Gulf Times
Uzbekistan’s veteran gymnast Oksana Chusovitina showed age is only about numbers after she qualified for the women’s vault at the 14th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup at the Aspire Dome yesterday.
A familiar face at the Doha edition, the 46-year-old competed against a new generation of gymnasts. The record seven-time Olympian amassed 12.949 points on the qualification list behind Victoria Listunova (13.466) and Hungary’s Maria Csenge Bacskay (13.033). Interestingly, Oksana competed against gymnasts who were not even born when she made her Olympic debut at the 1992 Barcelona Games. If nothing goes wrong, the Uzbek veteran is likely to take the podium after the finals. Armenia’s 2016 Olympian Harutyun Merdinyan was at his best on the pommel horse as he ended up with 14.600 points to lead the table.
He was followed by Nariman Kurbanov (KAZ) and Illia Kovtun (UKR). A total of eight qualifiers will fight for the top three places in the finals.
Great Britain’s Luke Whitehouse (14.166) and Sunghyun Ryu of South Korea (14.100).
Armenian duo of Vahagn Davtyan and Artur Avetisyan made it to the finals on the men’s rings. Coming off from a second-place finish in the first edition of the World Cup Series in Cottbus (Germany), Davtyan was closely challenged by his fellow compatriot.