Ksenia Afanasyeva has brought Team Russia their second gold at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Tokyo, after coming top in the women’s floor competition.
The 20-year-old produced a result of 15,133 points to leave Sui Lu of China in second, with the bronze going to American gymnast Alexandra Raisman.
“I was preparing myself for this, but still did not expect the judges to give the first place to me,” Ksenia Afanasyeva told RIA Novosti news agency. ”I saw the girls had high scores, and decided that’ll just do my job. And it worked out. I’m stunned and happy.”
“In general, this whole World Championship was very successful for us. In fact, we didn’t expect such a good result. We came here with the idea of just qualifying for the Olympic Games, but after qualifying we saw that we can compete with everybody,” she added.
It is worth mentioning that the coaches were not even planning for Afanasieva to compete in the event as she replaced Viktoria Komova only at the last moment.
Russia have so far grabbed two golds and four silver medals in Tokyo and occupy third place in the medals count.
China are in the lead overall after snatching 12 medals (4 golds, 5 silver, 3 bronze), with the US behind them (4 golds, 3 bronze).