“I’m really happy knowing that I have a lot of fans in Bangladesh who have been supporting me”, added Mamun in Russian.
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It’s the fifth consecutive win for Russia in this event at Olympics and the third time that Russian gymnasts made one-two finish after 2012 and 2004.
The 20-year-old’s score of 76.483 points saw her finish ahead of compatriot and three-time world champion Yana Kudryavtseva and Ukraine’s Ganna Rizatdinova, the silver and bronze medallists with 75.608 and 73.583 respectively. In the last seconds of Kudryavtseva’s routine, she failed to catch one of her clubs and had to scramble to get her hand on it before the music ended. It was her only error of the night, but it was serious enough to take her out of contention for the gold. She was the top qualifier to the individual all-around with a 74.383 in the qualification round. After a slightly shaky start with the Hoop, it was Rizatdinova who grew stronger as the afternoon went on. Rio was the first Olympics since 1996 that the USA was represented by a rhythmic gymnastics group.
Son, fifth in London, moved up a place in the ranking, a new best-ever finish for a Korean gymnast at the Olympic Games. “Hence I wasn’t really thinking about winning the gold medal today”, the 20-year-old told Reuters. She slumped over and stared at the floor as she waited for her score with the clubs to come up and her misery was complete when 17.833 allowed Mamun to overtake her.
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Twenty years later, the Spanish Group (Sandra Aguilar, Artemi Gavezou, Elena Lopez, Lourdes Mohedano and Alejandra Quereda) shimmied to first place in the qualification round in Rio Saturday, ahead of the Russians, whose team has won every Olympic gold since 2000. But the scores were wiepd clean for the final, and after the first two rotations Kudryavtseva had established herself in the lead.
