Olympic champions Artem Dolgopyat, Eleftherios Petrounias take gold at Cottbus World Cup
The first day of finals saw gymnasts from four different countries grab gold medals; veteran Oksana Chusovitina also claimed vault bronze
Artistic Gymnastics
Tokyo 2020 Olympic floor exercise champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel and Rio 2016 Olympic still rings champion Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece cruised to floor and still rings golds, respectively, Saturday (25 February) at the International Gymnastics Federation's World Cup in Cottbus, Germany. The event is the first stop of the 2023 World Cup season for artistic gymnastics.
47-year-old Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, who is an eight-time Olympian, continued her legendary career, picking up bronze on vault.
Saturday's competition began with the men's floor exercise final where despite an out of bounds on his opening layout double-double tumbling pass, Dolgopyat's 14.466 was six-tenths of a point ahead Kaya Kazuma of Japan and German Milan Hossseini, who shared the silver medal at 13.866.
Uzbekistan's Abdulla Azimov took the pommel horse title with a 14.866, just ahead of Armenia's Gagik Khachikyan, who posted a 14.833. Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan scored 14.800 to complete a narrowly separated podium.
2022 World pommel horse champion Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland settled for a fifth place finish with a 14.700 final score.
Petrounias, who also owns a bronze medal on still rings from the Tokyo Games, combined strength and swing effortlessly as the final's seventh athlete to compete. His 14.966 took the top spot ahead of
The first women's final of the day, the vault, saw Italy's Manila Esposito claim gold with a 13.233. She vaulted a Yurchenko one-and-a-half and a Podkopayeva. Team GB's Ruby Evan was second (13.183) with Chusovitina's 13.016 in third.
Chusovitina, the seemingly ageless wonder, performed a front handspring front full and a Tsukahara full.
On the uneven bars, Italy's Alice D'Amato won the gold medal by nearly a full mark. Her clean and stylish routine included a daring stalder to piked Tkatchev to Bhardwaj combination to score 14.500. Germany's Meolie Jauch earned a 13.533 for silver, followed by the Netherland's Tisha Volleman (12.900).