2017 FIG World Cup In Pesaro Features Renowned Gymnasts

The 2017 FIG World Cup circuit in Rhythmic Gymnastics includes four World Cup and four World Challenge Cup events. Tomorrow, in approximately 7 hours from the posting of this article, the first leg of this circuit is going to kick off in Pesaro, Italy, until the 9th of April, Sunday. 

The 2017 FIG World Cup in Pesaro, Italy is one of the said four stops of this series. The other ones are Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, and Bulgaria. It is one of the many world cups that the international governing body for gymnastics, FIG, has approved and organized. The world cup for artistic gymnastics is also in execution currently. 

This year, the FIG World Cup for Rhythmic Gymnastics is quite different from the previous years’. Before, the series is divided into Category A and Category B, where the former is reserved for invited athletes and the latter open to all athletes. These categories have no limit for the number of meets each year. 

In 2017, however, all of this has changed. Firstly, there is now a limit of four World Cup events and four Challenge Cup events. Also, both of these events are now open to all athletes. After the World Cup circuit, the gymnasts are going to come full circle as they come back in Pesaro, Italy, where the World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships is going to be held in September. 

Perhaps it is a right thing to say that people are practically on the edges of their seats right now in anticipation for this event, especially since it featured an eclectic lineup of competitors complete with veterans and newcomers. 

After winning the Baltic Hoop competition last month, Victoria Filanovsky of Israel is once again out to shower us with her amazing talent. Compatriot Nicole Zelikman is also present. Dina Averina and Aleksandra Soldatova from Russia, who has quite a few notches on their belts already with their continuous wins at the Grand Prix series, are also going to grace us with their presence. 

While we’re at the topic of Grand Prix, some gymnasts who are shining at this series are also going to be present at the World Cup in Pesaro, like Olena Diachenko (UKR), Katsiaryna Halkina (BLR), Alina Harnasko (BLR), Neviana Vladinova (BUL), and Viktoria Mazur (UKR). 

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10th Doha World Cup Finalists, Ready For The Last Match

The 10th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup has taken off in Aspire Dome, Doha, Qatar on March 22 and is scheduled to last until the 25th. The qualifying round has been done and a lot of the big names have made it into the finals. Of course, the newcomers also showcased their talents and some of them have made it into the finals as well.

So far, one of the many promising athletes in the competition was China’s Liu Tingting who appeared to be in top form. She qualified for the finals by being the second on uneven bars but the top in women’s floor exercise and balance beam. Tingting missed last year’s Rio Olympics due to injuries, but the 15-year-old did amazingly well at the Melbourne leg last month, and she was determined to continue her good record into Doha World Cup.

Close on Tingting’s heels in what seemed to be at almost all of the events is Australia’s Emily Little, who participated at the 2012 London Games. Little took her share of gold, silver and bronze from the Melbourne World Cup like Tingting and she was recorded to be saying that, “It’s always an honour to represent my country. I look forward to pick up some medals in Doha.”

So far, Little has qualified into the finals by being second in floor exercise and third in women’s vault and balance beam. Who went ahead of her to take the second spot on the balance beam to qualify for the finals was 2004 Olympic Champion from Romania, Catalina Ponor. Three days before the Doha event, Ponor has bagged two gold medals at the World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan. “I hope to maintain the good show in Doha,” Ponor said.

Another one of the big names in this event was Uzbek veteran Oksana Chusovitina, who also squeezed into the finals by being second on women’s vault, behind China’s Wang Yan who was a bronze medalist in the 2016 Olympic Games. There are doubts if Yan can still compete for the finals, as she injured herself in one of her tumbling passes on the floor exercise during the qualifications.

Elsewhere, the men’s artistic gymnastics competition was led by Hungary’s 2012 London Olympics gold medalist Krisztian Berki, who qualified for the finals by dominating once again the pommel horse. Next to him was China’s Zou Jingyuan and Croatia’s Ude Filip respectively. Jingyuan was also first in parallel bars, followed by Switzerland’s Pablo Brägger and Turkey’s Ferhat Arican

The Australian team managed to get in male representatives as Christopher Remkes qualified by being third in men’s vault while teammate Clay Mason Stephens was on sixth. Compatriot Mitchell Morgans was also second on high bar.

For a complete list of finalists, visit FIG’s twitter account.

