The European Artistic Gymnastics Championships will get underway tomorrow (Wednesday) in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, with the participation of delegations from 38 countries.
In the Israeli national team, in the absence of reigning champion Daria Atamanov, who has not yet returned to competition, after her injury just before the World Championships, the focus will shift in the individual competition to Adi Katz and Daniella Muniz, who will also present exercises on all devices.
The gymnasts of the team in the senior category, who are nominated for one of the medals, include Ofir Shaham, Diana Svertsov, Hadar Friedman, Liza Benchuk, Romi Pritzky and Shani Bekanov. The gymnasts of the team in the junior category are: Elinor Gratz, Yuval Shulman, Meital Sumkin, Anat Schneider, Ksenia Kulik and Shelly Algai.
The championship is important for individual gymnasts, as it is a criterion for this year's World Championships, so the results of the eight qualifying exercises will determine how many gymnasts Israel can send to the World Championships in August. If the team is ranked among the top 12 places when weighting the results of the exercises, Israel will be able to participate in the World Championships with 2-3 gymnasts. If they are not ranked in the top 12, the state can send one gymnast.
The team has already secured its place at the 2023 World Championship, which will be held in August in Valencia, Spain. This follows the achievement at the 2022 World Championships where they were crowned runners-up with a silver medal, which also secured their place at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
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"The Israeli national team began the 2023 competition season with impressive achievements and brought a lot of respect to the State of Israel. We wish the gymnasts and coaches great success at the European Championships and are sure that they will continue to make us proud," said Avi Sagi, Chairman of the Gymnastics Association. "There is no doubt that Israel is on the map when it comes to artistic gymnastics and we prove it time and time again."
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