The International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) announced today that the Doha World Cup will be postponed until June 3-6 due to the situation with the novel coronavirus. Last week, the FIG announced that the competition would be held behind closed doors and that gymnasts from several countries would be unable to compete because of Qatar’s 14-day quarantine requirements.
The postponement of the competition potentially has several implications. First, the MAG European Championships in Baku will finish on 31st of May. That means that European MAG gymnasts who wish to compete for Olympic spots will have to fly to Doha right from Baku without a break. We might see some gymnasts such as Eleftherios Petrounias skipping Euros completely in order to focus on Olympic qualification (assuming that the epidemic slows down and neither Euros now Doha WC will be canceled).
it might also have implications for bigger countries. Countries that qualified teams to the Olympics can earn up to 2 additional spots but have three opportunities to do so – a nominative spot at the Apparatus World Cups, a non-nominative spot at the All-Around World Cup series, and a non-nominative spot at the Continental Championships. The spots are supposed to be distributed in chronological order and the spots from Apparatus World Cups were supposed to be the first ones in line. Meaning, that if Jade Carey qualifies a nominative spot through Apparatus World Cups and USA qualifies a non-nominative spot through All-Around World Cups, USA then gets two additional spots and are not eligible to win another spot through the Continental Championships. But the postponed Doha World Cup will now take place after all the Continental Championships are over, meaning that the winners of the Apparatus WC Series will not be announced till June. Logically, the Continental spots should then be distributed before the Apparatus World Cup spots. If that happens, for example, countries like China, Japan, and US might fill their quota of two spots before Doha WC, which means the contenders that are next in line in the Apparatus World Cup Series will be eligible for a spot. For example, if Jade Carey becomes ineligible for a nominative spot, Coline Devillard, Yu Linmin, or Maria Paseka might be serious contenders for that spot.
Baku World Cup is going as planned this week but some gymnasts decided not to attend. For example, Colin Van Wicklen opted to withdraw citing concerns about a potential quarantine disrupting his training. The Hungarian delegation also withdrew. The concerns about attending international competitions might be well-founded at the moment, as just today, the news broke that a Belorussian acrobatic gymnast was diagnosed with the novel coronavirus after returning from a competition in Portugal a few days ago.
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