DOHA: Panama’s talented vault gymnast Karla Navas showed grit and determination to top the qualification in a field that also featured seasoned Oksana Chusovitina at the the 16^th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Championships here at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall on Wednesday.

Total eight gymnasts in the WAG event qualified including Chusovitina and India’s Dipa Karmakar.

Karla, who won back-to-back bronze medals in Cottbus and Baku World Cups, accumulated 13.916 points ahead of Bulgaria’s Valentina Georgieva (13.316) and North Korea’s An Chang-Ok (13.166).

The performance at the qualifiers will boost her confidence to aim for a top finish, but it remains to be seen how the 2022 Pan American champion performs in the final on Thursday.

17-year-old Georgieva, who has already secured her berth in March for this summer’s Olympic Games, was docked -0.10 points during her effort which saw her finish behind Karla in the qualification.

The talented Bulgarian teenager was born in 2006 in Sofia. She began gymnastics at age seven at Rakovski National Sports Hall in her hometown. Georgieva now competes for the Levski Spartak club under her career-long coach Filip Yanev.

She accumulated enough points on vault by the third of four 2024 World Cup events to qualify for the Paris Games, but it is crystal clear that the teenager won’t settle for less than a gold in the Qatari capital.

North Korea’s reigning Asian champion An Chang-ok looked super on the vault, but a sudden lapse of concentration saw her receive a penalty (-0.10).

The 20-year-old Pyongyang-born gymnast, who represented her country at the 2019 World Championships, will also be looking forward to a medal in the uneven bars, where she’s a reigning champion.

Two central Asian gymnasts — Aida Bauyrzhanova of Kazakhstan and Nazanin Teymurova of Azerbaijan – also made it to the finals along with Patricie Makovickova of the Czech Republic.