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AGF Trophy 2017 Concludes In Baku

After the qualifications last weekdays, the FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup called AGF Trophy or World Cup in Baku concluded over the weekend in its host country, Azerbaijan.

This is not the first time Baku has hosted huge gymnastics competitions for FIG, and this time a lot of Olympians have emerged victors in their respective apparatus signature. To start off, probably the oldest in the event and the one with the most experience under her belt—a record SEVEN Olympic Games!—was 41-year-old Oksana Chusovitina from Uzbekistan who didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

In the qualifications and finals, the 1992 Olympic team gold medalist dominated the vault with an astounding performance, and this is done without even attempting the very difficult Produnova vault that she tried in last summer’s Rio. Second to Chusovitina on vault was Australia’s pride, another Olympian Emily Little, followed by the bronze medalist from Slovenia, Teja Belak.

Another experienced competitor was five-time Olympic medalist, Romania’s Catalina Ponor. Albeit leaving Rio without any shiny remembrance, the 29-year-old blasted her competitions on balance beam and floor in both the qualifications and finals without much struggles in this competition. She has boasted her skills in AGF Trophy as a preparation for the European Championships next month, which is going to be held in Romania after sixty years.

Silver and bronze on balance beam was Vasiliki Millousi of Greece and AUS’ Little respectively, whilst on the floor Little once again stole the silver, leaving the host country’s representative Marina Nekrasova with the bronze.

Amidst all these experienced artistic gymnasts, a newcomer has emerged victor as well. Ukraine’s Diana Varinska, a first-year senior in her first World Cup competition, bagged the gold in uneven bars by showing her lovely forms, giving life to the wonders that maybe Ukraine is going to rise in women’s gymnastics once again. Varinska left the silver and bronze to the two Australians, Rianna Mizzen and Georgia-Rose Brown respectively.

Men’s Finals Results

Of course, if the women’s division showed great strength, the men’s division leveled that as well. On the lead was, dubbed “Lord of the Rings” after proving to be the best in the apparatus all around the world in 2015, Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias who clinched the gold once again in his signature event. He is also aiming for the European Championships next month.

Petrounias’ win on the rings left the challengers from Japan (Kazuyuki Takeda) and Ukraine (Yevgen Yudenkov) with the silver and bronze respectively.

However, not all Olympians had the same fate as Petrounias. Although he was the 2012 Olympic champion, Hungary’s Krisztian Berki was defeated on the pommel horse as China’s Weng Hao bagged the gold, leaving him for silver. On the third was Croatia’s Filip Ude.

Hao’s teammates, Rongbing Liu and Youxiao He also took home the gold and silver respectively on the parallel bars, leaving Japan’s Shogo Nonomura for the bronze, showing that maybe China could win once again versus the Japanese on the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Elsewhere, another Japanese clinched gold at the horizontal bar, Naoto Hayasaka. He was followed by Anton Kovacevic from Croatia and Tomas Kuzmickas from Lithuania. At the vault, AUS’ Christopher Remkes finally got his gold after falling on the second in front of his home crowd in Melbourne last month. Belarusian Pavel Bulauski and France’s Zachari Hrimeche took the silver and the bronze respectively. Kuzmickas, who joined three event finals, was awarded once again by gold this time on the floor exercise, leaving Bulauski and Hayasaka on the remaining two spots.

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New FIG World Cup To Be Held In Melbourne

Gymnastics Australia has confirmed today that International Gymnastics Federation’s (FIG) new World Cup Gymnastics is going to be held in Melbourne as a part of the 2017-2020 Olympic Cycle. The organization has successfully bid for one of the four stops on the Individual Apparatus World Cup four-year circuit along with Cottbus (Germany), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Doha (Qatar). The discipline included in this stop of the circuit are both men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics.

Later on in their Twitter account, Gymnastics Australia has also proudly announced that Aly Raisman, a member of Team USA’ Final Five, the team which garnered gold at the Rio Games, would be the official ambassador for the World Cup in Melbourne and will be in Australia for the events.

The mentioned events are a part of the 2016-2018 FIG Artistic Gymnastics Individual Apparatus World Cup Series. The first stop of the series has already been held in Cottbus, Germany, on November where the Hungarian gymnasts grabbed three of the 10 titles, the most of any nation.

