Gymnastics World Championships: A Four-Way Tie On Uneven Bars And Other Firsts

Unprecedented: A 4-way tie for gold on Uneven Bars

It was an Uneven Bars final worth its weight in gold: For the first time in the history of the sport, four gymnasts — China’s Fan Yilin, Russians Viktoria Komova and Daria Spiridonova and American Madison Kocian — tied for the World title. Each of the four scored 15.366, setting the SSE Hydro crowd buzzing and tripling the duration of the awards ceremony.
Fan, Komova, Spiridonova and Kocian will forever be linked in the annals of Women’s Gymnastics, which has never seen anything like this. Ties for gold at Worlds have been more frequent in Men’s Gymnastics, including three-way splits on Pommel Horse in 1903 and 1992, and on High Bar in 1922. Five gymnasts tied for silver on Parallel Bars in 1922.

The first king of Britain

Since Beth Tweddle became the British women’s first World champion in 2006, the British men have been waiting for the gymnast who would win them a world crown as well. It came to an end Saturday as Max Whitlock spun his way to the Pommel Horse title, besting teammate Louis Smith by a mere tenth of the point. The two 2012 Olympic Pommel Horse medallists thus combined to produce their country’s best ever result in Gymnastics: British gymnasts on the first and second steps of the podium.
If anything helped Whitlock and Smith on Pommel Horse, it was the absence of reigning World and Olympic champion Krisztian Berki of Hungary, who did not qualify for the medal round. With a gold, three silvers and a bronze already in their pockets, Glasgow 2015 has is already Great Britain’s most successful World Championships. It’s not over yet, either: The British will have three more chances to medal tomorrow on the second day of finals.

Russia returns to the top
After failing to earn medals in team finals and the All-around competition, 2012 Olympic Vault bronze medallist Maria Paseka revived the Russian women with gold on Vault, her country’s first on the event since 2002. Paseka also deprived 2008 Olympic Vault champion Hong Un Jong of a second consecutive World title: the two competed the same vaults, though Paseka’s superior execution made the difference. Minutes later, during the incredible Uneven Bars final, Komova and Spiridonova earned Russia another two golds.

The rebound of Mr. Twist

Even in the absence of Kohei Uchimura, the Japanese hit parade continued Saturday, with twisting sensation Kenzo Shirai regaining the World Floor title he won in 2013. As Shirai slayed the audience and judges by nailing his quadruple twist final pass to win his second gold of this championships, Great Britain’s Max Whitlock was no less happy in silver, while Spain’s Rayderley Zapata won bronze.

In the name of the father

Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias came to the World Championships with one mission: win a medal on Rings to honor his father, who recently passed away. By relegating China’s You Hao and 2014 World champion Liu Yang silver and bronze, respectively, Petrounias delivered a fitting memorial.

Fan Yilin (CHN), Viktoria Komova (RUS), Daria Spiridonova (RUS) and Madison Kocian (USA) share gold

One more for Biles

Already golden in the team and All-around finals, American Simone Biles gave herself one more reason to smile, adding the bronze on Vault to her growing medal collection. The medal is Biles’s 12th at a World Championships, breaking the American record she set earlier this week.

Olympic qualifiers

Medallists from individual apparatus event finals in Glasgow advance directly to the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, provided their teams do not qualify. Ergo, Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE, gold on Still Rings), Hong Un Jong (PRK, silver on Women’s Vault) and Harutyun Merdinyan (ARM, bronze on Pommel Horse), all gymnasts whose teams did not compete at this World Championships, have qualified as individuals to next summer’s Olympics.

Rayderley Zapata (ESP, bronze on Men’s Floor) can also sleep easily, knowing that his place at the Games is secure as well, even if the Spanish men don’t qualify a team to Rio at April’s Olympic Test Event

Queens Of Gymnastics: American Women Win Their Third Consecutive World Team Title

The American women romped to their third consecutive World title in Gymnastics Tuesday night in Glasgow, establishing themselves once again as the gold medal favorite in team competition at next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio.

Heavily favored to defend their team title from 2014, the Americans more than lived up to their status as World beaters. The star-studded team, including two-time London Olympic gold medallists Gabrielle Douglas and Aly Raisman, two-time World All-around champion Simone Biles and reinforcements Margaret Nichols, Madison Kocian and Brenna Dowell, performed up to their own high expectations in finals to win their fifth World gold since 2003 in style.

In a competition that left no room for error — three gymnasts compete per event, and all three scores count — the U.S. was the only team in the eight country final not to record a fall. The Americans were in charge from their first event, Vault, and also excelled on Balance Beam and Floor Exercise, finishing with a total of 181.338 points, 5.174 above the Chinese.
Biles posted the top scores of the night on Vault, Beam and Floor, where she closed the U.S. show with a routine that included her trademark element, a double layout with half twist at the end. The 18-year-old Texan will return Thursday for the Women’s All-around final, where she is seeking her third consecutive World title.

Chinese women strike silver again
After problems on their best events in the qualification round earlier this week, the Chinese remained consistent in the final to secure the silver medal for the second straight year. Improved work on Vault and Floor Exercise, especially from newcomers Wang Yan and Mao Yi, helped make the difference for the young team on their traditionally weak apparatus. Hit Beam routines from Wang, Shang Chunsong and Fan Yilin also aided their cause, and the team’s usual excellence on Uneven Bars helped them seal the silver.

Team USA

Great Britain’s greatest accomplishment yet
After a golden performance in the same arena at the Commonwealth Games in 2014, Great Britain’s Becky Downie, Elissa Downie, Amy Tinkler, Claudia Fragapane and Kelly Simm wrote more history for themselves in the SSE Hydro Tuesday. In spite of beginning their competition with a fall from Ellie Downie on Uneven Bars, the team never gave up. Downie herself guaranteed the bronze with a smooth Vault, which she landed like a snowflake, on Britain’s last event. Tinkler, who turns 16 years old today, could not have asked for a better gift.

Russia falls from the podium
Viktoria Komova, Daria Spiridonova, Maria Paseka, Kseniia Afanaseva, Seda Tutkhalian and Maria Kharenkova had expected to contend for the podium but finished off it for the first time since 2007. After 2012 Olympic All-around silver medallist Viktoria Komova fell from the Uneven Bars, the Russian machine began to break down. The team cracked most on Balance Beam, where Tutkhalian, the 2014 Youth Olympic champion, Kharenkova and Komova all fell. Even Ksenia Afanaseva, the 2011 World Champion on Floor, could not help a few shuffles on her landings.