Dina Averina beats sister Arina in all-around at Tashkent World Cup
Arina hampered by ribbon knot as Dina takes another all-around victory with Anastasiia Salos of Belarus third.
Rhythmic Gymnastics
Dina Averina took the all-around title at the Tashkent World Cup rhythmic gymnastics event on Saturday (17 April) ahead of twin sister Arina.
The reigning three-time world all-around champion from Russia scored a total of 104.100 over two days of qualification with Arina a distant second on 97.400 after a knot wrecked her ribbon routine.
Third place went to Anastasiia Salos of Belarus (96.500) with team-mate Alina Harnasko (94.150) fifth behind Italy's Sofia Raffaeli (94.750).
The Averina twins were level at the top of 54.350 points after Friday's ball and hoop qualifying rounds but, after Dina scored 22.350 with the ribbon, Arina's hopes of beating her sibling were dashed.
A knot famously affected Arina at the 2018 World Championships, and she suffered the same fate early on in her routine in Tashkent which saw her receive a mark of 15.400.
No such problems for Dina who then scored 27.400 on the clubs to secure yet another all-around victory.
But Arina showed she will be a force in Sunday's apparatus finals, posting 27.650 to be the top clubs qualifier.
Arina was also top in the hoop preliminaries with Dina first with the ball.
This is the second of four World Cup events which also serve as qualifiers for this year's Tokyo 2020 Games.
Three quota places will go to the gymnasts holding the highest rankings at the end of the World Cup series with events to come in Baku, Azerbaijan (7-9 May) and Pesaro, Italy (28-30 May).
Eighteen of the 26 places have already been allocated with the Russian Olympic Committee, Belarus, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Israel, Italy and the United States already gaining two spots apiece.