Over the past two weeks, WAG and MAG athletes took the floor at the Asian Championships in Zunyi, China, where nine teams and 16 athletes across both disciplines qualified to this year’s world championships.

In the women’s competition, first-year senior Ke Qinqin of China and teammate Zhang Qingying won gold and silver in the all-around to lead the host country to the gold medal. With a massive total of 168.498 – the highest among any continental championships so far by about five points! – the team also earned the first of four available worlds berths, with Japan and South Korea rounding out the podium, while North Korea had an incredibly impressive squad to nab the fourth spot.

In addition to their all-around glory, Ke also won the silver medal on beam just behind Zhang, who took the title with an impressive 15.266. Zhang picked up the bronze medal on bars as well, and the other members of this team had great success in the apparatus finals, with Qiu Qiyuan winning gold on bars, Zhang Yihan winning gold on floor, and Du Siyu winning silver on bars.

Japan didn’t have its highest-caliber team here based on nationals, but still did fantastic work here to win the silver medal as a team in addition to grabbing several individual honors. First-year senior Nishiyama Misa won bronze in the all-around and on the uneven bars, while Sugihara Aiko earned the silver on floor and Miyata Shoko earned the bronze on vault.

Both Korean teams were pretty fabulous, with South Korea edging out their neighbors for the podium by only about three tenths. Both teams also coincidentally had their vault standouts leading the team in the all-around, as Yeo Seojeong of South Korea finished sixth in addition to winning the vault gold, helped by her superb handspring rudi, while veteran An Chang Ok of North Korea was fifth all-around and got the silver on vault, where she debuted an Amanar (it needs work, but it’s exciting nonetheless!) to go along with her Cheng.

The top all-arounders outside these four programs were eligible to earn individual berths to worlds, which ended up going to Yeap Kang Xian of Malaysia (ninth place), Dildora Aripova of Uzbekistan (10th), Lai Pin-Ju of Taiwan (11th), Amanda Yap of Singapore (12th), Cadence Teh Zi Qi of Malaysia (13th), Aleksandra Shevchenko of Uzbekistan (14th), Ting Hua-Tien of Taiwan (15th), Haylee Garcia of the Philippines (16th), Tran Doan Quynh Nam of Vietnam (17th), and Joanne Chen Hoi Yuen of Hong Kong (18th).

China also easily won the team title in the men’s competition, held a week earlier, putting up a 254.194 for the gold ahead of Japan – again, not a full-strength team – with a 248.795 for silver and Kazakhstan with a 242.561 for the bronze. In addition to these three teams, Kazakhstan and Taiwan earned spots at this year’s worlds, while Uzbekistan heartbreakingly missed out by just a tenth.

Superstar Zhang Boheng topped the all-around podium with an 85.298, while teammate Yang Haonan won the silver medal with an 82.398. Zhang also won gold on parallel bars in addition to silver medals on pommels, rings, and high bar, while Yang won the rings title.

Japan’s top performer was Miwa Teppei, who went home with the bronze all-around medal. Also taking home hardware for Japan were Tanigawa Wataru with the gold on vault, Tsukiyama Shoma with the silver on floor, and Maeda Fusuke with the bronze on high bar.

The most exciting podium for me was seeing brothers Carlos Yulo and Eldrew Yulo winning the gold and bronze medals, respectively, on floor. The brothers also both qualified to worlds, earning two of the six available spots after the veteran finished fourth all-around with an 81.864 and the younger brother finished 13th. Also qualifying to Rotterdam were Ravshan Kamiljanov (eighth place) and Khabibullo Ergashev (10th) of Uzbekistan, Usukhbayar Erkhembayar of Mongolia (15th), and Jovi Loh of Singapore (16th).

Other podium finishers included Utkirbek Juraev of Uzbekistan with gold on pommels, Tang Chia-Hung of Taiwan with gold on high bar, Kim Jaeho of South Korea with silver on vault, Ryu Sunghyun of South Korea with silver on parallel bars, Lee Chih-Kai of Taiwan with bronze on pommels, Mahdi Ahmad Kohani of Iran with bronze on rings, Mahdi Olfati of Iran with bronze on vault, and Hung Yuan-Hsi of Taiwan with bronze on parallel bars.

China also dominated both junior competitions in Zunyi. For WAG, the team won gold more than six points ahead of Japan, while Kazakhstan surprised to win the bronze. Zhong Qi and Chen Ziyan topped the all-around podium with scores of 54.799 and 53.965, respectively, and though teammate Xie Guying was technically third with a 53.566, she missed the podium due to two-per-country limitations, with the bronze instead going to Minamino Yume of Japan. Xie ended up winning both the vault and bars gold medals while Chen won beam, and on floor, Togo Nanami and Ogawa Risora of Japan shared the title.

The team competition was comparatively close for MAG, though China again came out on top about two points ahead of Japan, while bronze was another surprise, going to the team from India! In the all-around competition, Nishihara Ikki of Japan won gold with an 82.398, while Kim Taeyang of South Korea won the silver and Yang Lanbin of China won the bronze. In the apparatus finals, Tanida Tomoharo of Japan won floor, Nishihara and Anson Tan Yu Hang of Malaysia tied for gold on pommel horse, Chen Junji of China won rings, Harschit Damodharan of India won vault, and Nishihara wrapped up the competition with his third and fourth gold medals on parallel bars and high bar.

Results: Senior WAG | Senior MAG | Junior MAG

World Championships Trackers: WAG | MAG

Article by Lauren Hopkins