Kohei Uchimura of Japan competes in the men’s horizontal bar qualification during day two of the 48th FIG Artistic Gymnastics Championships at Doha’s Aspire Dome yesterday. (Pic: Syed Omar)
DOHA: Kohei Uchimura and Xiao Ruoteng lived up to their billings as top-ranked teams dominated the final day of men’s qualification round at 48th edition of Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Doha 2018 at Aspire Dome, yesterday.
With Team Russia ensuring their first place with 258.402 points, giants China, Japan, USA and Great Britain forced a lot of shuffling atop the points standings to qualify for the finals on an eventful day.
Chinese gymnasts who performed in yesterday’s last session, heralded their presence with an outstanding show, finishing second in team event qualification after aggregating an aggregate of 257.836 points.
Russia, China, Japan, USA, Britain, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Switzerland wrapped up the team qualification, securing the top-eight positions respectively with France slipping to 12th position.
China’s World champion Xiao Ruoteng was the star of the day as he replaced Russia’s Nagornyy Nikita (87.098) in Men’s All-Around Qualification after collecting 87.332 points.
Another Chinese gymnast, Zou Jingyuan will go into the Parallel Bars final as top qualifier after marking a whopping 15.800 points with compatriot Lin Chaopan finishing the event’s qualification in third spot.
Earlier in the day, all eyes were on ten-time World and two-time Olympic champion Uchimura as Japanese gymnasts begun their titles hunt, showing remarkable form barring mistakes in Pommel Horse.
Uchimura, hailed as ‘King’ Kohei, competed in three apparatus and showed his class by topping the Horizontal Bar to top the individual standings with a score of 14.600.
“I come to the Worlds and everybody is looking at me like I am the king,” said Uchimura, who is still recovering from an ankle injury.
“The other Japanese gymnasts don’t look at me like that but when I compete I feel it, I feel the pressure. I feel like I have to do well.”
“If I competed in six events I could say I was tired but I didn’t,” Uchimura said. “But even though I didn’t I felt kind of tired by Pommel and I haven’t done good training on Pommel (recently),” he added.
Japan finished the team qualification third with 253.312 points, and the two-time 2017 World Championship gold medallist Kenzo Shirai also deserved the credit for a good start for them as he took 6th spot in the Men’s All-Around event with 83.198 points. Shirai also finished second in Men’s Floor qualification behind Russia’s Dalaloyan Artur (14.833)
Meanwhile, American gymnasts also sparkled yesterday finishing the team qualification on 4th position with 250.362 points. Five-time US National champion Mikulak Samuel excelled for the side to finish third in Men’s All-Around qualification after winning 86.598 points. He was second behind Uchimura in Horizontal Bar with 14.566 points.
“This has been a year and a half of work, and I feel that this is the most comfortable that I have ever been on this grand of a stage,” said Samuel.
“I stick to what I have been doing. I keep my routines and my rituals the same, and I just try to keep doing the same exact process during this entire week.”
Britain’s Whitlock Max, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, topped the Pommel Horse qualification with 14.966 points.
Rio Olympics champion, Petrounias Eleftherios also launched his Doha Worlds campaign on a high note as the Greek gymnasts secured 15.266 to finish Rings qualification on top.
“It was a good performance if you think that I haven’t done anything since Europeans,” said Petrounias, referring to his gold medal-winning performances at the European Championships in August, when he last performed a full rings routine. “I used all my experience and everything was good.”
Today, will mark a start of two-day qualification round for star-studded women line-up with Olympic superstar Simone Biles set to make her return to international events.
