Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Whitlock and Skinner Took Home Glasgow World Cup Titles

English Artistic gymnast Max Whitlock and U.S. artistic gymnast Mykayla Skinner have become victorious at the recently held Glasgow World Cup last weekend. The victory they achieved in the said competition will give them a leg up on their journey to Rio Olympics. 

MyKayla, a former member of the gold medal winning American team at the 2014 Nanning World Championships and an alternate to the USA team in the 2015 World Championships, performed a clean Amanar Vault to easily get ahead of the competition, taking the lead by more than a point after the first rotation.

Despite not achieving top scores on any other event, she did execute a new floor routine punctuated by her signature difficult tumbling, which involves a Moors (double-twisting double layout), the most challenging routine in the Women’s artistic gymnastics. The score she gained from the Amanar skill was proved impossible to be surpassed by her competitors, earning the American gymnast her first All-around World Cup competition title. 

While Skinner was ahead in position from the beginning, the silver medalist -- German artistic gymnast Elisabeth Seitz started slowly in the vault event, but regained her momentum on the Uneven bars, her best event, achieving the highest score of the day on the said apparatus. Seitz, who secured the 10th place at the all around event of the 2015 World Championships, remained consistent on the beam and floor to catch the silver medal.


Claudia Fragapane, an artistic gymnast competing for Great Britain, posted the highest scores on the beam and floor exercise to achieve the bronze medal. However, she lost the chance to win a shinier medal after committing a mistake on the uneven bars event.

“I feel really pleased overall, first competition of the year with a few improvements to make but happy with where I am at this stage. There’s still more I can add in and work on with a big year ahead so I’ll talk with my coach and continue to train hard. The crowd were brilliant and make it so much fun to compete.” Fragapane stated.

If MyKayla’s 1.2 pts margin of victory was already remarkable, the English artistic gymnast Max Whitlock’s margin of victory was even more impressive. In the men’s competition, Whitlock displayed his dominance after finishing more than two and a half points ahead of the silver medalist Arthur Nory Mariano, which means that Whitlock could’ve made a mistake twice and will still win the competition regardless. Just like MyKayla, the 23-year-old English gymnast set himself in a firm position by earning best marks early in the competition, while also avoiding mishaps in the other events to successfully grab the title. 


"I'm starting to really enjoy competing in Glasgow," said Whitlock, the first-ever male British gymnast to win a gold medal at the World Championships. “My target was to do clean routines across all six pieces in my first Glasgow World Cup so I’m really happy. There’s plenty more competitions coming up quickly now and we all know what’s at stake with Rio the final aim, so to start off this way with World Cup gold is a great feeling.”

British gymnast Daniel Purvis had a hard time in the Pommel event, but he still managed to earn the bronze medal due to his consistent performances on the other events.

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