Results
Things didn’t go as planned for Brandon Wynn of the USA, who fell on his rings dismount and earned a disappointing 14.633. However, his score landed him in 8th place and secured him a spot in the finals, so we’ll see the reigning bronze medalist on rings again on Saturday. He’ll be joined by Denis Abliazin and Aleksandr Balandin of Russia, Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece, Igor Radiolov and Oleg Vernaiev of Ukraine, and Japan’s Koji Yamamuro.
American Josh Dixon also had an interesting experience on the floor exercise. The competitor just before him scratched at the last minute, leaving Dixon with ten seconds to make his way onto the floor and begin his routine. He managed to overcome the mental stress and scored a 14.3 for his routine, but unfortunately it was not enough to earn him a spot in the event finals. He finished in 14th place overall. Daniel Keatings (GBR) also had a disappointing day on floor exercise, where he fell after under-rotating his final tumbling pass. He earned a 13.633 for the routine and landed in 24th place. Teammate Frank Baines just missed out on the floor final after tying with Spain’s Christian Bazan with a 14.7 for eighth place. Bazan will compete in the finals alongside Diego Hypolito (BRA), Abliazin, Kieran Behan (IRL), Claudio Capelli and Pablo Braegger of Switzerland, and Filip Ude of Croatia.
On pommel horse, it was Krisztian Berki (HUN) who took the top qualifying spot with a 15.6, just 0.033 ahead of Kohei Kameyama of Japan. There was a three-way tie for the 3rd qualifying spot between Robert Seligman (CRO), Oleg Vernaiev (UKR), and Keatings, all of whom earned 15.000. Joining them in the finals will be Filip Ude (CRO), Abdulla Azimov (UZB), and Nikolay Kuksenkov (RUS).
On the women’s side, Sophie Scheder (GER) hit a beautiful uneven bars routine to earn a 14.80 and take the top spot going into finals. Her teammate Kim Bui took the third qualifying spot with a 14.200, while Natalie Vaculik (CAN) qualified in fourth with a 14.066. Canada’s other competitor, Aleeza Yu, will also be in the final. She qualified with a 13.3 to take the 7th qualifying spot. The bars field will be rounded out by Anna Rodionova (RUS), who scored a 14.566, Noemi Makra of Hungary, Ana Martins of Portugal, and Marta Pihan-Kulezsa of Poland.
On vault, Germany’s Janine Berger and Kim Bui took the top two qualifying positions with a 14.533 and a 13.949 respectively. Noemi Makra (HUN), Paula Plichta (POL), Hiu Wong (HKG), Kirsten Beckett (RSA), Jasmin Mader (AUT), and Marina Nekrasova (AZE) will join them in the finals on Saturday.
Tune in HERE on Thursday at 4:00pm CET, 11:00am EST for live updates during day two of qualifications.
Results / Finals Qualifiers
Men's Floor
Pommel Horse
Still Rings
Women's Vault
Uneven Bars
Day two of qualifications has wrapped up in Cottbus, with the field now set for all event finals.
There will be some big names competing in the men’s vault final on Sunday. Denis Abliazin (RUS) and Oleg Vernaiev (UKR) tied for the top qualifying spot with a pair of 14.833’s for their high-flying vaults, while Diego Hypolito (BRA) took the fourth spot with a 14.633. Also making the finals were Tomi Tuuha of Finland, Rayderley Zapata Santana of Spain, Andreas Toba of Germany, Igor Radivilov of Ukraine, and Michael Fussenegger of Austria. It will be a close battle for the title, as all qualifiers scored between a 14.4 and 14.8 for their qualifying vaults.
Moving on to parallel bars, there was one notable face missing from qualification today. Brandon Wynn (USA) was forced to scratch after he suffered a foot injury on rings yesterday. He chose to skip parallel bars in order to save himself for the rings final, where he will surely challenge for a medal. Fellow American Chris Brooks scored a 14.733, which was good enough to land him the 7th qualifying spot for Sunday’s final. Qualifying just ahead of him was Frank Baines (GBR), who scored an even 15.0. The top qualifying spot went to Vernaiev, whose 15.766 dominated the rest of the field by almost 0.5 points. Also competing on Sunday will be Mitja Petkovsek (SLO), Frenchmen Hamilton Sabot and Cyril Tommasone, Vasileios Tsolakidis (GRE), and Koji Uematsu (JPN).
The high bar brought many spills and thrills, as it usually does. Both gymnasts from the USA will be competing for a medal on Sunday alongside other big names such as Andreas Bretschneider and Andreas Toba of Germany, Daniel Keatings (GBR), and Vernaiev. American Josh Dixon was able to redeem himself after a disappointing floor qualification, scoring a 14.4 to take the 7th qualifying position. Teammate Chris Brooks earned the top spot with a beautiful routine that scored a whopping 15.4 and placed him 0.6 ahead of the second place qualifier. Rounding out the field will be Oliver Hegi of Switzerland and Petrix Aguiar Barbosa of Brazil.
