Rune Hermans, Axelle Klinckaert, and Nina Derwael

With world championships happening in Doha later this year, the Doha World Cup this weekend proved to be one of the more popular world cups in recent memory as gymnasts flocked from all over the globe to get some early experience in the arena.

Especially successful in Doha were the Belgians, with Nina Derwael taking the gold on uneven bars and the bronze on beam while Axelle Klinckaert won the gold on floor in her first major competition back since getting injured prior to the Olympic Games in 2016 and Rune Hermans finished fourth on bars and fifth on floor with tidy performances on both events.

Derwael was fantastic on bars, performing her difficult set with ease to earn a 15.3, not only her highest international score of the quad, but one of the highest overall among every athlete competing, a hugely impressive feat as she prepares to fight for the titles at both Euros and worlds later this year.

With bars almost easy for Derwael at this point, beam is where she is beginning to impress me most, especially as she continues improving in her consistency and execution, especially on her flawless dance elements. She got the bronze there with a 13.4, getting an 8.3 E score for her solid flight series, gorgeous front aerial to split jump to back handspring, excellent wolf turn, and just a tiny check on her illusion turn, looking ready to also potentially challenge for the final there at worlds this year.

On floor, Klinckaert performed her awesome new Harry Potter routine with tons of personality, and some excellent tumbling as well. She just just a small hop on the double layout and she was a little underrotated at the end of her front tuck through to double tuck, but overall it was a fabulous routine and it’s great seeing her back as a highly productive member of the Belgian team.

Hermans doesn’t have a ton of bars difficulty, but she had one of the cleanest routines of the bunch, earning a 13.833 to place fourth in what ended up being a pretty tough field. Floor is where she really shines, though, and she came incredibly close to winning the title, but an out-of-bounds landing caused her to get three tenths in penalties, holding her back to fifth place just two tenths away from the title with a 13.133. Aside from the out-of-bounds, she was remarkably clean in both her tumbling and her dance, with her 2½ to punch front looking especially strong.

The vault title went to the legendary Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, who averaged a 14.433 for her Rudi and tsuk 1½. The Rudi was a little rough around the edges, and I almost wish she would stick to the full, which is always much cleaner…but the tsuk was fantastic here and even with the weaker Rudi, she still proved to be much ahead of the rest of the field.

Also medaling in the vault final were Pyon Rye Yong of North Korea, who looked solid with her Yurchenko double and her Rudi to average a 14.383 for silver, and last year’s European champion, Coline Devillard of France, who hit both of her attempts for a 13.949 average, edging out Hungary’s Boglarka Devai by under a tenth to take the bronze.

Devai, who showed a strong Lopez here, was a bit weaker than usual on her DTY, keeping her out of the medal race, and we then saw Liu Jinru of China and Kim Su Jong of North Korea in a close fifth and sixth place, respectively, with Liu crashing her tsuk double while Kim was a bit too shy on her difficulty to challenge.

Eleonora Afanasyeva of Russia and Teja Belak of Slovenia rounded out the field in seventh and eighth place, with Belak coming into the final from a solid fourth place, but a miscalculation on her run caused her to do just a handspring front pike instead of her usual handspring front layout full, taking her difficulty down by over a point to keep her from challenging.

Behind Derwael on bars, we saw Uliana Perebinosova of Russia win the silver with a hit routine, much to her mother’s delight, while Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos of France took the bronze with a 14.400 for a clean routine of her own. Her teammate, Louise Vanhille, hit her routine for a 13.533 for sixth place, while the rest of the field struggled a bit, as Du Siyu of China placed fifth with a 13.833, Nagi Kajita of Japan was seventh with a 12.866, and Lara Mori of Italy was eighth with just a 9.4 after several rhythm breaks and falls.

De Jesus Dos Santos came back to win the title on beam about half a point ahead of teammate Marine Boyer, who had the higher difficulty but grabbed the beam following her double wolf turn. The rest of her routine was fantastic, however, as was De Jesus Dos Santos’ set, which featured a punch front to split jump, solid layout series, and a little step on her double tuck dismount for a 13.933.

Overall it was a good competition on beam, with Derwael in third, Yuki Uchiyama of Japan in fourth with a 13.366 after a solid set that included a beautiful layout mount, Nora Feher of Hungary in fifth with just a couple of minor bobbles, Kajita in sixth with a wobble on her flight series, and Adela Sajn of Slovenia finishing seventh, overrotating her double spin, but fighting through for a 12.1.

