Melbourne World Cup is over and it looks like Jade Carey is going to the Olympics, since she has gathered 90 points on both vault and floor. Theoretically, Yu Linmin can tie her on vault if she wins gold in either Baku or Doha and Vanessa Ferrari or Anastasia Bachynska can tie her on floor (they would need to win gold in both Baku and Doha), but neither scenario is likely. In addition, in case of a tie, the tie-breaking procedure would be based on average scores from the three counting meets. Carey’s vault average is 14.822, which Yu currently has an average score of 14.366 from her two wins. On floor, Carey’s average over the three meets where she won gold is 14.477 while neither Ferrari nor Bachynska managed to break 14 at World Cups.
On beam, Emma Nedov is still in the lead but Urara Ashikawa is on track to surpass her at one of the next World Cups. Ashikawa was the first person to get two wins on beam in the series and currently has 60 points while Nedov has 75 points (1st, 2nd, and 3rd place). If Ashikawa wins one more cup, she will qualify a nominative spot on beam.
On bars, Fan Yilin is still in the lead even though she was unable to come to Melbourne. Anastasia Iliankova had a fall and Daria Spiridonova made a mistake. Technically, Spiridonova got 30 points as both Diana Varinska and Georgia Godwin who placed higher than her qualified to the Olympics at the 2019 World Championships. However, even if Spiridonova wins gold in both Baku and Doha, she will have to compete with Fan Yilin in average scores. Fan currently has 14.855 while Spiridonova scored 13.533 in Melbourne and that score would be counted towards her average in case of a tie.
For men, the biggest news of the competition was that Hidetaka Miyachi plans to stop fighting for a nominative spot on high bar. Miyachi is currently tied with Epke Zonderland after Zonderland’s win in Melbourne got him to 90 points as well. If the tie was broken right now, Zonderland would win it because of his higher average score. Miyachi fell in the final and finished only 5th.
Eleftherios Petrounias is keeping the fans’ hopes alive because he was able to win gold on rings and get 30 points. However, he would need to win in both Baku and Doha and average over 15.2 at both competitions in order to win the tie against Liu Yang and this will be a tall order.
So here's how it stands- Liu Yang's scores for his 90 points are 15.133, 15.166 and 15.2.
— MAGNASTICS (@magnastics) February 22, 2020
Petrounias just took 30 points with a 15.066- if he wins Doha and Baku he needs to average above 15.216 between those 2 comps to get the rings spot ahead of Liu.
On floor, Raderley Zapata is still in the lead with 85 points but and his main goal will be to prevent anyone to get a higher sum of points in the next competitions. On pommel horse, Weng Hao is still in the lead alone with 90 points, while Kohei Kameyama placed third in Melbourne, after Stephen Nedoroscik and Saeedreza Keikha, and currently has 80 points.
On vault, Jorge Vega Lopez will now lead with 80 points after the win in Melbourne. On parallel bars, Vladislav Poliashov got the coveted 90 points and is now leading over You Hao with 85 points. Poliashov is slated to compete in both Baku and Doha, so he will try to prevent You from getting another win.
The Apparatus World Cup series will continue with Baku World Cup on 12-15 of March and Doha World Cup on 18-21 of March.
Photos by Emily Chan for Gymnovosti
The whole +1 specialist system is a hot mess and ridiculously stupid from day 1…proven even more so now since both China and Iran were not allowed to enter Australia by the AUS government. Additionally, when are they going to redistribute points? There were supposed to after Worlds and haven’t done so yet. Also, why are they allowing ineligible athletes to compete for spots? Varinska and Godwin are already qualified so they shouldn’t be competing. Just silliness.
Glad FIG is discontinuing this method for the next quad.