Ashirbayeva Outpaces Other Olympic Qualifiers at the Rio Test Event

The competition for the final Olympic spots for Gymnastics continued Thursday as the Rhythmic Gymnastics discipline took place in the Rio Olympic Arena following the Artistic and Trampoline gymnastics that took place earlier this week. With 15 of the 26 available Olympic berths already handed out at the 2015 World Championships in Stuttgart, Germany last September, the remaining qualification spots were to be distributed at this second and last Olympic qualifying competition.

Staniouta puts on a show

Three-time world all-around bronze medalist Melitina Staniouta took the opportunity of being invited to the test event to defend her title as the reigning World All-around bronze medalist. She still competed at the test event, despite being already qualified for the Summer Games, a qualification she won at the 2015 World Championships.

The Belarusian gymnast took advantage of the absence of the two Russian stars, Yana Kudryavtseva and Margarita Mamun, to get a feel for the real Olympic competition. The competition seemed to have turned on her side, she has excelled on all of the apparatus, and acquired a total score of 72.215 points, a score in league with her Russian counterparts.

Ashirbayeva wins the match of the Olympic seekers

Uzbekistan gymnast Elizaveta Nazarenkova failed to grab a qualification spot for her country at the 2015 World Championships last September, after landing on the 16th spot on the competition. But Nazarenkova let the errors pile up in the Aquece Rio Test Event, successively dropping the Ball, a Club and the Ribbon to dash her Olympic hopes.

Kazakhstan rhythmic gymnast Sabrina Ashirbayeva, one of the favorites going into the Test Event, did not waste the second chance she got at the Test Event. She displayed an astonishing performance at the Rio Olympic Arena to win the competition against other Olympic hopefuls, finishing with a total score of 69.500 points.

Aside from her, Austrian rhythmic gymnast Nicol Ruprecht, Finland’s Ekaterina Volkova, Italian gymnast Veronica Bertolini, Uzbekistan’s Anastasia Serdyukova, Romanian gymnast Ana Luiza Filioranu, Chinese Shang Rong and German gymnast Jana Berezko-Marggrander all acquired the right to advance to the Rio Olympic Games this August.

Brazil, Oceania and Africa take advantage of continental cards

Since Brazil was the host country of the Olympic Games this year, the country is guaranteed to have a spot for the Olympic Games no matter how the Test Event turns out. Even though Natalia Gaudio landed on the lower spot of the scoreboard, she was still granted the right to advance to the Olympic Games this August, meaning Austrlia’s Danielle Prince has also earned a qualification, while the athlete who will represent Africa is yet to be announced.

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