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Sports / Qatar Sport

Former FIG President hails Doha FIG Worlds

Published: 02 Nov 2018 - 12:25 pm | Last Updated: 10 Nov 2021 - 02:00 am
Yuri Titov.

Yuri Titov.

The Peninsula

Doha: The men’s All-around competition at the 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Doha 2018 on Wednesday was so closely fought that the tie-break rule had to be applied to decide the winner.

It threw up a debate and prompted former FIG President, and a former gymnast of repute himself, Yuri Titov to say, “It would’ve been better to give two gold medals!”

Titov laughed as he said that soon after presenting the medals at the prize-presentation ceremony at the Aspire Dome.

The 82-year-old Titov, who is still sprightly, had won gold at the 1956 Olympics in Melbourne with the Soviet team, besides an individual silver medal in horizontal bar, and bronze medals in all-around and vault.

He later won silver and bronze medals at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, and two silver at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

President of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) for 20 years, from 1977 to 1996, Titov stressed that specific rules had been laid for such an eventuality as it happened in the case of Russia’s Artur Dalaloyan and China’s Xiao Ruoteng (both of whom were tied at 87.598 points).

“The tie-break is in the rules which has been voted by the FIG congress and it says in case of a tie, you have go back to the previous apparatus and remove the least score one,” he explained.

Titov said the competition among the men has been intense and close.

“Not so much in the women’s section because the American gymnasts are currently dominating with their skills and performance and deservedly so.

“What I’ve seen along with the world championships coming to the Arab world for the first time is that there has been a progression of the sport especially in men’s gymnastics. Athletes from Turkey, Philippines, Brazil… you name it… have come up by leaps and bounds,” he said.

Welcoming the world championships to Qatar, he said, “It’s been a wonderful organisation and many people among us have come here to an Arabian country for the first time. Even me!

“It’s good and appropriate that the world championships have come to the Arab region as sport should go far and wide. It will now provide a great impetus to the youth of the Arab world as far as gymnastics is concerned,” he added.

Titov has also been a member of International Olympic Committee (1995-1996). He was president of the Russian Artistic Gymnastics Federation from 2004 to 2006.