Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2019 | Day 3 as it happened

Welcome to the Olympic Channel's blog coverage of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2019 in Stuttgart, Germany, bringing you all the latest news, videos, and updates.

Defending all-around world champion Artur Dalaloyan and hot favourite European champion Nikita Nagornyy finished in second and first place respectively in the all-around after Russia's sub-division, with Russia also leading the team standings.

While you're here, you may want to check out yesterday's blog.

You can also watch the Championships on Olympic Channel (starting on Tuesday 8 October), subject to territorial restrictions. Click the link below to find out if there is coverage in your area.

All times below are Central European Summer Time (UTC+2 hours). Please refresh the page for updates (most recent entries first).

7:55 pm – That's it from us

That's where we'll have to leave our coverage of the first day of men's qualification today.

We're in for a bumper day tomorrow with USA, Japan, China, and Great Britain all in action.

Until then, good evening from Stuttgart!

7:23 pm – Only time for a photo…

Unfortunately, Russia haven't stopped for interviews with non-Russian-language media in the mixed zone.

They did pose for a photo, though…

7:11 pm – Russia lead team standings

Unsurprisingly, Russia's strong performance in that sub-division has pushed them top of the team standings, nearly 9.9 points ahead of Chinese Taipei.

Brazil and Germany are among the teams coming up in the next sub, at 7:30 pm.

6:59 pm – Russia one-two on all-around standings

Nikita Nagornyy leads Russia off on horizontal bar, their final apparatus, and sticks his landing for 14.300, good for second behind Chinese Taipei's Tang Chia-hung. 87.333 all-around total for the Nagornyy, who's in first overall.

Dalaloyan, fourth up, has the crowd holding their breath on a few of his elements, with audible sighs as he catches the bar each time. He looks pretty happy with that as he lands, clapping his hands. 14.433 for him on high bar, that moves him ahead of Nagornyy on the apparatus and sits him second on 86.531 overall behind his team-mate.

6:30 pm – Rings champ into second

Eleftherios Petrounias, the Rio 2016 Olympic and three-time defending world champion on the still rings, scores 14.700 for his qualification.

It's only good for second place, behind France's Samir Aït Saïd, who broke his leg in Rio.

Both men are level on 14.700, but Aït Saïd has a higher execution score by 0.100 – the tiebreaker.

6:26 pm – Nagornyy posts 14.800 on parallel bars despite error

Nikita Nagornyy had to fight his way through his parallel bars routine where he nearly came to grief on a healy and then struggled on the way up on his Peach 1/2. Despite the issues, he earned a 14.800 on the event.

6:05 pm – Dalaloyan into first on vault

A huge first vault from Artur Dalaloyan nabs him a score of 15.133, the first man to score over 15.

His second vault ends with three steps back but still good for 14.300 and an average of 14.716.

Russia extends its lead in the team standings to 6.368 after four rotations.

5:47 pm – USA line-ups

Team USA goes tomorrow, but has announced the line-ups for each apparatus.

5:36 pm – Dalaloyan stumbles

Not a huge error but Dalaloyan had several steps backward on the landing of his tucked, double-double dismount off the still rings. He still earned a 14.133 for his routine, which is the fifth best score so far in qualifying.

Russia are 3.234 points clear of Chinese Taipei after three of six rotations in team qualifying.

5:35 pm – Show of friendship

Colombian Manuel Martínez, who fell on his parallel bars dismount, got up quickly and gave fellow Latin American Abellino Rubio of Guatemala – following him – a hand tap as they swapped over.

5:14 pm – Russia goes 4-for-4 on pommel horse

The Russian men are safely through pommel horse with all four men staying on the apparatus. Nagornyy had a slight form issue on a single-pommel spindle but recovered well. Dalaloyan fought hard toward the end of his routine during his Magyar-Sivado sequence and, like Nagornyy, managed to save it.

Their scores were: Ivan Stretovich 13.733; Nagornyy 14.033; David Belyavskiy 14.633; and Dalaloyan 13.366.

5:05 pm – YMCA gets the crowd going

The gymnasts have just rotated, and we had a blast of that old Village People classic YMCA to get the crowd going in the arena.

Slowly but surely, more fans are streaming in ahead of hosts Germany competing tonight in the sub-division following this.

4:47 pm – Russia's one-two punch is off and running

The Russian men bring reigning World all-around champion Artur Dalaloyan and 2019 European all-around champion Nikita Nagornyy to Stuttgart ready to challenge for their first team gold medal since the Soviet Union won in 1991. Nagornyy earned a 14.900 on floor exercise, while Dalaloyan posted a 14.733.

Nagornyy boomed a massive triple back tumble to open his routine, while Dalaloyan showed precision through three combination passes to open. He had seemed to struggle with the timing last week during his official training.

Russia choosing to only enter three men on floor.

4:40 pm – Qualification rules

The top eight teams after the two days of qualification will reach the team final.

Additionally, aside from last year's three team medallists China, Russia, and Japan, the next nine best teams will qualify for Tokyo 2020.

The top 24 gymnasts in the all-around will qualify for the final, with a maximum of two athletes per country.

Aside from the 12 countries that qualify a full team to Tokyo, the next 12 best athletes in qualification will also book their spots to Tokyo (maximum one per country).

The top eight on each apparatus will qualify for the event finals here, again with a maximum of two per country.

4:28 pm – Almost ready to go

We're waiting for the gymnasts to be introduced. We've just had a rendition of the Championships' theme song, Set New Signs, in the arena.

It's a catchy little number.

There's a good crowd in here although certainly not as packed as it was last night for Simone Biles.

4:05 pm – Friendships and rivalries

Russia's Artur Dalaloyan and Nikita Nagornyy are both hot favourites for the world title this week.

But they say they don't want to be considered rivals, even if there is a competitive rivalry.

3:50 pm – Nigeria's Uche Eke with a point to prove

Uche Eke has some story.

The U.S.-born gymnast is here in Stuttgart representing Nigeria.

Hear why he's always wanted to visit Tokyo, and how Hurricane Katrina in 2005 affected his gymnastics future as a boy.

3:30 pm

The German weather hasn't relented this weekend and it's raining again in Stuttgart, but the show must go on so we're here at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle for the start of men's qualification.

All eyes are on Russia today as they are the star attraction of sub-division 3, which begins in around an hour.