Germany, Ukraine: World Cup Series For Artistic Gymnastics Titleholders

The final leg of the FIG World Cup has concluded in the O2 Arena of London last weekend, finally crowning the champions of the series. Hailed master of the sport for the men’s division is Ukraine’s best and Olympian Oleg Verniaiev. For the women’s division, Tabea Alt was the queen. Both athletes have successfully brought the 2017 All-around World Cup Series in Artistic Gymnastics title to their home country.

Verniaiev has been successful since last summer’s Olympics, but he didn’t let this get in his head. At this year’s World Cup Series, he went on to win a silver at the AT&T American Cup and gold medals from the DTB-Pokal World Cup in Stuttgart and finally in London. Because of this, he has assured Ukraine would win on the men’s side.

His performances on rings and vault awarded him with gold medals, while on the floor exercise and parallel bars he only got silver medals. He wasn’t as strong at the high bar, where he placed sixth, and on the pommel horse where he was fourth.

At the All-around, close on Verniaiev’s heels was USA’s super tumbler Donnel Whittenburg who had the highest score of the day on floor exercise and the second best on rings and vault. 2016 Olympic team finalist from Germany, Lukas Dauser, was third as he had the highest score of the men’s competition on parallel bars and impressed on horizontal bar, pummeling him up to the third spot.

For the women’s competition, Tabea Alt showed she wasn’t contented with her win on the Stuttgart as she dominated the sport once again in London. She was gold on uneven bars and floor exercise. On beam and vault, she was second as she allowed Spain’s Ana Perez and Great Britain’s Amy Tinkler to take the gold on the respective apparatus. Despite this, Alt still finished as the All-Around champion.

“It's always good to be stable and have good routines, so that's the goal for success,” Alt said after the competition even though she wasn’t expecting to win. "I am speechless. It is incredible that I am now standing here with the FIG Cup in my hands and the medal around my neck."

Alt’s victories, added with compatriot Kim Bui’s fourth-place finish at the American Cup, made it possible for the Germans to win the women’s title.

USA’s Viktoria Nguyen, a replacement for Ragan Smith, was third on uneven bars, beam and floor. She was also fourth on vault, making her the silver medalist in the All-Around. Behind her was Tinkler who was recorded to admit that she had calf problems this year so she wasn’t expecting to win either. 

The top three winners in the All-Around World Cup standings all took home, aside from the medals and trophy, the cash prize of between 15,000-25,000 Swiss Francs.

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