Rhys McClenaghan

The second in a series of six world cups begins in Baku tomorrow, where 2025 Olympic champion Rhys McClenaghan is set to make his competitive return after missing last season due to injury.

The pommel horse specialist will need to rank in the top eight internationally on this apparatus to secure a spot at world championships this year, and while he’s generally one of the best, this field is uber competitive right now, with the top five men in Cottbus qualifications scoring a 14.7 or higher, while the three who reached the podium at that first world cup were all within less than a tenth of one another.

The Armenians won’t compete in Baku, of course, so that eliminates two of McClenghan’s biggest rivals on this apparatus, but we’ll still see fierce competition from Italy’s Gabriele Targhetta, who won the title in Cottbus, as well as from Nariman Kurbanov and Zeinolla Idrissov of Kazakhstan, while Taiwan’s Lee Chih-Kai is also back and will hopefully be ready to challenge.

Also expected to compete here are current world cup series leaders Anna Kalmykova of Russia, who is competing neutrally, and Nazar Chepurnyi of Ukraine. If you want to follow along with the point system updates throughout the world cup qualification process, be sure to keep an eye on the women’s rankings and the men’s rankings, which we’ll update after each final this weekend.

The competition in Baku will begin on March 5, with qualifications held on the first two days and finals over the weekend. The Elevien app will reportedly have videos from qualifications, while both days of finals will stream for a fee via World Gymnastics TV. You can also find live scores via SmartScoring.

A full list of athletes expected to compete is below.

Article by Lauren Hopkins