Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina reacts during the Women's Vault event. Kammutty VP © The Peninsula
A scientific study a few years back proved gymnastics is the most difficult sport on the planet for both women and men (physically and mentally).
Ask Oksana Chusovitina, you will get an opposite answer.
At the ripe old age of 42, the Uzbek is still flourishing in the sport after spending almost three decades in action.
The veteran, who became the oldest woman gymnast to ever compete in the Summer Olympics at the Rio Games last year, stole the limelight in the finals at the 10th FIG Artistic World Cup in Doha by winning the women’s vault gold medal after a tough contest, yesterday.
Chusovitina, with her almost flawless performance amused spectators who came in good numbers to watch proceedings at Aspire Dome.
The Uzbek, who won her maiden Olympics in 1992 collected 14.166 points to overcome Australia’s Emily Little who had to content with a silver medal after a tally of 14.099 points. Slovenia’s Teja Belak secured bronze medal with 14.083 points.
A stunning performance by Chia-Hung Tang in the floor exercise was another highlight of the opening day of the finals.
The 20-year old from Chinese Taipei impressed the judges with almost a perfect show to earn a maximum of 14.366 points to win the gold medal in the event. Kazakhstan’s 17-year-old Milad Karimi won silver after falling 0.100 points behind.
It was a tough day for pre-event favourite Marian Dragulescu who was confined to bronze medal by the young brigade on the mat as the 36-yearl-old Romanian, who has an impressive tally of 29 Olympic Games, World or European Championships medals under his belt, could collect 14.100 to finish third.
The podium finishers of the event received their medals from Secretary-General of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Dr. Thani Abdulrahman Al Kuwari who also watched the proceedings of the finals.
Meanwhile, as expected, pommel horse expert Krisztian Berki, the 2012 Olympics gold medalist, won in his favourite discipline after registering 14.933 points. China’s Ruoteng Xiao (14.800) and Armenian Artur Davtyan (14.066) completed the podium line-up.
Qatar's Ahmed Al Dayani also made his appearance in the pommel horse final as a wild card entrant.
In women’s uneven bars final, Huan Luo made China proud by winning the gold medal with 14.433 points. Hungary’s Kovacs Zsofia (13.066) and Aussie Georgia-Rose Brown (13.033) claimed silver and bronze medals respectively.
In men’s rings final which was the last event of the day, Armenia’s Artur Tovmasyan picked up gold following an outstanding performance that lent him 15.133 points.
Igor Radivilov of Ukraine grabbed silver with 15.066 points followed by China’s Zou Jingyuan who won 15.033 points to win bronze medal.
Today, a total of five titles will be decided on the final day of the four-day event. The male gymnasts will be battling for honours in vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars while women’s events include finals of balance beam and floor exercise.
Oksana will be aiming for her second gold in Doha in the balance beam final while Romania’s Catalina Ponor, who struck triple gold in Athens Games in 2004 will compete in floor exercise final.
