Olympics-Gymnastics-Kovtun narrowly misses nabbing Ukraine's second Games medal

By Karen Braun

PARIS (Reuters) - Ukrainian gymnast Illia Kovtun stoically stood in the corner of the floor exercise mat in Paris’ Bercy Arena waiting to begin his final performance of the evening, one that could bring him the biggest prize of his young life.

The 20-year-old had qualified in 11th place for Wednesday's all-around final, but after five of six apparatus, Kovtun found himself with a very real shot at a medal.

Kovtun posted a huge 14.700 on floor, the day’s second highest on the apparatus, but China’s Xiao Ruoteng nailed his horizontal bar routine to edge Kovtun out of the bronze by a heartbreaking 0.199 point -- thus denying Ukraine a second medal in Paris.

Japan's Shinnosuke Oka edged Zhang Boheng of China for the gold medal by a similarly tight margin.

“Today went well and I made everything possible to have the highest (scores), but the difference was very short,” Kovtun, the owner of four European championships gold medals, told reporters of his fourth-place finish.

But for Kovtun and his teammates, who finished fifth in Monday’s team final, their presence and impact at the Paris Games go beyond their gymnastics careers.

"We come here not only for sport," Ukrainian and twice Olympic medallist Oleg Verniaiev told reporters in Paris last week.

"It's not possible to explain to you what's happening (in my country), you need to come to understand," the 30-year-old, who finished eighth in the all-around, said referring to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"Of course (gymnastics is) our first job but every day in my country, people die, animals die, buildings are broken - sport buildings, civilian buildings."

War-torn Ukraine is fielding their smallest-ever Summer Olympic team in Paris with about 140 athletes, and many of those participants feel a duty to bring pride on their country during the Games.

“We will fight until the end. And now we are fighting in our country until the end. And for all our boys (soldiers). And we try very hard to support them,” Kovtun said.

Kovtun will take part in the floor exercise final and Verniaiev will show on pommel horse, and both of those finals are on Saturday.

Both Ukrainians will appear in the parallel bars final on Monday.

(Additional reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber, Chang-Ran Kim and Rory Carroll, editing by Pritha Sarkar)