China’s Zhang Jin during floor qualifying yesterday. Picture: Syed Omar
DOHA: Rivals Russia and China yesterday dominated the women’s team qualifying round but USA finished the preliminary stage on top and will go as favourites to win the title at the 48th edition of Artistic Gymnastics World Championships Doha 2018.
Russia, after an overall good show at Aspire Dome yesterday, finished second with 165.497 points, falling around 9 points short of America’s Saturday’s tally of 174.429 points. China followed Russia on third with 165.196 points, while Canada (163.897) and Brazil (162.529) secured fourth and fifth positions respectively.
With 8 berths available in tomorrow’s final, Japan, France and Germany completed the frame. As expected it was a tight contest between the Russian and Chinese gymnasts and the formers should be happy to finish second after costly mistakes by Angelina Melnikova.
“Because it was competition, I think we were nervous and that’s why we had some mistakes,” Russia’s Aliya Mustafina said yesterday.
“Our cooperation, our coaches and of course our mood have to be proper.”
China’s Liu Tingting said her team needs to avoid mistakes in battle for the title.
Russia’s Angelina Melnikova during the women’s qualifying round at Aspire Dome, yesterday.
“We’ll try to fix the problems we faced today, because we still have one day to go before the team final.”
The top three remained unchanged in women’s all-around qualifying with American superstar Simone Biles, who brushed aside kidney stone on Saturday, leading the coveted list followed by team-mate Morgan Hurd and Japan’s Mai Murakami.
After a shaky performance in the team event, Russia’s Melnikova did well to take 5th spot in all-around event. Canada’s Elsabeth Black was also impressive finishing 6th in all-around and was confident of doing well in the final.
“I’ll probably keep the same routines, try to clean things up and work on the consistency,” she said.
On her team which finished fourth in qualifying, she said: “I’m very proud of how everyone on the team did. They all held themselves up high — chins up and a positive attitude — and really put it all out there on the floor.”
