The Melbourne Worl Cup qualification continued on Friday with beam and floor for women and vault, parallel bars, and high bar for men. While there are clear leaders among women on vault (Jade Carey), bars (Fan Yilin), and floor (Jade Carey again), beam was the only even where no one managed to get two wins across five competitions. Emma Nedov and Li Qi came the closest with one win and one second place each and are currently in the lead with 75 points for Nedov and 73 for Li. Since Chinese gymnasts are not present in Melbourne, it is a chance for Nedov to secure her leadership on the event and she qualified to the final in third with 13.100. Urara Ashikawa who was not part of the Japanese team at Worlds is leading the qualification with 13.766. Ashikawa has 30 points from her first place on beam at the Cottbus World Cup and can potentially get close to Nedov but will not overcome her just yet. Anastasia Bachynska who was not able to qualify to the Olympics through the World Championships is also trying for that beam spot. She is currently ranked fourth in the series and finished the qualification in second place (with the highest D score in the field) but she will likely need three wins in order to place higher than both Ashikawa and Nedov.
Nedov beam pic.twitter.com/nfk5vvLnfd
— 体操光年 (@chngym) February 21, 2020
Ashikawa beam, Godwin fx pic.twitter.com/DDIpPBSEz4
— 体操光年 (@chngym) February 21, 2020
Jade Carey who already has two first places on floor and is ranked first on this event in the series is very likely to win another gold. She has a much higher difficulty than the rest of the World Cup field and significantly cleaned her execution to get 14.366 in the qualification, over 0.6 higher than Vanessa Ferrari who finished second. However, it is still not over for the rest of the competitors on floor as Carey will probably secure a nominative spot on vault and the floor spot will go to the second-best ranked gymnast. Currently, the battle for the second place is between two Italians, Lara Mori and Vanessa Ferrari. Mori has 75 point and Ferrari has 70 but Ferrari scored higher than Mori in the qualification in Melbourne and and, if she places second to Carey again on Sunday, she will be ranked second in the series after this competition.
Jade Carey fx 6.0/14.366 pic.twitter.com/R24lDpGf6I
— Aus Gymnastics Blog (@ozgymblog) February 21, 2020
Claudia Fragapane who has been recovering from injuries in both 2018 and 2019 and did not have a chance to compete at the World Cup series until the end of 2019 when she went to Cottbus. However, both in Cottbus and in Melbourne, she did not manage to advance to the finals and has effectively ended her quest for the nominative spot, since there are only two World Cups left. Fragapane said the preparation for this competition was stalled by illness.
— Claudia Fragapane (@claudia_frag) February 21, 2020
On vault for men, Jorge Vega Lopez is leading the qualification with 14.66 but it will be a close competition in the final, since all the competitors scored within less than 0.3. Lopez is currently ranked second with 64 points and Hidenobu Yonekura who is ranked first finished just outside of the final in Melbourne. However, quite a few strong vaulters were not able to qualify through the World Championships and will give their all at World Cups as this is their last chance. For example, the 2019 silver European medalist on vault Andrey Medvedev who had a poor showing in Stuttgart due to an injury has been working exclusively in vault for the past few months in order to prepare for the World Cups. Yahor Sharamkou who placed fourth at the same European Championships has lower difficulty (5.6 and 5.2 vaults) but often places high due to his execution scores. Audrys Nin Reyes, the gold PanAmerican Games medalist on vault is also very much in the running and he won gold on the event at the last World Cup in Cottbus.
On parallel bars, You Hao and Vladislav Poliashov are currently tied for the first place in the rankings with 85 points. You is not in Melbourne and Poliashov has a chance to get another 30 points and make sure he will not be at the Olympics and not as an alternate this time. However, in the qualification, Poliashov placed second with 15.100 after Yusuke Tanaka with 15.166.
On high bar, it is a battle between two HB kings, Epke Zonderland and Hidetaka Miyachi. Miyachi is ranked first with 90 points and Zonderland – second with 85. However, if Zonderland wins in Melbourne, he will tie with Miyachi and can potentially win the tie-break. Zonderland finished first in the qualification with 14.266, while Miyachi placed fourth with 14.133.
The finals will take place on Saturday (2am ET, 11pm PT) and Sunday (11pm ET, 8pm PT) and are expected to be shown on the Olympic Channel, Kayo, and a number of channel in other countries.
Photo: Emily Chan for Gymnovosti
