Eyes on Georgiou for Olympics horizontal bar final

The Olympic spotlight on Monday is turned the final of the horizontal bar in which Cypriot gymnast, Marios Georgiou, is taking part.

Georgiou qualified for the horizontal bar final on Saturday July 27, and was the first Cypriot athlete from the island’s Olympic delegation to compete. With 14,366 points, the 26-year-old finished eighth in the qualifying event, securing the last ticket to the final and is now an Olympic champion.

“We are not the favourite but in the final I believe in the singles, anything can happen,” Georgiou’s coach Panagiotis Petridis, said.

“Our duty is to go and compete as best we can and then I think we can enjoy this distinction no matter what,” he added.

Georgiou, who belongs to the training team Pentadaktylos Kyrenia, secured qualification for his third participation in the Olympic Games, after participating in 2016 in Rio and in 2021 in Tokyo.

He won the gold medal at the 2024 European Gymnastics Championships in Rimini, Italy, as the European all-around champion. This success, together with the gold medal he won at the European Gymnastics Championships in Munich, in horizontal bar, are the highlights of his career.