Artur Davtyan

Olympic vault medalist Artur Davtyan of Armenia made a splash this weekend when he competed in vault qualifications at the Cottbus World Cup on Friday, jetted over to France to help his Top 12 club, Noisy-Le-Grand, in its match against Orleans on Saturday, and then traveled back to Germany to stick two brilliant vaults in the final, winning his first world cup title of the quad.

Below, find a quick recap of everything that happened this weekend across the Cottbus World Cup in Germany, the Top 12 league in France, and the WOGA Classic and Liukin Invitational in Texas.

COTTBUS WORLD CUP

The world cup series returned for the first time of the 2028 quad in Cottbus, where a mix of experienced and young athletes from China stole the show on the WAG side, while Artur Davtyan was a standout in the MAG competition, earning scores that would’ve been competitive last quad despite the drop in difficulty in the new code of points.

Most exciting in the WAG competition was a podium of women all over 30 years old as Teja Belak of Slovenia made her return to competition after suffering an injury nearly a year ago to win the title with a 13.299 average in a super tight final that also saw her teammate Tjasa Kysselef win the silver with a 13.266 and the legendary Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan win the bronze with a 13.249.

The final was also interesting to see how a code change that adds a two-tenth bonus to final scores for gymnasts performing two directionally different vaults could potentially change the outcome, but while a few athletes lower in the rankings were able to leapfrog over competitors who had slightly stronger performances, all three ladies on the podium received the bonus, while the athlete in fourth place – Christine Kubon of Norway, who averaged a 13.033 without bonus – would’ve remained fourth regardless.

China had three athletes at the world cup, including Olympic beam medalist Zhou Yaqin, her Paris teammate Zhang Yihan, and first-year senior Zhang Kexin, and all three did incredible work to win five of the six medals they showed up for. Zhou stunned on beam to win the gold with a 14.766, five tenths higher than the rest of the field, while Zhang Yihan won the floor title with a 13.433 – also a half-point margin! – and Zhang Kexin won the bars title with a 13.9 – six tenths ahead of second place! – in addition to winning the silver on beam and the bronze on floor, making for an incredible senior debut and quite the glow-up, as she’d never scored above a 13 on any event throughout her junior career.

Yamada Chiharu of Japan had a successful meet, winning a pair of bronze medals on bars and beam, while Lihie Raz of Israel won the silver medal on floor. Finally, U.S.-turned-British elite Charlotte Booth had a great bars set to win the silver medal there, but she unfortunately suffered an injury in the floor final the following day after qualifying in second place and looking likely for another medal. We hope she gets well soon!

I’ve talked about Davtyan’s fabulous performance here, which also included two stuck vaults in qualifications in addition to what he managed in the finals, making him eligible for a new one-tenth stick bonus for all four vaults he performed throughout the competition. His average score of 14.9 in the final was nearly seven tenths ahead of the rest of the competitors in what ended up being a rough final overall with lots of falls and mishaps. Still, we saw a mostly solid set from Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine, who averaged a 14.216 to win silver in addition to later winning the silver medal on parallel bars, while Niccolò Vannucchi of Italy also hit both of his for a 13.899 average for bronze, his second of the meet after also winning the bronze on floor.

Davtyan’s brother and fellow 2024 Olympian Vahagn Davtyan was also golden here, winning the rings title with a 14.133 in a super close battle that saw Nikita Simonov of Azerbaijan win silver with a 14.066 while Mehmet Ayber Kosak of Türkiye won bronze with a 14.0, with his one-tenth dismount stick bonus pushing him ahead of Artur Avetisyan of Armenia with a 13.966 for fourth place.

Other title winners included Milad Karimi of Kazakhstan with a 14.133 on floor, Shiao Yu-Jan of Taiwan with a 14.433 on pommel horse, Sugimoto Kaito of Japan with a 14.3 on parallel bars (another stick bonus victory, as Chepurnyi would’ve defeated him here without it), and Kawakami Shohei of Japan with a 14.4 on high bar.

Minami Kazuki of Japan won the silver medal on floor, Ahmad Abu Al Soud of Jordan won the silver on pommels, Robert Tvorogal of Lithuania won the silver on high bar, Edoardo de Rosa of Italy won the bronze on pommels, Jermain Grünberg of the Netherlands won the bronze on parallel bars, and Mert Efe Kilicer won the bronze on high bar.