Like the high bar, the women’s balance beam offered lots of excitement as well as falls. The top qualifying spot went to Andreea Munteanu of Romania, whose back handspring- back handspring- full twisting layout wowed the crowd and the judges. She received a 14.8, which was nearly 0.8 points above second place qualifier Katarzyna Jurowska of Poland. Both Canadian women, Aleeza Yu and Natalie Vaculik, qualified to the finals with scores of 14.033 and 13.566 respectively. Germany will also send two competitors to the finals, with Cagla Akyol placing 4th and Sophie Scheder in the 7th spot. Scheder left out the side-somi split jump combo she performed during podium training, instead performing just a side somi, and earned a 13.466 for her routine. This was enough to place her in the finals, just ahead of 8th place qualifier Maria Kharenkova (RUS). Daria Spiridonova of Russia fell twice during her routine and failed to advance to the finals, while teammate Anna Rodionova scratched from the balance beam competition. The remaining spot in the balance beam final instead went to Noemi Makra of Hungary with a 13.733.
On women’s floor exercise, Natalie Vaculik (CAN) wasn’t able to land her two-and-a-half twist on her feet and therefore failed to qualify to the finals. However, fellow Canadian Aleeza Yu had better luck, scoring a 13.5 to qualify into the finals in fifth place. Joining Yu in the finals will be Munteanu, who earned a 14.0 for the top qualifying spot, Marta Pihan-Kulezsa of Poland, Kharenkova, Kim Bui and Akyol of Germany, Sasa Golob of Slovenia, and Kirsten Beckett of South Africa.
Finals for women’s vault and uneven bars, men’s floor exercise, pommel horse, and still rings will take place Saturday, March 15th at 2:00pm CET. Tune in for live updates HERE.
Results/Finals Qualifiers
Beam
Women's Floor
Men's Vault
Parallel Bars
High Bar
Click here for Day 1 Results and Finalists
Saturday marked the first day of event finals at the 2014 Cottbus World Cup.
The first event of the day was men’s floor exercise. Denis Abliazin (RUS) took the title with a score of 15.525. His routine included a full-twisting double layout, 1.5 twist to double front, and a triple twist. In second place was Claudio Capelli (SUI) with a 15.25, beating out longtime great Diego Hypolito (BRA) by a mere 0.025 for the silver medal. Hypolito took the bronze. Irish floor specialist Kieran Behan (IRL) finished in fourth place with a 14.75, but he told Gymnastike in a post-competition that he will be upgrading several passes for future competitions in order to contend for the titles. Behan was followed by Pablo Braegger (SUI) with a 14.70, Christian Bazan (ESP) with a 14.325, Filip Ude (CRO) with a 13.275, and Eduard Shaulov (UZB) with a 12.45.
On women’s vault, Germany took the gold and silver medals. Janine Berger scored a 14.7125 combined score to earn the gold. Her first vault, a front handspring front 1.5 twisting layout, set her apart from the rest of the field. Teammate Kim Bui took silver with a 14.2625, while bronze went to Paula Plichta (POL) with a 14.100. Noemi Makra (HUN) placed fourth with a 14.012, Kirsten Beckett (RSA) took fifth with a 13.9875, and Marina Nekrasova (AZE) landed in sixth with a 13.625. The seventh and eighth places went to Hiu Wong (HKG) and Jasmin Mader (AUT) with scores of 13.5625 and 13.425 respectively.
On the pommel horse, it proved to be a game of staying on the horse, as the medals went to the three competitors without falls. Hungarian Krisztian Berki took gold with a dominant 15.55, a score that beat the next place by 0.65 points. The silver went to Kohei Kameyama (JPN) with a 14.9, and just behind him was Robert Seligman (CRO) with a 14.875. Daniel Keatings (GBR) performed well despite a fall, but his score of 14.525 was not enough for a spot in the medals, and he landed in fourth place. Following him were Oleg Vernaiev (UKR) with a 14/45, Filip Ude (CRO) with a 14.25, Nikolay Kuksenkov (RUS) with a 14.1, and Abdulla Azimov (UZB), who earned a 13.85.
In the last rotation of the day, the men took to the still rings while the women competed on uneven bars. American Brandon Wynn (USA) hit a clean routine despite a minor foot injury earlier this week, scoring a 15.425. However, the world bronze medalist was squeezed out of the medals and ended in fifth place overall. The gold went to Denis Abliazin (RUS), who scored a 15.700. Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE) was second with a 15.65, and there was a two-way tie for third place between Alexandr Balandin (RUS) and Koji Yamamuro (JPN), each with a 15.45. Coming sixth was Igor Radivilov (UKR) with a 15.325. Rounding out the field were Oleg Vernaiev (UKR) and Ibrahim Colak (TUR), who scored 15.2 and 15.05 respectively.
The German fans had good reason to cheer during the uneven bars final, as their countrywoman Sophie Scheder (GER) dominated the rest of the field with a 14.925. Her routine included a Shaposhnikova, a straddled Jaeger, and a full twisting double back dismount, which she stuck. Anna Rodionova (RUS) scored a 14.625 to take silver, and a 14.275 was enough to earn Noemi Makra (HUN) the bronze. Fourth place went to Kim Bui (GER) with a 14.125, and birthday-girl Natalie Vaculik (CAN) ended up fifth with a 13.85. Sixth place belonged to Ana Martins (POR) with her score of 13.30, and seventh went to Marta Pihan-Kulezsa (POL), who scored a 13.225. Aleeza Yu (CAN) scored a 13.10 for eighth place.
The final day of competition will take place on Sunday, March 16th at 2:00pm CET. We will see many of the same names again in both the men’s and women’s fields. Americans Chris Brooks and Josh Dixon will be competing in the parallel bars and high bar finals. You can follow the live updates from the competition HERE.
Complete Results: Day 2 Cottbus Finals
Men's Vault
Parallel Bars
High Bar
Beam
Women's Floor
