Jade Carey
The FIG released the nominative roster for next month’s Melbourne World Cup, the first of three remaining apparatus world cup competitions that will determine the series winners and the gymnasts that will qualify as specialists to this year’s Olympic Games.
Jade Carey of the United States, who leads the rankings on vault and floor, will be in attendance to make sure she can stay at the top of the pack on both. With a vault win in Cottbus, she’ll be able to drop her ranking from Cottbus 2018 to reach a perfect 90 on this event, which could secure her a spot in Tokyo, assuming no one else also reaches a 90 and could beat her in the tie-break, which is looking pretty unlikely.
If Carey qualifies on vault, it will open up the floor ranking to the gymnast next in line, which is Italy’s Lara Mori at the moment, with teammate Vanessa Ferrari in a close third. Both will compete in Melbourne, as will Anastasiia Bachynska, currently fifth on the event.
Fan Yilin of China, who reached 90 series points in Cottbus last year, won’t compete here, and the bars gymnasts who are next in line – Anastasia Iliankova of Russia and Georgia-Rose Brown of Australia – won’t be able to match her this time around, though Iliankova could get very close, and on beam, none of the top three gymnasts on the rankings – Emma Nedov of Australia, Li Qi of China, and Mana Oguchi of Japan – will attend this competition, giving Bachynska a great shot to put herself in contention, though she’ll face strong competition from Urara Ashikawa of Japan.
In addition to the series leaders, I’m most excited to see China’s Guan Chenchen and Ou Yushan and Great Britain’s Ondine Achampong make their senior debuts, and Coline Devillard of France will return to competition after an injury last season, though she and some of the other strong vault contenders here – like Maria Paseka of Russia – likely won’t qualify to the Olympics this way with Carey’s lead on this event so strong.
On the men’s side, floor leader Rayderley Zapata could get to 90 points here, so he’ll be hoping for a big routine, China’s Weng Hao and Liu Yang, who lead pommels and rings with 90 points each, are here to make sure no one can dethrone them. Vault leader Hidenobu Yonekura of Japan is expected to compete, as is p-bars leader Vladislav Poliashov of Russia, and high bar leader Hidetaka Miyachi of Japan, who also has 90 points, though Epke Zonderland is back to see if he can sneak into the top spot after missing Cottbus.
The competition marks the return of Christopher Remkes of Australia, who was injured last year, though he won’t be competing on his best events, floor and vault, in Melbourne. Jorge Vega Lopez of Guatemala and Eleftherios Petrounias of Greece will be putting in some last-ditch efforts to attempt to qualify on their best events – vault and rings, respectively – and there are a few others on the roster who are also hoping to sneak up to lead various rankings, though I think for the most part, there’s very little wiggle room for the top spots, especially as the current leaders continue to compete and put even more distance between themselves and those hoping to get an upset.
The Melbourne World Cup will begin with qualifications on February 20 and 21, and will continue with finals over that weekend. A full roster is below.
