MONTPELLIER (France), May 28: Aleksandr Balandin and Emin Garibov claimed two gold medals for Russia on the final day of the European men’s gymnastics championships here on Sunday.

A day after having to settle for silver behind Britain, who took their first ever international team title, rising 22-year-old star Balandin won gold on the rings while Garibov took the horizontal bar title.

Hungary’s Krizstian Berki, the reigning two-time world champion, won the pommel horse for a sixth European title, ahead of British rival Louis Smith, who helped his team to gold on Saturday.

Romanian Flavius Koczi lost his title on floor but took vault gold, with Greece’s Eleftherios Kosmidis, the 2010 world champion on floor, taking gold in that discipline.

It was a disappointing championships however for Germany and their star Philipp Boy, with the two-time world silver medallist going home without a medal after falling twice off the horizontal bar in the final.

Marcel NGuyen gave Germany gold on the parallel bars after the defending champions finished sixth in the team event.

Results: Team event: 1. Great Britain 266.296 pts (Louis Smith, Daniel Purvis, Kristian Thomas, Ruslan Panteleymonov, Max Whitlock); 2. Russia 265.535; 3. Romania 261.319.

Men’s: Apparatus finals: Floor: 1. Eleftherios Kosmidis (GRE) 15.766 pts; 2. Dzmitry Barkalau (BLR) 15.300; 3. Alexander Shatilov (ISR) 15.166.

Horizontal bar: 1. Emin Garibov (RUS) 15.833; 2. Marijo Moznik (CRO) 15.566; 3. Vlasios Maras (GRE) 15.266.

Parallel bar: 1. Marcel Nguyen (GER) 15.766 points; 2. Oleg Verniaiev (UKR) 15.666; 3. Mitja Petkovsek (SLO) 15.600.

Vault: 1. Flavius Koczi (ROM) 16.116 pts; 2. Igor Radivilov (UKR) 16.066; 3. Denis Abyazin (RUS) 16.062.

Rings: 1. Aleksandr Balandin (RUS) 15.666 pts; 2. Matteo Morandi (ITA) 15.466; 3. Denis Abyazin (RUS) 15.433.

Pommel horse: 1. Krisztian Berki (HUN) 15.958 pts; 2. Louis Smith (GBR) 15.775; 3. Harutyum Merdinyan (ARM) 15.300.—AFP

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