DOHA: Things got down to business for the 123 gymnasts competing at the 8th edition of the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Challenge Cup where qualifications began with Brazilian Diego Hypolito impressing in his first routine in floor exercises.
The competition has begun to unfold at the famous Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence, a venue for scores of prestigious sports events every season.
In the men’s floor exercises, Hypolito (15.400) gave a memorable performance on floor with tight and clean landings to seal qualification.
American Jacob Dalton also showed commendable precision (15.350) as did Croatia’s Tomislav Markovic; Petro Pakhnyuk and Shotaro Shirai with (15.100).
In the pommel horse routines, it did not take long for Armenian Harutyum Merdinyan to put his talent on display, keeping an edge on competition (14.800) and an eye on Ukraine’s Oleg Stepko (14.750).
Olympic champion Arthur Zanetti of Brazil looked good and showed it off with a 15.750 point to emerge as a strong candidate for the podium in the finals.
Armenia’s Davtyan Vahagn was 0.30 points shy of his adversary, while Romania’s Andrei Muntean looked to be a strong prospect for the finals.
In the men’s vault, Armenia’s Artur Davtyan looked in sublime form and showed it off with a 14.950 point vault.
He was followed by Japan’s Shotaro who landed with an extra measure of precision, besting Muntean and Ferhat Arican of Turkey with 14.525.
In the parallel bars, sterling work by Azerbaijan’s Oleg Stepko was obvious as he produced a tally of 15.650 followed by Colombian’s Jossimar Calvo with 0.05 difference.
Romanian’s Marius Berbecar was next with a unanimously fantastic performance (15.350) to suggest a real stab at the podium.
In the horizontal bar, American Danell Leyva and his 15.250 will be hard to beat in the finals.
His near-perfection exercise oozed elegance yesterday. It was ravishing and utterly artistic gymnastics, as one fan put it!
In the women’s vault, Swiss Giulia Steingruber dominated the qualification with 14.150 but is up against Vietnam’s Phan Thi Ha Thanh and Slovenian Teja Belak (13.850).
In the uneven bars, Ana Filipa Martins of Portugal was the first to start but mucked up her landing with one-step and a touch of the hands.
A neat performance and a smile to match was produced by Romanian Laura Jurca who showed good execution devoid of excessive risk (13.150). She was followed by Lucie Perdreau (13.050).
In the beam, Thanh took the event hands down (14.050), carving a comfortable gap between herself and Brazil’s Daniele Hypolito.
In the floor exercise, Steinbruger impressed with her 14.300 points in the qualifying rounds.
Romanian Jurca was fluid and elegant in her exercise with (13.800) followed by the Portuguese Martins who could be another podium threat in the coming days.
Also yesterday, the President of Portugal Gymnastics Federation met with QGF President and officials and said he is delighted by his visit to Doha.
He said he visited Doha when the first edition of the tournament was staged in 2008 and stressed that he saw a great development in every thing including sports facilities and organisation.
“Even those of the cognoscenti would agree that gymnasts here in Doha have elevated their technical level and presented a well-crafted and technical form of gymnastics without neglecting execution,” he said.
He added that the level of the competition is very high and extended his appreciation to ‘Ali Hitmi and the Qatar Gymnastics Federation (QGF) for their hospitality’. He also reaffirmed that the FIG Challenge Cup is a rehearsal for the World Championships in 2018.
On another topic away from gymnastics, he said that the 2022 FIFA World Cup ‘will be a successful event as Qatar pays a great attention to sports in general and gymnastics in particular.’
Meanwhile, Mohammad Al Maraghi, Board Member of QGF and head of the Public Relations Committee said: “The tournament is successful at all levels. The heads of participating delegations have lauded the level of organisation and the available facilities.”
Al Maraghi told media that the event is witnessing a great fan turnout as the finals will be contested by the world’s best gymnasts over the course of the next two days.
Al Maraghi reaffirmed that all the participating stars were ‘happy and satisfied by the level of organisation as they said that Qatar really deserves the level it has reached.”
Competition Manager Al Buainain said: “I am proud that Qatar has the best gymnastics training centers in the region, which are ready to host the participating teams.”
QGF President Ali Al Hitmi said the on-going event is a test event considering the 2018 World Championships will be staged at the same venue.
According to Al Hitmi, gymnasts from Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iraq, Jordan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taipei, Turkey, USA, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam are currently seen in action in Doha.
The finals will be staged today and tomorrow with today’s programme starting at 4:00pm.
THE PENINSULA
