Debutant Sabrina Maneca-Voinea, 15, claims two Doha artistic gymnastics World Cup gold medals; Illia Kovtun claims fifth consecutive title

It was quite the day for 15-year-old debutant Sabrina Maneca-Voinea who claimed two gold medals on Saturday (4 March) at the International Gymnastics Federation's World Cup in Doha, Qatar. The event, taking place at the Aspire Dome, is the second stop of four on the 2023 World Cup season for artistic gymnastics, with a previous edition in Cottbus, Germany completed 23-26 February.

Friday's event saw medals won on women's balance beam and floor exercise, and men's vault, parallel bars and high bar. Saturday's competition featured women's beam and floor, and men's vault, parallel bars and high bar.

The men's events showcased such quality that they could have been World Championship finals themselves with the gold medallist on vault at Liverpool 2022, Armenia’s Artur Davtyan, continuing that form here in Doha. Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun also continued his astonishing series of consecutive World Cup titles in the parallel bars with a fifth top step.

Doha World Cup – Men's vault final

The reigning men’s vault world champion kicked off the second day of the Doha World Cup with such a spectacular showing that none could catch him.

Armenia’s Artur Davtyan scored an average of 15.083 on his two vaults performed with such beautiful execution that a small hop on landing on his first vault, a Dragulescu – a handspring double front with half turn – scored well even with a step back.

Igor Radivilov placed second, again performing the popular Dragulescu vault, followed by a Tsukahara double pike to achieve a 14.899 average. The Ukrainian clapped the crowd to thank them for their loud cheers.

Crowd favourite and yesterday’s gold medallist on floor exercise, Carlos Yulo of Philippines secured third with a mark of 14.883.

Last week’s silver medallist on the apparatus at Cottbus, Mahdi Olfati of Islamic Republic of Iran over-rotated both his vaults to finish eighth on 13.533.

Doha World Cup – Men's vault final results

1 Artur Davtyan ARM 15.083

2 Igor Radivilov UKR 14.899

3 Carlos Yulo PHI 14.883

4 Shek Wai Hung HKG 14.816

5 Andrey Medvedev ISR 14.666

6 Minami Kazuki JPN 14.633

7 Trinh Hai Khang VIE 14.099

8 Mahdi Olfati IRI 13.533

Doha World Cup – Women's beam final

The Romanians are BACK courtesy of 15-year-old Sabrina Maneca-Voinea who performed a difficulty-filled beam routine, including a round-off layout full twist, landed with a small smile. Maneca-Voinea bounded from the podium to be greeted by her mum and coach, Camelia Voinea, an Olympian famous for her original choreography and difficulty on floor exercise in the 1980s.  

It's been a happy two days for Ukraine’s Anna Lashchevska who bagged gold with the last routine of the women’s bars final yesterday. Today sees a silver medal on beam, with a score of 13.333, which saw the tricky handspring front landed with aplomb.

Emma Malewski of Germany, the top qualifier, finished third (13.233) despite nearly falling after her mount. However, an expressive routine followed from the European beam champion with a confident triple wolf turn mid routine, finished with a simple but clean full twist dismount.

Doha World Cup – Women's beam final results

1 Sabrina Maneca-Voinea ROU 13.766

2 Anna Lashchevska UKR 13.333

3 Emma Malewski GER 13.233

4 Jana Abdelsalam EGY 13.000

5 Hatakeda Chiaki JPN 12.933

6 Coline Devillard FRA 12.600

7 Qiu Qiyuan CHN 12.233

8 Kaia Tanskanen FIN 11.600

Doha World Cup – Men's parallel bars final

And the streak continues. Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun remains unbeatable on parallel bars at FIG World Cup events which he has won for more than a year. An exceptional routine full of difficulty and form, his reward is 14.966 and a fifth consecutive title.

Carlos Yulo, the top qualifier, tried his best to break Kovtun’s winning run but just came up short. To whoops and screams from the crowd, the Filipino performed in front of a backdrop of signs bearing his name and pop-star cheers. His score of 14.933 put him second.

Turkey’s Ferhat Arican (14.733), the Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist on this event, replicated that position here.

Doha World Cup – Men's parallel bars final results

1 Illia Kovtun UKR 14.966

2 Carlos Yulo PHI 14.933

3 Ferhat Arican TUR 14.733

4 Maeda Koki JPN 14.700

5 Andrei Muntean ROU 14.633

6 Milad Karimi KAZ 14.500

7 Dilan Jimenez COL 14.433

8 Adem Asil TUR 14.066

Doha World Cup – Women's floor final

The second gold medal of the day for Sabrina Maneca-Voinea who blew away the field with not only the most difficult routine but the best performed. Into the arms of her waiting mum and coach, herself an Olympic silver medallist for Romania in the team competition at Seoul 1988, Maneca-Voinea junior beamed when her score came up, of 13.600.

Japan’s Hatakeda Chiaki was next closest, on 12.900, after presenting a well-controlled, neat package. Australia’s Breanna Scott rounded out the podium in third (12.800), performing a perfectly straight double layout on the first pass.

Doha World Cup – Women's floor final results

1 Sabrina Maneca-Voinea ROU 13.600

2 Hatakeda Chiaki JPN 12.900

3 Breanna Scott AUS 12.800

4 Dildora Aripova UZB 12.566

5 Ruby Pass AUS 12.433

6 Elina Gravin SWE 12.233

7 Ruby Stacey GBR 12.233

8 Nazanin Teymurova AZE 12.066

Doha World Cup – Men's high bar final

High-flying Japanese, Kamoto Yuya, won the last gold of the competition with a score of 14.333 in an aerial spectacular, pipping Olympic silver medallist Tin Sbric on high bar to end the Doha World Cup.

Croatian Sbric was first up in the competition, scoring 14.300, the second highest score on the apparatus in qualifiers and finals. Top qualifier and two-time Olympian Robert Tvorogal of Lithuania was disappointed to come off the high bar, scoring 13.066 as opposed to his 14.366 in qualification.

Egypt’s Ahmed Elmaraghy is a regular face in high bar finals these days and he makes the podium again with a mark of 13.966.

Doha World Cup – Men's high bar final results

1 Kamoto Yuya JPN 14.333

2 Tin Srbic CRO 14.300

3 Ahmed Elmaraghy EGY 13.966

4 Adem Asil TUR 13.766

5 Illia Kovtun UKR 13.766

6 Milad Karimi KAZ 13.633

7 Robert Tvorogal LTU 13.066

8 Alexander Myakinin ISR 12.366

FIG Apparatus World Cup – what's next?

Two more events make up the 2023 edition of the FIG Apparatus World Cup series, with the 9-12 March event hosted in Baku, Azerbaijan, while the final edition takes place 27-30 April in Cairo, Egypt.