’ competition scoring 14, 300 points. The first place was taken by Germany’s Nick Klessing (14,358).

The head coach of the Armenian gymnastics team, Hakob Serobyan, spoke about the championship results and the athletes’ achievements calling it a pleasent surprise. “We try to do our best in every tournament but such a number of medals was really unexpected. It was a pleasant surprise. We have the first European champion in gymnastics in the history of independent Armenia.”