KAZAN, July 10 (R-Sport) – Russia’s Aliya Mustafina, who topped the podium four times at the London 2012 Olympics, dominated the field on the final night of artistic gymnastics at the 2013 World University Games Wednesday, winning two medals, including a gold.
An ethnic Tatar, Mustafina was backed by a large, supportive crowd inside Kazan’s Gymnastics Center. She won silver on the balance beam and gold on the uneven bars to bring her Universiade medal haul to four. Earlier in the week, she won golds in the individual all-around and team competitions.
After taking bronze in the floor routine in London, the 18-year-old finished last in Universiade event Wednesday after crashing to the mat when she failed to stick a landing. Russia’s Ksenia Afanaseva picked up the slack with the gold medal. Canada’s Ellie Black took silver and Mexico’s Elsa Rodriguez won bronze.
On the women’s beam, Black, a 17-year-old Halifax native, secured another medal for the Canadians with a bronze behind Mustafina and Chinese gold medalist Yelinzi Zhang.
Elsewhere, the men’s vault podium looked exactly as it did nearly one year ago at the London Olympics as South Korea’s Hak-Seon Yang won gold, followed by silver medalist Denis Ablyazin of Russia and Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov.
In the men’s parallel bars, Russia’s Emin Garibov beat countryman David Belyavskiy by .25 of a point for the gold medal. Oleg Vernyayev took bronze.
