Athletes to watch at European Gymnastics Championships men’s apparatus finals and team event in Zagreb, Croatia; LA28 Olympic quotas awarded to top teams.
2026 European Gymnastics Championships: Athletes to watch in men’s apparatus finals and team event
2026 European Gymnastics Championships: Athletes to watch in men’s apparatus finals and team event
Day one of the men’s competition in Zagreb decided the all-around medallists but also highlighted those to watch in the upcoming events, including Kovtun, Petrounias and McClenaghan.
The senior all-around medallists have been decided at the 2026 European Championships in Men’s Artistic Gymnastics – but the competition that doubled as the qualification for the apparatus and team finals also showcased the ones to watch in the upcoming days at the Arena Zagreb in Croatia’s capital.
The apparatus finals take place across two days with floor exercise, pommel horse and still rings decided on Friday (21 August) and vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar on Saturday . The team final concludes the championships on the last day of competition on Sunday.
So who are the nations that look likely to be in contention? Which gymnasts could shine on each apparatus?
Olympics.com highlights the not-to-miss routines and showdowns.
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2026 European Gymnastics Championships: Schedule, final results, scores, and medals - full list
Men’s Pommel Horse Final | Artistic Gymnastics | Olympic Games Paris 2024
The Men’s Pommel Horse Final took place at Bercy Arena, France, on 03
- The Bronze medal was won by Stephen Nedoroscik (USA), the Silver medal went to Nariman Kurbanov (KAZ) and the Gold medallist was Ireland’s first ever Olympic Gymnastics champion, Rhys Mc Clenaghan.
European Gymnastics Championships 2026 - who could star in the men’s team final?
World Gymnastics 2 topped the rankings by a hefty 6.832 in qualification and will be hard to beat come Sunday’s final.
The trio who topped the podium last time out, Great Britain , Switzerland and Italy , qualified in the next three positions in what will no doubt be another tussle for podium positions with just half a mark separating all three.
The top eight teams in Zagreb, which also include Belgium , Germany , France and Hungary, will contest the team final, with an additional five – Netherlands, Israel, Spain, Ukraine and Cyprus all also qualifying a team for the World Championships in Rotterdam in October courtesy of their top 13 placing. The top three teams at the Worlds earn a five-athlete quota spot for their nation for the Olympic Games LA28 .
Men’s team final qualifiers for European Gymnastics Championships 2026
European Gymnastics Championships 2026 - who could stand out in the men’s apparatus finals?
Several of the sport’s biggest stars will be in contention for continental titles in the men’s apparatus finals at the European Gymnastics Championships.
Among those is Greece’s Rio 2016 champion on still rings Eleftherios “Lefteris” Petrounias, who noted that he had competed at the same time as two other Olympic champions on their respective apparatus during the qualification competition.
Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan , the reigning Olympic champion on pommel horse from Paris 2024 , and Israel’s Artem Dolgopyat , the Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist on floor exercise, were competing on their respective specialist apparatus at the same time as Petrounias was taking to the rings.
“It was crazy,” Lefteris said to Olympics.com. “I was like, can it at least be one by one because people, and even me as an athlete, I want to see them.”
Each made their respective apparatus finals, and thankfully for Lefteris and fans, the apparatus finals take place one by one.
Another athlete to highlight is Italy’s Gabriele Targhetta , who scored the only mark over 15.000 of the day, with 15.200 on pommel horse to top qualification. The bronze medallist on the apparatus from the last edition of the championships secured a huge 9.300 for execution on a 5.9 difficulty routine. The young Armenian pair of Mamikon Khachatryan and Hamlet Manukyan scored 14.766 and 14.733, respectively, qualifying in second and third.
Latvia’s Dmitrijs Mickevics was just ahead of McClenaghan, with the Irish athlete set to increase his difficulty in the final. Eamon Montgomery also got a shout-out from his Irish team-mate for qualifying for the floor final.
“I just don’t think my start value is high enough on floor to contest for medals here,” McClenaghan told Olympics.com afterwards, explaining his decision to not compete on floor. “My teammate Eamonn has a much better chance. He scored a 14 flat there, which was awesome.”
The Armenian team look increasingly strong, which is particularly significant ahead of the continental championships taking place in the nation’s capital, Yerevan, in 2027. Long-time talisman Artur Davtyan , a two-time Olympic medallist and 2022 world champion on vault, again provided two explosive vaults to top the standings heading into the final, where he’s looking to defend his title against the likes of Olympic bronze medallist on the apparatus from Paris, Harry Hepworth of Great Britain and Ukraine’s two-time world bronze medallist, Nazar Chepurnyi .
All-around champion Illia Kovtun topped the parallel bars standings with the Paris 2024 silver medallist on the apparatus aiming to add a third title to his collection, this time representing Croatia in his first competition since making the switch from Ukraine. Joe Fraser , the 2019 world champion on the apparatus, will also be in the mix, as will Turkiye’s Ferhat Arican , the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist on parallel bars.
Men’s floor exercise final qualifiers
Daniel Marinov (WG2) 14.033 NR
For full results click here .
Men’s pommel horse final qualifiers
Men’s still rings final qualifiers
Score is the average of two vaults.
Artur Davtyan (ARM) 14.716 (14.533, 14.900, 0.1 bonus)
Nazar Chepurnyi (UKR) 14.466 (14.400, 14.533)
Harry Hepworth (GBR) 14.399 (14.533, 14.266)
Arsenii Dukhno (WG2) 14.266 (14.200, 14.333)
Sebastian Sponevik (NOR) 14.250 (14.200, 14.300)
Aleksei Usachev (WG2) 14.183 (14.200, 14.166)
Daniel Marinov (WG2) 14.166 (14.100, 14.233) NR
Mukhammadzhon Iakubov (WG2) 14.099 (14.266, 13.933) NR
Sol Scott (GBR) 14.033 (14.000, 14.066)
Daniel Trifonov (BUL) 14.016 (13.933, 14.100)
For full results see here .
Men’s parallel bars final qualifiers
Men’s horizontal bars final qualifiers
NR indicates that the athlete does not qualify due to two-per-country rule.
How to watch the 2026 European Gymnastics Championships live
You can watch all the action from the women’s and men’s events of senior and junior qualifications and the junior finals on the paid-for gymtv.onlin e. See here for information.
The senior finals on Saturday 15 (women’s apparatus finals), Sunday 16 (women’s team final), Friday 21 (men’s apparatus finals part 1), Saturday 22 (men’s apparatus finals part 2) and Sunday 23 August (men’s team final), in addition to the third
last subdivision of the men’s qualification rounds on Wednesday 19 August, was l ivestreamed via the Eurovision Sports platform .
Additionally, check your local TV listings here . An overview of the TV rights holders of the competitions is available for download here .
Live scoring is also available .