Aleah Finnegan (courtesy of Finnegan’s Instagram)

This year’s Asian Championships served as the final continental qualifier for world championships, with a total of four new teams and 14 individuals added to the list of those now eligible to compete in Antwerp in just a few short months.

On the women’s side, Japan and China both previously qualified to this year’s worlds in Liverpool last year. The Chinese women easily won the gold in Singapore, coming in more than three points ahead of the rest of the field with a 163.529, while the Japanese program opted to skip this competition. Without Japan in the mix, South Korea was able to win the silver medal while Taiwan took the bronze, and as an added bonus, both teams qualified to worlds.

Eight all-arounders not part of qualified teams were also eligible to earn berths here, with the spots going to Rifda Irfanaluthfi of Indonesia, Aleah Finnegan of the Philippines, Dildora Aripova of Uzbekistan, Milka Gehani of Sri Lanka, Aida Bauyrzhanova of Kazakhstan, Nadine Joy Nathan of Singapore, Kylee Kvamme of the Philippines, and Emma Yap of Singapore.

The all-around title went to Qiu Qiyuan of China with a 54.932. The first-year senior stunned with a brilliant uneven bars routine that earned a 15.233, and she’s so far ahead of the game on this event that she was able to take the gold with a fall. Her teammate Zhang Qingying took the silver medal with a 53.965, while Shin Solyi of South Korea won the bronze with a 53.499.

Zhang Xinyi of China was two-per-country’ed out of the official rankings, but would have finished fourth with a 52.665 without these restrictions. Instead, it was Lee Yunseo of South Korea in fourth, Irfanaluthfi in fifth as the highest-ranked among the individual qualifiers to worlds, Finnegan in sixth, Liao Yi-Chun of Taiwan in seventh, and Aripova in eighth.

One of the biggest heartbreaks here was eight-time Olympian Oksana Chusovitina missing out on qualifying to worlds by just two spots. After crashing her first vault, she landed in 16th with a 46.699, just eight tenths back from Yap, the last qualifier, but she will serve as a reserve all-arounder along with 15th-place Amina Khalimarden of Kazakhstan.

Chusovitina will qualify to worlds on vault thanks to leading the world cup series rankings, but world cup qualifiers are only eligible to compete the events on which they qualify, meaning Chusovitina will not be able to compete in the all-around in Antwerp, and therefore will not be able to qualify to Paris 2024 in this way. Now, her options are limited to ranking as the top athlete not already qualified to the Olympics on vault in Antwerp, or via the world cup series or continental championships in 2024.

Though Chusovitina was reportedly very upset about not qualifying as an all-arounder, she still had some success here in winning the silver medal on vault, fighting back from her struggles in qualifications to earn a 13.517 average to finish behind the favorite, Yeo Seojeong of South Korea.

China swept the remaining gold medals, with Qiu winning on bars while Zhang Qingying won on beam and floor. Finnegan won bronze medals on vault and beam, Lee took the silver on bars ahead of Zuo Tong of China for bronze, Zhang Xinyi won the silver on beam, Emma Malabuyo of the Philippines – who only competed two events here in her first elite meet since 2021 – won the silver on floor, and Shin picked up a second bronze of the meet with her performance on floor.

The men’s field had a total of five spots open, with three of them going to Japan, China, and South Korea in 2022. All three teams would have been safe based on their rankings in Singapore, but we did see one big upset as Kazakhstan defeated South Korea by just over a point to get the bronze behind the epic battle for gold between China and Japan, with China winning by less than a tenth.

In winning bronze, Kazakhstan secured one of the two remaining spots, while Uzbekistan in fifth place got the second, ahead of Taiwan, which suffered without top all-arounder Tang Chia-Hung, who tore his Achilles a few months ago.

The all-around title went to Oka Shinnosuke of Japan with an 86.065, just narrowly ahead of Carlos Yulo of the Philippines with an 85.930 for silver, while Kitazono Takeru of Japan took the bronze with an 85.431. Rounding out the top eight were Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan in fourth, Tian Hao of China in fifth, Yin Dehang of China in sixth, Ryu Sunghyun of South Korea in seventh, and Khabibullo Ergashev of Uzbekistan in eighth.

In addition to getting a medal here, Yulo was the top individual qualifier for worlds, with the rest of the list including Van Vi Luong of Vietnam, Yeh Cheng of Taiwan, Lee Chih-Kai of Taiwan, Luqman Al Hafiz Zulfa of Malaysia, and Usukhbayar Erkhembayar of Mongolia.

Yulo won three of the apparatus titles, on floor, vault, and parallel bars, in addition to taking the bronze on high bar, while Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan won on pommel horse, Lan Xingyu of China won on rings, and Tian won on high bar.

Other medalists included Oka with the silver medals on p-bars and high bar, Dmitriy Patanin of Kazakhstan with the silver on floor, Ahmad Abu Al Soud of Jordan with the silver on pommels, Nguyen Van Khanh Phong of Vietnam with the silver on rings, Abdulaziz Mirvaliev of Uzbekistan with the silver on vault, Su Weide of China with the bronze on floor, Tsumura Ryota of Japan with the bronze on pommels, Ng Kiu Chung of Hong Kong with the bronze on rings, Kim Jaeho of South Korea with the bronze on vault, and Yin with the bronze on p-bars.

The complete results for the WAG and MAG competitions are available here, and you can also follow our WAG Qualifiers and MAG Qualifiers trackers to see a list of everyone who has qualified to worlds thus far.

Article by Lauren Hopkins