In Australia, the events will be held in Hisense Arena on February 22-25, 2017. The first two days will be the qualifying and the last two days are for the finals. Across all these eight events in the 2016-2018 FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup series, the gymnasts will be given points based on their rankings on each apparatus at the different World Cup stops. The points from each gymnast’s best three finishes will be added to determine the World Cup series winner on that apparatus. The prize for the winner is 5,000 Swiss francs and will be awarded at the end of the series.

Additionally, the events hosted in 2019 and 2020 will be used as qualifying competitions for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

Reportedly, there are already 13 countries which confirmed their attendance to the 2017 Australian leg of the FIG Individual Apparatus World Cup Series.

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Rio the Last Olympic Games in His Top Form, Uchimura Says

As much as the Japanese artistic gymnastics superstar Kohei Uchimura wants to be a part of the 2020 Olympic Games in his hometown in Tokyo, he acknowledged that his performances would not be as impressive as compared to before.

“The Rio Olympics will probably the last when I am at the top of my game,” the five-time Olympic medalist said in Japanese, according to an FIG interview that was published this Wednesday. “I want to be faultless.”

Uchimura’s response triggered an interviewer to ask him which apparatus would he focus on if he would become a specialist instead of an all-around athlete after the Olympic Games in Rio.

“The risk of injury increases with age,” the 27-year old Japanese athlete said. “One can carry on competing on the horizontal bar for longer than the other apparatus. My technique is good, and I’m capable of scoring highly, so I would choose the horizontal bar.”

Kohei Uchimura is the reigning World title holder on the horizontal bar apparatus. 

Uchimura will have a chance to make a history in the Rio Olympic Games if he wins the All-around competition, as he would be the first gymnast in 44 years to become a two-consecutive time Olympic All-around champion.

“The first time I went to the Olympics I felt a bit lost,” said Uchimura while pertaining to the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, where he won the Olympic all-around silver at a young age of 19. “I won a medal, but I was also lucky… I was hopeful at the London Olympics, and although I wasn’t perfect, I won the gold medal. This third time, I am aiming for perfection. This is what will satisfy me, and if as a result, I win a medal, then I will be happy.”

However, the 27-year old Japanese gymnast believes that target is unachievable.

“I will never achieve perfection as long as I practice gymnastics,” he said.

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Baku to Host FIG World Cup Finals

Azerbaijan, a country that is achieving a lot of success in gymnastics in such a short span of time, continues to organize prestigious international competitions. 

The final Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup of the season will be held in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan, on 22nd to 24th of July, 2016.

Fans and audiences will get the opportunity to witness the remarkable performances of some of the most prominent gymnasts coming from 22 different countries. The competition will take place 2 weeks ahead of the most important event of the season – the 2016 Rio Olympic Games.

Thirty four prominent gymnasts and eleven groups will compete in group exercises on the first two days of the event. The final day of the World Cup finals will feature performances from different gymnastics disciplines.

Nine World Cup competitions have been hosted by the International Gymnastics Federation this year. At the World Cup in Baku, a special awarding ceremony will be organized for the athletes and teams taken the first places according to the best four results shown at previous Series.

“The winner of the annual World Cup is the gymnast or group with the highest number of points of the all World Cup Series Ranking Lists (Groups as well as All-Around for each apparatus) after the last event of the year.” (source: FIG)

Azerbaijan will be represented by the First European Games’ silver medalist Marina Durunda. The silver medalist of the European Championships in the junior category, Zhala Piriyeva, who has just joined the senior program, will also compete in the event. 

Siyana Vasileva, Ayshan Bayramova, Aleksandra Platonova, Diana Doman and Elif Zeynep Celep will compete for Azerbaijan in the group exercises at the World Cup event.

The competition will also feature a spectacular Opening Ceremony (22nd of July), which will be directed by Mariana Vasileva, the Head Coach of the Azerbaijan National Team. There will also be a traditional Gala on 24th of July, where the young gymnasts – the future international competitors of Azerbaijan – will deliver an outstanding performance for the rhythmic gymnastics fans to watch.

The tickets for the said event can be purchased at the ticket office of the MGA, National Gymnastics Arena, and also at the “Bazerstore supermarket. The tickets are priced from 5 to 20 manats, and a discount will be provided for those who will avail tickets for all 3 days of the World Cup competition. Students will also be provided with a special discount.