TOP 12 | WAG COMPETITION

Morgane Osyssek

The third out of four regular season Top 12 meets in the 2024-2025 WAG season was held on Saturday, with eight clubs competing across four matches across France.

The standout match was between Haguenau and Lyon, with 2024 Olympian Morgane Osyssek contributing 12 points toward Haguenau’s 30-point win, while Olympic alternate Djenna Laroui led the charge for Lyon, earning 8 points to the team’s 18-point total.

Osyssek had the top match scores on vault (13.366), beam (12.833), and floor (13.466) to score a 51.298 total, while Alisson Lapp also had an incredibly productive day, putting up 10 points for the team with her best scores coming on vault (12.433) and beam (12.4). Laroui had the top bars score of the meet with a 12.533, and she also won her match on floor with a 12.233 to Lapp’s 11.933, though the rest of the athletes on her team were a bit too far behind in difficulty to stand up against the powerful Haguenau, with the only other duel win coming from Coralie Dylas on floor.

In the match between Saint Etienne and Colomiers, we saw the return of Lorette Charpy on bars after Charpy missed out on the Olympic Games last summer. She scored a 12.833 there, which was the highest on this event from this match, while 12-year-old Louane Plisson was a star for the team, putting up the top scores on vault (13.3), beam (13.066), and floor (13.033) for a 51.499 all-around score, absolutely massive for her age, and a big help to Saint Etienne’s 32 point win over Colomiers with 16 points, with 12 of those 32 points from Plisson.

Meaux also had a great match, winning with 34 points ahead of Combs la Ville with 14. Led by Italian guest competitor Irene Lanza, who had the top scores on bars (12.7) and floor (12.133) and contributed 12 points to the team’s total, the team won all but one match, with Cypriane Pilloy posting the top vault score of 13.2 and Astria Nelo posting the top beam score of 12.733 in her senior debut. For Combs la Ville, Auréliane Genisson was the top performer, winning her match on beam against Lucie Henna with an 11.933, the second-best score of the match on this apparatus, as was her floor score of 11.533, though she lost to Lanza in that duel.

Finally, Saint Lo earned 34 points to defeat Marseille with 14, with the winning squad also taking every duel except for one. Loicia Porte had the best bars (12.533), beam (12.1), and floor (12.5) scores, while Lilly Havard was the best on vault (13.6), and Kiara Chabaud was the standout for Marseille, winning her duel against Havard on bars with a 10.133.

TOP 12 | MAG COMPETITION

Adem Asil

There were a lot of very close matches in the MAG league this week, including one tie, in the sixth regular meet of the season, which is the final regular season meet for the men, who next compete in semifinals on March 15.

Back to Artur Davtyan, who is a guest competitor for Sotteville-Les-Rouen. Like I said, he competed in vault qualifications at Cottbus on Friday, and then jumped over the border to France, where he went up on all three events, winning his duels on vault with a 14.433 and pommel horse with a 13.166, though he dropped his match on high bar with a 12.1 to Yumin Abbadini’s 12.9. Abbadini, an Italian Olympian and guest competitor for Vallauris, also won his duel on pommel horse with a 12.933, though he had a narrow miss on vault with a 13.466 coming up short compared to Karim Mangala-Bima’s 13.566. However, Vallauris still managed the win – the teams were tied after two rounds, but on high bar, they were able to pick up three duel wins from Abbadini, Léo Saladino (12.9), and Paco Fernandes Henriques (12.433) to come out on top with 26 points to Sotteville’s 22.

The largest gap came in the meet between Franconville and Monaco, with Franconville scoring 29 points and Monaco scoring 19. Illia Kovtun was a big part of Franconville’s performance, earning nine points after winning duels on vault (13.733), pommels (13.966), and high bar (12.5). The team as a whole was dominant on pommels, winning all four duels, and though things got a little sketchy on high bar – where Monaco was able to pick up some steam with wins from Hugo Villeneuve (11.366) and Lilian Piotte (11.466) – they had a good enough lead prior to that to keep them out of danger.

