Planned performances at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antalya have been cancelled out of respect for victims of February's earthquake in Turkey ©UEG

Events planned around this year's European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antalya, including the performance of the event's mascot Luigi, has been abandoned out of respect for the victims of the massive earthquake in Turkey in February which has so far left 50,000 people dead. 

European Gymnastics (UEG) have also announced that entry to Antalya’s Sports Hall will be free throughout the competition, which is due to begin tomorrow and conclude on Sunday (April 16).

The UEG announced that, "we’ll focus on the sports event itself" and "any additional entertainment has been cancelled".

As well as the earthquake on February 6, leaving 50,399 people in Turkey dead, more than 100,000 have been injured and tens of thousands left homeless. 

In the competition, Italy will be looking to defend their overall title, despite missing one of last year's gold medallists, Asia D'Amato, who is out with an injury.

Last year's second-placed team Great Britain will look to improve upon their position but are also missing a key member as the defending all-around and parallel bars champion Joe Fraser recovers from a hectic 2022. 

Britain's hopes of improving upon their silver medal at last year's European Artistic Gymnastics Championships will be boosted by the return of three-time Olympic gold medallist Max Whitlock for the first time since Tokyo 2020 ©Getty Images
Britain's hopes of improving upon their silver medal at last year's European Artistic Gymnastics Championships will be boosted by the return of three-time Olympic gold medallist Max Whitlock for the first time since Tokyo 2020 ©Getty Images

Germany, third on home soil in Munich last year, will be looking to outperform themselves in Antalya.

They will be looking for inspiration from Emma Malewski, winner of the women's balance beam gold medal last year, and Elisabeth Seitz, gold medallist in the women's uneven bars.

From the 10 champions at the apparatus finals in 2022, only two are missing in this year's event, Fraser and Cyrus high-bar star Marios Georgiou.

Some other athletes set to attract headlines will be Britain's Olympic three-time gold medallist Max Whitlock, returning for the first time since Tokyo 2020 to perform in the pommel horse event as he eyes Paris 2024.

Becky Downie, also of Great Britain, will be returning to perform in the uneven bars, as she looks to add to her world title in 2019.

Nina Derwael, the Belgian who beat Downie to the European Championships gold medal in 2019, will also be competing.

Four-time European gold medallist Igor Radivilov of Ukraine will be looking to add another one in the vault event, as he rivals Armenia's Artur Davtyan, who won the world title last year.

Italy's Giorgia Villa, a three-time Summer Youth Olympic Games gold medallist, returns from her ankle injury as she looks to book a place at Paris 2024 after missing Tokyo 2020.

The results of both the men’s and women’s qualifying competition will determine the Team European Artistic Gymnastics champions.

The three best scores on each apparatus are added together to make the total score for the team.