Caitlin Dillon
Following the success of the 48th Artistic
Gymnastics World Championships, held in Doha last October, the 12th
Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series returned to Doha over the weekend.
A full house of fans watched on as top Olympic athletes and
world champions from around the globe competed at Doha’s Aspire Dome – the world’s
largest indoor multi-purpose dome.
With qualification stages taking place on Thursday and
Friday, the lucky few began competing in the finals for their ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Friday afternoon, with
the male gymnasts competing in floor, pommel horse, and rings on Friday, and
vault, parallel bars, and horizontal bar on Saturday. Meanwhile, the female
gymnasts took to the vault and uneven bars on Friday, and the balance beam and
floor on Saturday.
The last day of competition saw 18-year-old Jade Carey
collect her second gold medal of the event for Team USA, ranking first in
floor, with a score of 14,466. The day’s events also saw Dutch world champion and
fan favourite Epke Zonderland crash out of the competition, as he fell from the
horizontal bar.
Ali Al-Hitmi, President of the Qatar Gymnastics Federation, was
delighted with the event’s success, “I'm so happy, I'm so proud of my team, we had a big success today, a high level of performance and a full house. This is a big success for Qatar gymnastics federation, the organizing committee. Really, I am so proud of them for this competition, we have a big number of countries, 55 countries participating. My thanks go to all who have worked with us in this competition."
FULL COMPETITION RESULTS
Men
22.03.19 – Pommel Horse – Chih Kai Lee (TPE); 15,400
22.03.19 – Floor – Alexander Shatilov (ISR); 14,633
22.03.19 – Rings – Xingyu Lan (CHN); 15,100
23.03.19 – Vault – Hakseon Yang (KOR); 15,266 (15,466
& 15,066)
23.03.19 – Parallel Bars – Jingyuan Zou (CHN); 15,700
23.03.19 – Horizontal Bars – Tin Srbic (CRO); 14,400
Women
22.03.19 – Uneven Bars – Nina Derwael (BEL); 15,033
22.03.19 – Vault – Jade Carey (USA); 14,883 (15,066
& 14700)
23.03.19 – Balance Beam – Qi Li (CHN); 14,333
23.03.19 – Floor – Jade Carey (USA); 14,466