Orleans – featuring 2024 Olympian Adem Asil of Türkiye as a guest – earned 28 points to defeat Noisy-Le-Grand with 20. The teams were tied after the first round on vault, where Asil had the top score of 14.233 to defeat Noisy guest Hamza Hossaini of Morocco, but Orleans set themselves apart on pommels, winning three duels with Timothy Voisin’s 12.966 the top score of the event, and then again on high bar, where Asil’s 13.5 was the top score, and they also saw a solid 13.366 from Mathys Cordule.

In the fourth match, Antibes and Bourges tied with 24 points each, starting the match with a tie on vault and continuing with ties on both pommels and high bar, making this kind of a perfect tie as far as these matches are concerned. The top score on vault came from Olympian Casimir Schmidt, a guest from the Netherlands who earned a 14.0 to win a super tight duel against French Olympian Loris Frasca with a 13.966. On pommels, Italian guest Gabriele Targhetta posted a 14.9, the top score on this event by nearly two full points, and on high bar, Anthony Mansard had the best score with a 13.533.

WOGA CLASSIC

Sage Bradford

Though pretty much all of the U.S. elites we’d normally see at this meet were busy at the Winter Cup over the weekend, the international turnout at this year’s WOGA Classic was pretty great, seeing athletes from Belgium, Canada, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, and Puerto Rico, in addition to a couple of U.S. gymnasts from the host gym.

The senior all-around title went to Sage Bradford of WOGA, who attended one elite qualifier this season but ultimately did not qualify for senior elite. Bradford earned a 50.350 thanks to top scores on beam with a 12.9 and floor with a 12.5, putting her more than two points ahead of the rest of the field.

Rosanna Ercolano of Italy earned the silver medal with a 48.000, while Charlie Fleury of Canada – representing a team from Quebec – won the bronze with a 47.900, also putting up the top score on bars with a 12.4. Both of the Dutch athletes had struggles on beam, though Casey-Jane Meuleman had strong scores on bars (12.35) and floor (12.2) and Mara Slippens put up the best score on vault (13.4) in addition to a solid bars score (12.15), while we also saw some good scores from the Belgians, with Naomi Descamps putting up a 12.1 on bars and a 12.25 on beam, while Louise Dupont earned a 12.35 on floor in her senior debut.

An athlete I’ve never seen before ended up sweeping the junior field, which was very exciting. That athlete is Okubo Moka of Japan, representing the Takeda club that sent a handful of junior and senior gymnasts to compete here. With scores of 13.3 on vault, 12.3 on bars, 12.2 on beam, and 13.0 on floor, Okubo earned a 50.800 in the all-around, which was a full five points higher than the rest of the group and also would’ve been enough to win the senior title. I can’t wait to see more of her!

The silver medal went to Camille Galand of Belgium with a 45.800 while her teammate Zélia Caufriez won the bronze with a 45.750.

LIUKIN INVITATIONAL

Fukubayashi Haruki

As with the WOGA Classic, we didn’t see many U.S. competitors here with most of the elite men at the Winter Cup, but instead we got a great show from a visiting Japanese team that swept the podium.

Fukubayashi Haruki put up the top all-around score of the season so far with an 82.200 to take the all-around title. The 2023 Asian junior floor champion, Fukubayashi also had the top score on that event with a 13.6, and he put up the best scores on parallel bars (14.2) and high bar (14.3), and he also had the second-best score on rings (13.7) and the third-best on vault (13.85).

His teammates Katayama Ashu and Kakutani Taiki won the silver and bronze medals with scores of 79.700 and 79.600, respectively. Both athletes tied for the top score on vault, putting up a 14.350 each, and both were in the top three mix on pommels and parallel bars as well. The final Japanese competitor, Bando Yusei, finished fifth with a 76.800 after a struggle on pommels, though his 13.7 on high bar was the second best of the competition.

Pau Jimenez of Spain, competing on the Catalan team, finished fourth with a 78.650, earning the top scores of the meet on floor (13.6 to tie Fukubayashi) and rings (14.050), while Raphael Madore of Canada, representing the Quebec team, finished sixth with a 75.050, and he also took a share in the three-way tie for gold on floor. The top athlete on pommel horse was specialist Colby Aranda of Chile, representing Club Deportivo, who earned a 13.650.

Article by Lauren Hopkins