“His difficulty is very hard, very different from me. He has a very good routine,” said Berki, 27.
“I’m just a 6.9 but I know Louis has a 7.1 or a 7.2,” he said, referring to the difficulty score assigned to each routine in gymnastics.
The higher the score, the trickier the routine – and if nothing goes wrong, the gymnast with the hardest routine wins.
Very few gymnasts other than Smith and Berki are able to attempt pommel horse routines scoring in the region of 7.0 for difficulty.
Asked if Smith’s toughest routine would outrank the hardest Berki can achieve, the Hungarian said: “Maybe. He’s a good gymnast, he works very hard.”
Smith, 23, criticised the judges following his defeat by Berki in Sunday’s European pommel horse final.
Berki’s score of 15.958 beat Smith’s 15.775 after both were awarded a difficulty value of 6.9, Smith having elected to display a ‘safe’ routine rather than his hardest.
But the Huntingdon gymnast felt the judges in Montpellier had awarded Berki a higher difficulty rating than the Hungarian deserved.
Asked what it had taken to beat Smith, Berki said: “I don’t know – today, I’m luckier than Louis. I felt so good.