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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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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