ARGENTINA | |
Julian Jato Federico Molinari |
|
AUSTRALIA | |
Tyson Bull Mitchell Morgans Christopher Remkes Gabriel Swan Michael Tone |
Georgia-Rose Brown Talia Folino Georgia Godwin Kate McDonald Kate Sayer |
BELARUS | |
Yahor Sharamkou | |
CANADA | |
Thierry Pellerin | Isabela Onyshko Emma Spence |
CHILE | |
Tomas Gonzalez | Makarena Pinto |
CHINA | |
Lan Xingyu Liu Yang Weng Hao Zhang Chenglong Zou Jingyuan |
Guan Chenchen Ou Yushan Qi Qi Zhou Ruiyu |
CHINESE TAIPEI | |
Tseng Wei-Sheng | Fang Ko-Ching Lai Pin-Ju |
CROATIA | |
Robert Seligman Filip Ude |
|
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC | |
Audrys Nin Reyes | |
EGYPT | |
Ali Zahran | |
FRANCE | |
Coline Devillard | |
GREAT BRITAIN | |
Joshua Nathan Hayden Skinner Courtney Tulloch |
Ondine Achampong Claudia Fragapane |
GREECE | |
Eleftherios Petrounias | |
GUATEMALA | |
Jorge Vega Lopez | |
HONG KONG | |
Ng Kiu Chung | |
IRAN | |
Mahdi Ahmad Kohani Abdollah Jamei Saeedreza Keikha |
|
ISRAEL | |
Andrey Medvedev Alexander Myakinin |
|
ITALY | |
Vanessa Ferrari Lara Mori |
|
JAPAN | |
Kohei Kameyama Kazuki Minami Hidetaka Miyachi Yusuke Tanaka Shoichi Yamamoto Hidenobu Yonekura |
Urara Ashikawa Kokoro Fukasawa Kiko Kuwajima Shoko Miyata Aoka Mori Ayaka Sakaguchi |
JORDAN | |
Ahmad Abu Al Soud | |
KAZAKHSTAN | |
Ilyas Azizov Milad Karimi Nariman Kurbanov |
|
MALAYSIA | |
Tan Fu Jie | |
MEXICO | |
Joshua Valle | Elsa Garcia Ana Lago |
NETHERLANDS | |
Rick Jacobs Frank Rijken Bram Verhofstad Epke Zonderland |
|
NEW ZEALAND | |
Ethan Dick Sam Dick Devy Dyson Mikhail Koudinov Jorden O’Connell-Inns |
|
POLAND | |
Kacper Garnczarek Sebastian Gawronski |
|
RUSSIA | |
Vladislav Poliashov Kirill Prokopev Alexey Rostov |
Anastasia Iliankova Maria Paseka Daria Spiridonova Yana Vorona |
SLOVENIA | |
Saso Bertoncelj Luka Bojanc Luka Kisek Rok Klavora Luka Terbovsek |
Teja Belak Lucija Hribar Tjasa Kysselef |
SPAIN | |
Nestor Abad Rayderley Zapata |
|
SYRIA | |
Suhail Al Kurdi | |
TURKEY | |
Mustafa Arca Sercan Demir Yunus Gündogdu Umit Samiloglu Hamza Yilmaz |
|
UKRAINE | |
Anastasiia Bachynska Angelina Radivilova Diana Varinska |
|
UNITED STATES | |
Jade Carey | |
VIETNAM | |
Dinh Phuong Thanh | Tran Doan Quynh Nam |
Article by Lauren Hopkins
At first I was completely shocked Colin Van Wicklen wasn’t on the roster, since he has a shot to get that VT spot. But then I realized it’s the same weekend as WinterCup Challenge which basically decides who is on the men’s national team.
I know he isn’t the most likely to win it, but his odds are probably stronger (1 in 4) going this route than actually getting on the four man US Tokyo team. I would guess if they choose to bring any type of specialist on the men’s team, it’ll be primarily for SR or PH, neither of which he can deliver. I suppose it’s possible there is a combination that would allow him on it for other events, but it seems quite remote.
I hope it was at least considered for them to make an exception and judge his routines so he could try that route.
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Yeah, there’s no way Colin would get the vault spot with the guys who are currently ranked still competing. He’s better off trying to make the U.S. team for sure!
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I’m surprised to hear about Vanessa Ferrari going to Melbourne. After she had surgery last year I figured that was the end. She is tough as nails.
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No Ri Se Gwang in the roster. I guess he’s just retired. He had a successful career indeed.
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Emma Nedov said on Twitter that she’s competing
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It must just be Australia submitting a nominative roster before actually determining anything, which is what I guessed, especially as GRB is the only one on the nominative roster who could come somewhat close of getting to the Olympics this way (and even then, she won’t).
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I thought Talia Folino retired. I guess not!
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Maybe I’m dumb, but how is there a competition in Australia when the country’s on fire?
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Australia’s major cities are not on fire. Fires are in regional/rural areas where there is bush land. There is smoke haze across some cities on some days, impacting air quality, but no fires.
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Australia’s major cities are not on fire. Fires are in regional/rural areas where there is bush land. There is smoke haze across some cities on some days, impacting air quality, but no fires.
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