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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Australian Gymnasts To Grab Olympic Berths at the Test Event

Not since 1988 that Australia has been unsuccessful in qualifying a female gymnastics team to an Olympic Games – a situation which the latest batch of stars will prevent from happening this weekend.

The Australian women’s artistic gymnastics team will compete at the Aquece Rio Test event which will start this Saturday night (AEST). The Australian team needs to be included in the top four spot in order to acquire an Olympic berth.

The Australian artistic team has only accomplished to get into the top 14th spot at the previous World Championships, failing to acquire the Olympic qualification as it requires a top-eight finish.

Nevertheless, the result was good enough to receive an invite to the Rio test event, which will take place at the same venue as the Summer Olympic Games in August. Teams who finished at the top 9th to 16th has earned the invite for the test event.

Trying to preserve almost thirty years of tradition, Australian national team coach Peggy Liddick feels that the pressure is on, but she doesn’t want to put the burden on her young team.

"My superiors remind me of it every single day," Liddick told AAP of Australia's strong history at the Games.

"But it's not fair for me to put that undue pressure on the team.

"I'm really consciously trying not to coach by intimidation.

"It's a real delicate balance between going in confidently and doing our job and yet not having them be so afraid of not qualifying that they strangle their own performance."

Last week, Australia has participated at the Pacific Rim Gymnastics Championships in good form, wherein they managed to acquire the third spot in the team event.

They finished the competition ahead of Japan – who took the sixth spot at the World Championships – winning them the bronze medal.

The former world champion Lauren Mitchell is still on the road to recovery from a knee injury and beam specialist Mary-Anne Monckton’s year ruined by a knee reconstruction, Liddick is preparing a brand new team to Rio.

Georgia-Rose Brown, Emma Nedov and Kiara Munteanu – who acquired the sixth spot in the all-around event last week in Seattle – are anticipated to partake in the all-around with Emily Little, Larissa Miller and Rianna Mizzen to complete the team.

Artistic gymnast Michael Mercieca and trampoline gymnast Blake Gaudry will also participate in the competition in hopes that they will acquire a qualification for the Olympic Games.

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Stuttgart to Host 2016 World Cup

While the German Men’s and Women’s gymnastics team are awaiting for the Aquece Rio Test Event, another competition that they’re looking forward to is the FIG Stuttgart World Cup, which is set to take place at the country’s Porsche Arena on March 19. 

The Stuttgart World Cup would be a great opportunity for the local gymnasts to recalibrate their stunts in preparation for the Aquece Rio Test Event on April, where the German gymnastics team will aim to secure Olympic team berths for the Rio Summer Olympic Games. 

The German men’s gymnastics team finished 9th at the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow, just one place behind the eight-team cutoff for direct qualification to the Olympics. The women’s team finished 12th, winning themselves the opportunity to compete for the final Rio Olympic team berths at the Rio Olympic Arena.

The World Cup marks the 2016 international debut of fan favorite Marcel Nguyen, who will compete aside the German gymnast Fabian Hambuechen. Both Olympic medalists at the 2016 Olympic Games, Hambuechen and Nguyen are looking forward to make a strong start this Olympic year. Also to compete at the Stuttgart World Cup is Elizabeth Seitz, a German veteran gymnast who secured the 10th spot in the all-around event of the 2015 World Championships.

For the German newcomer Tabea Alt, who is in her first year as a senior gymnast, the Stuttgart World Cup would be a perfect training ground for her to perform before marking her international debut on the senior World Cup stage. Without an individual World medallist present in the women’s field, the competition between Seitz, Alt, Elissa Downie (GBR), Elisa Meneghini (ITA), Xie Yufen (CHN), Isabela Onyshko (CAN),Nia Dennis (USA), 2012 Dutch Olympian Celine van Gerner (NED) and 2014 Youth Olympic Games champion Seda Tutkhalian (RUS) is expected to be tight.

Hosting big events is never a new thing for Stuttgart, which have hosted the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships last September and also hosted the Artistic World Championships twice (1989 and 2007). The 2016 World Cup, proudly presented by the Schwäbischer Turnerbund, will be book-ended by the 33rd EnBW DTB Pokal, a team competition that’ll feature up to five gymnasts per team, which would be held on March 18-20 at the Porsche Arena. 

Soon after the American Cup on March 5 and Glasgow World Cup on March 12, the Stuttgart World Cup caps off all the FIG’s All-around World Cup series in the Olympic year, giving the gymnastics stars another opportunity to hone their skills in competition before the Rio Olympic Games this summer.

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