DOHA: Former world champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines will be among the stars who will be looking to win their pet events and points at the 15th FIG Artistic Apparatus Gymnastics World Cup here from tomorrow.
The four-day event starts with the two-day qualifications tomorrow at the Aspire Dome.
Doha is the second stop on the FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup series, where top-ranked specialists on each apparatus garner points so as to lay claim for a place in the 2023 FIG Artistic World Championships.
Germany’s Cottbus hosted the first while the third and fourth will be held in Baku (Uzbekistan) and Cairo (Egypt).
Some of the world’s best gymnasts have registered for this year’s event that will be held from March 1-4 with 112 men (MAG) and 42 women (WAG) participants.
Filipino ace and former world champion Yulo, who looked focused at the trainings on the vault and floor today, will hope to pick up top spots following his unimpressive start in Cottbus where he could win just a bronze on the parallel bars.
The 23-year-old Tokyo Olympian struggled in his pet event, the floor exercise, where he finished 20th among the 52-player field with a score of 13.400.
Yulo registered 6.400 in degree of difficulty but managed to score 7.000 in execution, and also failed to advance in men’s floor exercise and rings events.
Chinese are back in Doha
Tokyo 2020 Olympic All-Around silver medallist Xiao Ruoteng will be back with a strong Chinese contingent that also includes two Olympic champions, Rings gold medallist Liu Yang and Parallel Bars gold medallist Zou Jingyuan who is also the reigning world champion on the apparatus and silver medallist on Still Rings.
Another top Chinese gymnasts Lin Chaopan, a three-time world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, will also be around to regale the fans.
Xiao and Lin will take part in Floor Exercise and Horizontal Bar only while Zou will be seen in action on the Rings.
Reigning Olympic champion on Floor Exercise, Artem Dolgopyat, Uzbekistan’s Abdulla Azimov, who won Pommel Horse gold in Cottbus, 2022 World Vault champion Artur Davtyan of Armenia and Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun will be looking to maintain their impressive start at the Apparatus World Cup series in the Qatari capital.
Kovtun will be aiming for a sixth consecutive World Cup title on Parallel Bars.
Others who will be in action include emerging Pommel Horse stars from Armenia, Gagik Khachikyan and Nariman Kurbanov, Still Rings specialist Mahdi Ahmad Kohani of Iran and Vault contender Mahdi Olfati, also of Iran.
Turkey’s 2019 World Still Rings champion Ibrahim Colak and eight-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan will be among other top stars who will look forward to pick up crucial points.
Great Britain’s young gymnast Luke Whitehouse, who finished second on the floor in Doha last year, will be hoping to make amends this time.
