The first day of finals at the Apparatus World Cup in Qatar saw gymnasts from five different nations claim gold medals, with a high calibre field, including world and Olympic champions, going head to head.
(2022 Getty Images)
The 2019 world floor exercise champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines and Tokyo 2020 Olympic gold medallist Liu Yang, cruised to gold on Friday (3 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 vault and uneven bars, and men's floor, pommel horse and still rings. On the second day of finals, Saturday 4 March, women complete the event with competitions on beam and floor exercise, while men perform on vault, parallel bars and the always eventful high bar.
Fan favourite Yulo started off the FIG Doha Apparatus World Cup with a bang, claiming the floor exercise title with his trademark explosive routine. The 2019 world champion on the apparatus scored 14.833, a huge 0.6 marks ahead of his nearest challenger, the twisting dynamo from Japan, Minami Kazuki (14.200).
The 2021 world floor silver medallist performed a rare 2.5 twisting double tuck, punching the air with delight on finishing his routine, which concluded with a beautifully landed triple twist.
Luke Whitehouse of Great Britain performed a sensational triple back somersault that brought gasps from the crowd, to help him to third with a score of 13.966.
1 Carlos Yulo, PHI 14.833
2 Minami Kazuki, JPN 14.200
3 Luke Whitehouse, GBR 13.966
4 Adem Asil, TUR 13.900
5 Sugino Takaaki, JPN 13.833
6 Nicolau Mir, ESP 13.400
7 Kim Wanström, SWE 13.366
8 Chen Zhilong, CHN 12.566
Coline Devillard emulated Yulo’s explosive start with sky-high vaults beautifully performed to secure a 9.0 execution mark on both to leave the French world bronze medallist on the apparatus with an average score of 13.800 to claim the Doha title.
Denmark’s Camille Rasmussen, a 2019 European Youth Olympic Festival competitor, raised her game since the qualifiers, scoring an average of 13.333 for her two vaults, almost half a mark more than two days ago, where she qualified in fifth with 12.866.
Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovitina, 47, replicated her bronze medal on the apparatus from the Cottbus edition, with a mark of 12.916.
1 Coline Devillard, FRA 13.800
2 Camille Rasmussen, DEN 13.333
3 Oksana Chusovitina, UZB 12.916
4 Patricie Makovickova, CZE 12.599
5 Sabrina Voinea, ROU 12.466
6 Agata Vostruchovaite, LTU 12.399
7 Ruby Stacey, GBR 12.083
8 Darya Yassinskaya, KAZ 11.783
Reigning world champion Rhys McClenaghan stepped up first to compete on pommel horse having qualified in third place. This time, a super clean routine laid down the marker for the following seven gymnasts, scoring 15.033. But the Team Ireland gymnast, who has his eyes firmly set on gold at Paris 2024, was beaten to the top spot by Nariman Kurbanov with an eye-popping score of 15.400.
The Kazakhstani, who came fourth to McClenaghan’s first at the 2022 World Championships in Liverpool in November, delivered a beautiful, hugely difficult routine with a 6.6 D-score, which resulted in a beaming smile from his coach.
Shiao Yu-Jan of Chinese Taipei rounded out the podium, beating Japan’s Sugino Takaaki – a four-time World Cup winner, who had matched the score of 14.833 – by virtue of a more difficult routine.
1 Nariman Kurbanov, KAZ 15.400
2 Rhys McClenaghan, IRL 15.033
3 Shiao Yu-Jan, TPE 14.833
4 Sugino Takaaki, JPN 14.833
5 Illia Kovtun, UKR 14.633
6 Ilyas Azizov, KAZ 14.100
7 Vedant Sawant, AUS 13.900
8 Yin Dehang, CHN 13.633
Ukraine’s Anna Lashchevska swooped in to claim gold with the last routine of the uneven bars final that saw thrills and spills throughout. The third-placed qualifier topped out this time with a score of 13.500.
Nobody could get near the spectacular high score in qualifying from Qui Qiyan of People’s Republic of China – 14.766 – not even the woman herself who had a routine to forget, scoring 11.633.
Nathalie Westlund performed a clean routine and a great landing on her double layout dismount would have impressed the judges who scored the Swede 13.233, just shy of her qualifying score of 13.266.
In her first World Cup final, 19-year-old Serita Mikako of Japan secured third place, emulating Westlund’s score but missing out on silver due to a lower difficulty score.
1 Anna Lashchevska, UKR 13.500
2 Nathalie Westlund, SWE 13.233
3 Serita Mikako, JPN 13.233
4 Yelizaveta Hubareva, UKR 13.000
5 Georgia-Rose Brown, AUS 12.466
6 Qiu Qiyuan, CHN 11.633
7 Kaia Tanskanen, FIN 11.500
8 Jana Mahmoud, EGY 8.566
Olympic champion Liu Yang continues his brilliant form on the still rings with incredibly difficult strength moves performed with such nonchalance. A high-scoring 15.366 was too much for the rest of the field as the People’s Republic of China gymnast looks to defend his Olympic title in France in 16 months’ time.
World champion on the apparatus, Adem Asil of Turkey, claimed second with 15.033, improving on his qualification score of 14.900.
Nikita Simonov held on to third place having been up first on the event, watching everyone perform, with only two besting his score of 14.800. The Azerbaijani is specialising on the apparatus in an effort to get to Paris.
1 Liu Yang, CHN 15.366
2 Adem Asil, TUR 15.033
3 Nikita Simonov, AZE 14.800
4 Artur Avetisyan, ARM 14.733
5 Ibrahim Colak, TUR 14.700
6 Mahdi Ahmad Kohani, IRI 14.600
7 Vahagn Davtyan, ARM 14.466
8 Igor Radivilov, UKR 14.266
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.