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FIG RG Age Group Programme Welcomes Nine New Experts

In the year 2014, the International Federation of Gymnastics has introduced an Age Group Development Program for the discipline of Rhythmic Gymnastics, which then started to be introduced in training sessions all over the world in 2015.

Last year, the training seminars took place in three different regions -- Southern Africa, Central America and Southeast Asia. The federations who took part in the seminars were presented with five-day training camps if they wished to adopt the program. The response has been so overwhelming that the FIG even needed to invite additional Rhythmic Gymnastics experts and coaches to familiarize themselves to the program so that they’ll be able to deliver it to these countries.

Ten rhythmic gymnastics experts were gathered at the FIG Headquarters in Lausanne to gain a better understanding of the program and also to examine it for possible improvements. Nine of the ten experts were able to accept the invitation. They were among the most popular faces of the discipline: 2012 Summer Olympic medalist Liubov Charkashyna, who currently acts as Athlete Representative to the RG Technical Committee; Dr. Marta Bobo of Spain, who has been a frequent Academy expert; MD Katja Kleinveldt, who acts as the Germany’s national Coach and has also frequently taught at the Academies; former Olympian Eva Serrano, who works in the French rhythmic coach education programs; Mimi Masleva, who previously acted as the national coach of Bulgaria, has coached several different countries and currently coaches in Canadal; Monica Guzman, the national coach of Mexico, and a former Russain member Marina Spekt,who is now coaching in her own program in Moscow.

The FIG Age Group program consists of testing and monitoring program for physical abilities, motor abilities, technical development and apparatus skills, in addition to a complete competition program with revised optional rules for age-group gymnasts and also compulsory exercises for all ages. Also, it consists of a variety of additional information related to developing a systematic rhythmic gymnastics program that can promote better performance.

The technical content of the Academy program was collaboratively developed by the former Bulgarian and British National Coach Nadya Aleksandrova together with frequent Academy expert and international judge Eunice Lebre and Portugal National Coach and FIG Academy expert Helena Dias. During the development, they were guided by the Director of Education and Academy Programs, Hardy Fink, who ensured that the philosophy, format and implementation would be similar to the other FIG education programs.

The development of this program and its international introduction has been financially supported on an ongoing basis by the International Olympic Committee, which had also supported an analogous program for the Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics in the previous years.

The three-day seminar, wherein the experts presented all aspects of the program was led by Nadya Aleksandrova, Eunice Lebre, Hardy Fink and Helena Dias.

The mentioned seminar, which aims to prepare new Academy experts for the FIG Age Group Development and Competition program is very timely, as the upcoming three months will be a very busy one.

Costa Rica would be the first venue of this five-day training camps, which is expected to start already next week. It will also take place in Guatemala, Malaysia, Vietnam, and El Salvador before the end of February. The International Gymnastics Federation will also hold an Introduction Seminar in Peru for all of the countries of South America, which will be also offered five-day camps in the coming year. Another eleven Rhythmic Gymnastics Age Group coach-education training camps will take place before the end of April.

2016 would probably be a busy year for the FIG Education Programme, which will also host multiple Academies at the same time. In February, there will be a Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics Academy in Chinese Taipei and also two Academies in DPR Korea – one for Artistic Gymnastics and one for Trampoline. 

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Baku To Host FIG World Cup; VTB Extends Sponsorship to FIG

Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, is getting ready to welcome gymnastics fans and elites at the FIG World Challenge Cup AGF Trophy 2016, to be hosted in the country for the first time early this year.

The said competition will be held at the National Gymnastics Arena from 19th to 21st of February 2016.

A total of 146 participants representing 19 different countries are expected to compete in the capital city of Baku.

Taking place at the National Gymnastics Arena, which accommodated six gymnastics disciplines during the 1st Baku European Games, the most anticipated competition will involve 46 men and 22 women gymnasts to fight for the medals.

Several notable gymnasts, comprised of the Japanese three-time World Champion (Floor and Team event) Kenzo Shirai, Japan’s Pommel Horse World bronze medallist Kaya Kazuma, Germany’s two-time Olympic silver medallist Marcel Nguyen, Israel’s European Floor Champion Alexander Shatilov and other prominent gymnasts will showcase their breathtaking performance at the Baku World Cup.

