Dariya made her senior international debut at the 2005 Europeans where she finished 9th in the all-around and won Ukraine’s only medal at the championships, a bronze on the uneven bars. She attended the World Championships in the autumn and competed two apparatus, bars and beam, but did not make any final.
At the 2006 Europeans Dariya finished 5th with her team and 8th on the uneven bars final. At the World Championships Dariya finished 5th again with her team and 22nd in the all-around. Her highest mark in the all-around was in the uneven bars with a 15.600, this was the second highest score (behind Ferrari) of the day in the apparatus. At the World Cup Final, held in December, Zgoba won another bronze on bars.
At the 2007 Europeans Zgoba finished 11th in the all-around, again with the second highest mark of the day on bars (15.575), again behind Ferrari. Dariya who had qualified third into the bars final, won the title with a score of 15.775.
At the World Championships she competed all pieces of apparatus for her team which finished 9th but she did not advance to any individual final. Although Worlds were disappointing for Dariya she collected 7 medals in the World Cup Circuit that year, three were on beam and four were on bars and included a gold earned at the Stuttgart World Cup. She also earned a gold on bars at that year’s Universiade. 2007 was without doubt her best year.
In 2008 she won her third European medal, another bronze on bars. As a part of the Ukrainian Olympic Team, Dariya competed bars and beam during the qualification round and advanced to the bars final. During the final she suffered an unfortunate fall and finished 8th.
In 2009 she participated at the Summer Universiade where the Ukrainian team finished fifth. Individually Dariya finished 5th on bars and won a bronze medal on beam. Later in the year she participated in the World Championships where she only competed beam. Afterwards she struggled with injuries that lead to her official retirement in mid-2011. She got married a year later.
Dariya’s bars had high difficulty and innovative combinations. Here she is winning the European title in 2007.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KscsbiL1-s
Article by: Isabel Iz
Photo Cover: gymbox.net