Panama’s Karla wins top honour in women’s vault

DOHA: Panama’s talented vault gymnast Karla Navas showed grit and determination to win the women’s Vault gold in a field that also featured eight-time Olympian seasoned Oksana Chusovitina at the 16^th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Championships here at Ladies Sports Hall on Friday.

Karla walked away with the top honour with an impressive effort of 13.850 points, though she was closely challenged by North Korea’s reigning Asian champion An Chang-ok (13.833), the Panama gymnast was able to top the podium

An looked super on the vault, but a sudden lapse of concentration saw her finish behind Karla.

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.

Bulgaria’s 17-year-old Valentina Georgieva (13.466), who has already secured her berth in March for this summer’s Olympic Games, finished third.

India’s Dipa Karmakar (13.333) came close and so was  Chusovitina (13.283).

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

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 but couldn’t do much.