The only fall came from the Czech Republic’s Aneta Holasova, who missed her flight series, though she came back with a fab front aerial to split jump, solid switch ring, and double tuck with a step to finish eighth.

Both Elisa Meneghini of Italy and Kim Su Jong of North Korea tied Klinckaert on floor, all posting totals of 13.333 with 5.3 D scores and 8.033 E scores. Of the three, I think Kim had the most polished routine, but none of the three were perfect and all were similar in terms of small mistakes made with landings and such, I see why the judges were confused with how the ranking should wind up.

Meneghini, ranked third coming into the final, was a bit low and short on all of her passes, and I’d probably put her third in this group, but it was nice to see her back at a major international competition for the first time since Rio and I hope we can continue seeing some improvement from her. As for Kim, she’s easily one of the strongest floor performers I’ve ever seen from North Korea, and her tumbling was fantastic, with a solid tucked full-in, double full to punch front tuck, and 2½ to punch front all done incredibly well. Her one issue was her form at the end of her 1½ to front full, but as a whole she showed a lot of personality and style with her set, and I really enjoyed watching her stand out in a tough field.

Both Mori and Taeja James of Great Britain had the kinds of routines that could’ve easily taken gold here, but Mori ended up fourth with a 13.266 while James was sixth with a 13.133 after both struggled in the final. Mori looked great on her full-in, and most of her tumbling lines had solid landings, but her form left a bit to be desired, especially in her triple full and double pike, while James was a bit wild with the form in her tumbling in addition to going out-of-bounds in one of her passes.

Rounding out the field was Boyer in seventh with a 13.033 for a mostly clean routine, though she had a couple problems with her landings in her first two passes, Kajita in eighth with a 12.666 after some form issues in most of her tumbling, and Liu in ninth with an 11.666 after going for a double layout to punch front, which ended up being short and stumbled.

In the men’s competition, China and Ukraine split the golds with two apiece, while Russia and Croatia each got to top the podium once.

Russia’s Dmitrii Lankin won the floor title with a 14.733, followed by the first-year senior and new fan favorite Carlos Edriel Yulo of the Philippines with a 14.433 for silver and Ryohei Kato of Japan with a 14.200 for bronze.

On pommel horse, Zou Jingyuan of China was the gold medalist with a 15.100 for his brilliant routine, while Lee Chih Kai of Chinese Taipei won the silver with a 14.800 for his flairs-heavy set and Alec Yoder of the United States won the bronze with a 14.700. The up-and-comer Rhys McClenaghan of Ireland had a good, but not perfect, set to finish fourth with a 14.333.

Igor Radivilov of Ukraine won the titles on both rings and vault, looking super clean on both. Ibrahim Colak of Turkey showed difficulty and precision in his rings routine to earn the silver with a 15.000 while Zou picked up the bronze with a 14.966, edging out Italy’s Marco Lodadio, who was fourth with a 14.700.

Vault specialist Qu Ruiyang of China gave Radivilov a run for his money on that event, looking nearly perfect on his first attempt to average a 14.566 for silver, while Ferhat Arican of Turkey came in with easier but fantastic vaults to get E scores of 9.366 and 9.300, respectively, to average a 14.533, less than a tenth from gold despite being nearly a point back in terms of difficulty. Another vault specialist from China, Huang Mingqi, was close to the podium as well, finishing fourth with a 14.516 average.

Zou got his second gold of the meet on p-bars, where his monstrous 7.0 D score and perfect technique helped him to the title by nearly a point. His score of 16.2 should make him all but unbeatable at worlds this year, just as he was here. The silver medal in Doha went to Zou’s teammate and last year’s world all-around champion, Xiao Ruoteng, who finished with a 15.233, while Arican won the bronze with a 15.166.

Finally, last year’s world high bar champion Tin Srbic won the gold on this event with a 14.800, showing great difficulty and solid work throughout his routine. Marvin Kimble of the United States won the silver with a 14.533, showing only minor form breaks in his set, and Deng Shudi of China was the bronze medalist with a 14.500, edging out France’s Edgar Boulet by a tenth with Boulet placing fourth.

Full results from the women’s competition are available here while you can find the men’s results here.

Article by Lauren Hopkins