Romania’s Larisa Iordache (ROU) continued her winning ways Friday at the Doha World Challenge Cup in Qatar’s capital city, winning gold on Balance Beam and Floor Exercise Friday as the competition drew to a close.
Iordache showed clean exercises on both Beam (14.850) and Floor (14.425) to complete a near sweep of the event titles in Doha. The 17-year-old Romanian, the latest in a long series of Romanian women to achieve greatness at the World Cup level, also won Vault during the first day of finals. Her teammate Diana Bulimar, who underwent knee surgery last fall, also looked strong, taking silver on Floor (14.300) and finishing fourth on Beam (13.650) with a watered down exercise (5.3 difficulty score).
Australia’s Mary Anne Monckton matched Iordache in difficulty on Beam (both routines carried a 6.3 D-score) and came close in execution for the silver (14.700), edging former World Vault medalist Phan Thi Ha Thanh (13.875), who got bronze.
Newcomer Isabela Onyshko (CAN) showed an expressive, original Floor routine for the bronze (13.725).
Armenia also continued its excellence in the men’s competition, with Artur Davtyan winning the country its third gold of the Cup on Vault (15.262 average). Teammates Harutuym Merindyan and Artur Tovmasyan won Pommel Horse and Still Rings, respectively, on Thursday.
Though his second vault lacked some difficulty compared to his competitors, Davtyan won the day via extremely high execution scores (9.625 and 9.700). Davtyan’s exceptionally clean form on vault was held off Japanese challengers Yusuke Saito (15.237 average) and Kenzo Shirai (15.200 average), who claimed silver and bronze.
Former European Parallel Bars champion Marcel Nguyen (GER), who qualified sixth to the event finals, upgraded his difficulty and execution to share the gold with Epke Zonderland (NED) in the final. Both scored 15.450 points. Two-time World Parallel Bars champion Mitja Petkovsec (SLO) took bronze (15.175).
Zonderland, king of connected release skills on Horizontal Bar, hit a daring routine that included a Kolman to immediate Gaylord II combination for the gold on his specialty (15.750). Paul Ruggeri (USA), already a silver medallist on Floor, added a second silver (15.350), while Dzmitry Barkalau (BLR) took bronze (15.200).
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