Illia Kovtun wins men’s all-around title in Zagreb; first all-around medal for Croatia
European Gymnastics Championships 2026: Illia Kovtun wins men’s all-around title in Zagreb in front of excitable home crowd
European Gymnastics Championships 2026: Illia Kovtun wins men’s all-around title in Zagreb in front of excitable home crowd
The former Ukraine athlete, now representing Croatia, took the title in the Croatian capital ahead of WG2’s Arsenii Dukhno and Daniel Marinov.
The first day of competition at the European Championships in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics on Wednesday (19 August) saw the home crowd ecstatic to see Illia Kovtun , formerly of Ukraine and representing Croatia for the first time, come away with the men’s all-around title with a score of 82.833.
That score was just 0.001 ahead of World Gymnastics 2’s Arsenii Dukhno, who had competed in the previous subdivision, finishing on a score of 82.832, with his compatriot, Daniel Marinov, rounding out the podium in third on 81.899 after the six apparatus.
The defending champion, Adem Asil of Türkiye, withdrew from the competition on Tuesday, with the Turkish Gymnastics Federation citing “anxiety, particularly during the dismounts”.
A history-making moment for Croatia to win a first ever all-around medal at the European Championships, the Arena Zagreb was hopping throughout courtesy of a group of local school kids, decked out in the iconic red and white checks renowned the sporting world over, who were singing and cheering throughout.
“I’m very happy,” said Kovtun via a Croatian translator. “I cannot believe this. I’m enjoying every second of it. This is my first gold medal in all-around, so I’m quite excited.”
Kovtun, who is a four-time European champion from the team event, horizontal bar and parallel bars, and who is also an Olympic silver medallist from Paris 2024 in the latter, was roared on in his first return to international competition since making the switch to representing the country that has hosted his training for the past few years.
Yet the moment nearly didn’t happen after Kovtun fell on the penultimate apparatus, the pommel horse. The 23-year-old and long-time coach, Iryna Gorbacheva, who has made the switch to Croatia with her charge, didn’t panic with Kovtun saying that it went through his mind that he might have lost out, “but my coach devised a tactic how to win the gold and everything went as planned”.
Quite what that tactic was he didn’t reveal.
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This Artistic Gymnastics session took place at the Bercy Arena, France, on 05
- Gold medal was deserved by Zou Jingyuan (CHN), while Iliá Kovtun (UKR) took the Silver and Shinnosuke Oka (JPN) collected the Bronze.
Seifert, Kirmes, Georgiou and Fraser finish just off the podium
Switzerland’s Noe Seifert , a world bronze medallist in the all-around from 2025, finished fourth on 81.198 with the pommel horse, parallel bars, and horizontal bar his strongest apparatus, all scoring above 13.900 in a consistent series imperative in the all-around event.
Robert Kirmes of Finland finished in a history-making fifth place (80.999) posting on his Instagram stories shortly afterwards, “What just happened 🤯. 5th in Europe.”
Kirmes now has bragging rights over big brother Oskar Kirmes who was the previous best-place finisher for Finland in the event, securing seventh in the men’s all-around at the 2014 European Championships.
Marios Georgiou of Cyprus completed another faultless competition having done the same in Glasgow at the Commonwealth Games two weeks ago to finish just outside the medals in fourth. This time, his 80.932 mark secured sixth place.
“I love the all-around because you spend more time in the arena competing,” said Georgiou who had spent almost two years away from the sport recovering from injury after Paris 2024.
“So this is my second competition, big competition, back and I’m completely happy with my results.”
Great Britain’s Joe Fraser is also making inroads to a return to major competitions and was in the medal positions with two apparatus to go, when errors on floor including in the supremely difficult triple-double somersault, put paid to his efforts. The 2019 world champion on parallel bars, two-time Olympian and 2022 all-around continental champion, finished in a still creditable seventh on 80.889.
The next competition, on Thursday (20 August) sees the junior men take their turn, while the apparatus finals for the seniors take place on Friday and Saturday with the team final concluding the 2026 European Gymnastics Championships on Sunday.
European Gymnastics Championships 2026 Men’s individual all-around final medallists
🥇 Illia Kovtun (CRO) 82.833 🥈 Arsenii Dukhno (WG2) 82.832 🥉 Daniel Marinov (WG2) 81.899
For full results of the men’s all-around see here.