Prominent female gymnasts such as Uzbekistan’s European Champion Oksana Chusovitina, Brazil’s Youth Olympic Games Floor Champion Favia Lopes Saraiva, and three-time World Cup series champion Dorina Boeczoego will also participate in the said competition.

The most sought after gymnasts would definitely be Oleg Stepko, who won the bronze medal at the Parallel Bars event of the World Championships, and was the only Azerbaijani gymnast who took home five medals at the 1st European Games, as well as his compatriot Petro Pakhnyuk, who won the bronze medal in a team competition along with Stepko at the 2015 Baku Games.

The representative of the Women’s Azerbaijani Gymnastics would be the World Challenge Cup silver medalist Kristina Pravdina, along with Marina Nekrasova, Yuliya Inshina and Mariia Smirnova.

Aside from the upcoming Artistic Gymnastics World Cup, the country will also host a World Cup series in Trampoline Gymnastics on 5th and 6th of March 2016.

Baku was also assigned to host the European Championships in Trampoline Gymnastics in 2018.

VTB Bank Extends Sponsorship to FIG

Russia’s VTB Bank, which since 2009 has been a major sponsor of the sport of Gymnastics, has extended its contract with the International Federation of Gymnastics for 2016.

FIG’s President Bruno Grandi and VTB’s First Deputy Chairman and Vice President of FIG Vasily Titov sealed the agreement last Friday during a meeting at the FIG Headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The agreement includes a donation of US$1 million, of which would be used as developmental funds for the continental unions.

"VTB has the pleasure of once more renewing our sponsorship with the FIG and thereby supporting gymnastics, one of the three major Olympic sports," said Titov.

"We are very happy to be able to contribute to the development of this beautiful sport around the world."

"As I begin my final year as head of the FIG, I am delighted to see our loyal partner confirm its support," Grandi said.

"This contribution is targeted toward the development of sport on all five continents, which is excellent news for our continental unions."

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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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Great Britain Showcases a Strong Start in Odense

Great Britain demonstrated a strong start on the first day of the 2015 World Trampoline Gymnastics, Tumbling and Double-Mini Trampoline Championships in Odense, Denmark, making six finals and four semi-finals on both the trampoline and tumbling disciplines.

For the trampoline gymnasts, this competition will serve as the qualifying event for the Summer Olympic Games in Rio next year, wherein the top eight finalists will automatically secure an Olympic place and the rest of the top 24 semi-finalist will get a second chance and proceed at the Olympic test event in Rio next year. Great Britain has achieved two spots in the women’s individual semi-final and one spot in the men’s event, which means the country, at the very least, have successfully secured three spots in the test event next year.

In the women’s event, it was Pamela Clark, a member of the gold-medal-winning team at the 2014 Trampoline European Championships, who secured the highest rank for Great Britain, after finishing sixth place. The British gymnast showed no signs of nervousness and remained calm throughout her performances, and she executed two remarkable routines which earned her a total score of 101.135. 

Three-consecutive British champion Bryony Page also displayed a great performance at the qualifying rounds, she executed two clean routines to secure the 10th place after obtaining a total score of 100.715. Kat Driscoll, 2012 Olympian Kat Driscoll carried a very confident aura in her 8th World championship appearance to finish 12th with a total score of 100.440. 

Amanda Parker also remained calm all throughout her performance to finish with a total score of 98.200. However, even though she managed to make it to the top 24, she won’t be able to make it on the individual semi-finals since only three gymnasts per country can qualify. The British women’s team also finished second ahead of Russia in the team event finals.

Pamela was very delighted with the performances of her teammates, “I’m really happy, it was a little bit unexpected, but I think the work not only from me but the team and the coaches and support staff too has obviously paid off, not just for me but with all the other girls. I’m just going into the semi-finals with a clear head and then it’s just another competition again. Hopefully I will do another good performance and see where that takes me.”

Additionally, Bryony stated: “I think I’m more relieved than anything, my routines were a bit shaky because I was quite nervous but overall I’m really happy because when I was in the moment I felt strong.”

Kat was also very pleased with the results but she hopes for a much better performance in the semi-finals. “I’m obviously pleased but I know I’ve got improvements to make, which hopefully we can do come semi-finals. We have got team finals tomorrow, so we can use that as a kind of rehearsal as it’s a zero final and one voluntary routine, the same as the semi-final, and the see where we go from there.”

In the qualification rounds of the men’s trampoline event, Nathan Bailey secured the top spot for Great Britain after finishing 14th with his two remarkable performances which earned him a total score of 105.480. His 14th place finish earned Great Britain men’s team a sure spot in the test event next year, still with a possibility of making it to the finals and secure an Olympic place. This was a very remarkable finish for the GB men’s team as there were no male participants in the previous Olympics.

Nathan said after: “I’m so pleased, it was the goal coming into these championship to make that top 24. I’m in a really good position and I am really happy with my performance and looking forward for what’s to come over the next few days.”

The competition resumes today, 27th of November (Friday) with the trampoline team finals, the women’s tumbling team finals and the double-mini trampoline qualifications and women’s team final.

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World Gymnastics Championships filled with Record Breaking Events

Glasgow was filled with record-breaking events as Max Whitlock writes a new chapter in Britain’s sports history after obtaining the world title in the pommel horse finals, making him the first-ever British male athlete to win gold at a World Gymnastics Championships, while four female gymnasts shared the top of the podium after tying on the uneven bars finals.

Fan Yilin, Dario Spiridonova, Madison Kocian and Viktoria Komova finished their uneven bars routine with surprisingly same scores (15.366), resulting in an unexpected “four gold medalists” in the women’s individual apparatus finals.

That unprecedented event brought surprise and amusement to the audience and the four champions, who shared the crowded space at the peak of the medal podium, leaving the two bottom spaces empty.

The medal awarding ceremony was also prolonged as there were three national anthems (Russia, China, and USA) being played. The organizers also had to skip the flag raising ceremony since they can’t fit three national flags on one horizontal pole.

American gymnast Kocian depicted the incident as “super crazy”, while Chinese gymnast Fan Yilin said it was “hilarious”. Russia’s Spiridonova said: “Wow! I’ve never seen anything like this. I didn’t think anything like this would even be possible. It’s great that we are in this together and we will share the victory.”

Her teammate Komova added: "It was hard to deal with the nerves after they started to announce the results. I am personally shocked. It's the first time the judges had such a hard time deciding who the champion was."

NARROW MARGIN

Meanwhile, in the men’s apparatus finals, Whitlock has managed to surpass his compatriot’s score on the pommel horse event by a very tight margin. 

Smith executed a clean routine on the pommel horse to sit on the top of the scoreboard with a score of 16.033 until Whitlock, the last pommel horse competitor, outshone Smith’s performance to finish with a score of 16.133, just a tenth-of-a-point ahead of his compatriot’s score.

The British duo gazed on the giant scoreboard while waiting for Whitlock’s score, and when the score of 16.133 flashed up on the giant screen, Smith quickly grabbed their national flag to begin a double celebration.

"I had dreamed of this moment but never felt I would get emotional," said Whitlock, who also obtained a silver medal in the floor event finals behind Japanese superstar Kenzo Shirai.

"I can't believe it. I trained in the gym thousands and thousands of routines building up to this moment, so when you go clean like I did today, you can't express what you feel. I'm over the moon. It's been an amazing journey."

SHIRAI SHINES

On the men’s floor exercise finals, Japanese Kenzo Shirai executed a routine filled with daring and high-flying acrobatics and ending it with a quadruple twisting somersault, earning him a second world title in 3 years.

A slight mistake on his third tumbling pass was not enough for Shirai to flinch as the Japanese floor exercise supremo was the only competitor to surpass the 16-point barrier after finishing with a score of 16.233.

"As I experienced defeat last year, I know the importance to keep improving. This time I was able to surprise everyone with my difficulty," he said.

Russian gymnast Maria Paseka outclassed most sought-after athlete Simone Biles and the vault defending champion Hong Un-jong with two soaring leaps to obtain the vault world title.

Paseka hit her landing on both of her vaults, an Amanar and a Cheng, to finish with an average total of 15.666. Korea’s Hong Un-jong took the silver medal while American superstar Biles earned bronze.

Paseka’s gold finish sparked a gold rush for Russia, which started the second-to-the-last day of Championships with none but ended the competition with three gold medals, thanks to Paseka, Komova and Spiridonova.

Meanwhile, Greek gymnast Elftherious Petrounias displayed a jaw dropping ring performance to secure the rings world title ahead of Chinese You Hao and 2014 rings defending champion Liu Yang.

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