Hashimoto Daiki
It’s been a wild couple of days of MAG qualifications at world championships, which wrapped up earlier today with some results we expected – hello, Japan leading the way! – but also a lot of wild nonsense that led to some shakeups in how we expected the standings to look.
Though Japan unsurprisingly came in at the top of the pack with a 254.529, last night’s competition wasn’t perfect for them, and they fell a bit short of what they’re capable of. This is especially true on high bar, where specialist Maeda Fusuke and Hashimoto Daiki both had falls, forcing them to count a 13.7, a bummer when all four are capable of scores of 14.5 or better there, something no other team can even dream of doing.
That aside, it wasn’t a bad day, and they’re still several points ahead of the rest of the field so technically have even more room for error – but of course, they’ll want to be in peak form for the final just in case any of the lower-ranked teams decide to also step it up – which I’m sure they will.
Great Britain ended up finishing second, which sounds surprising when you think of how Japan and China generally rule the MAG world, but it was clear coming in that China would be a little lost without headliner Zhang Boheng, so that plus quite a few fluke performances held them incredibly far back from the score they’re capable of, while the Brits put together an excellent day, also not without vault, but pretty on point in comparison to the rest of the field.
China, which ended up in fourth place, lost a few key scores due to flukes – like Tian Hao balking his vault and falling on pommel horse, Li Hongyan falling on high bar, Zou Jingyuan with a miss on rings – but they’ve often flopped in qualifications only to come back and win a medal, so I think their team finals performance will see a massive improvement to put them more on par with how the British team did.
Also capable of lots of improvement is the U.S. team, which finished fifth after counting several falls throughout their night, also keeping some top individual final contenders out of contention. Parallel bars was especially an area where they could’ve had a leg-up among other teams, but they ultimately counted two scores in the 12-range there, though if they can reset there and elsewhere for the team final, I can see them – like China – adding around five or so points to their total. And I think like China, the U.S. men have the mindset of really being able to lock in for revenge after a rough qualification session.
The other team I see as a medal contender here is Russia, which performed about as I anticipated in terms of scores, but better than I anticipated in the rankings, as I saw them coming behind both China and the U.S. However, they were pretty solid throughout their competition, with standouts Arseniy Dukhno and Daniel Marinov meeting all expectations, while rings specialist Ilya Zaika was one of the best on that apparatus at the competition.
I see all four of these teams at roughly the same level and all capable of challenging for a medal in the team final. Great Britain and Russia already showed that they’re able to make the top three, while the United States and China showed that they have the potential to score just as well, but simply need to make it happen. I don’t see any of these four upsetting Japan for gold unless something goes wildly wrong for the Japanese men, but I do think the battle for silver and bronze will be an epic one and I can’t wait to watch.
Also qualifying to the team final were Switzerland in sixth place, Netherlands in seventh, and Colombia in eighth, narrowly edging out Italy by just over two tenths.
I had Switzerland and Colombia in my top eight, and both teams performed about as expected, but the big surprise was the Netherlands getting in! There’s a tight group of about 12 teams that can generally all score in that high 238 to mid 240 range, with Switzerland and Colombia in this mix but just slightly more capable of reaching the higher end. The Netherlands can also sometimes be capable of this range, but they haven’t done it yet this year, and even missed the team final at Euros, so while they were on the bubble, they weren’t a favorite of mine to make it happen.
Maybe it was performing in front of a home crowd that helped them finally put everything together, but while most teams ended up scoring several points worse than I calculated – even with very conservative estimates – the Netherlands performed about five points better, which is incredible and it showed from start to finish today. They didn’t have any massive standout routines for the most part, but stayed consistently and solidly in the 13-range for nearly every routine, allowing them to get a major advantage over teams that had a few stronger individual performances, but many more mistakes that took their routine averages down quite a bit.
I absolutely did not see them upsetting Italy, which ended up out of the final by just a few tenths after a pommels rotation that should’ve surpassed a 42, but ended up being a 40.366 after counting an 11.533 from Mario Macchiati. It wasn’t an awful day for them, but in addition to not being able to use pommels as their edge, they had other smaller things add up throughout the competition, and were unable to land among the top eight.
None of the other teams that missed out were surprises to me. Canada was one I thought could make it, but they were always going to be missing key scores without Will Émard, while teams like Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Australia, and Hungary are all so hit-or-miss, and similar to the Netherlands, it would’ve been a fun surprise to see them get in, but not a shock to see them out.
I think Taiwan did a bit better than I expected despite having a few misses, while I didn’t have high hopes for the rest of the programs here, some – like Brazil, Ukraine, and South Korea – because of depleted rosters at the moment, and others – like Israel, Egypt, and Cyprus – just not capable of enough high-level routines to challenge.
Ultimately, I’m most excited to see if China and the United States will be able to come back on a revenge tour and perform to their full potential in Tuesday’s final so that the podium fight can be the most competitive we’ve seen in years now that Russia is back.
Below, find a complete list of all team rankings as well as a list of the individuals who qualified to finals. We’ll be back before the individual finals to preview those!
TEAM QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Japan 254.529
2. Great Britain 251.460
3. Russia 249.162
4. China 247.493
5. United States 245.961
6. Switzerland 244.430
7. Netherlands 242.995
8. Colombia 242.727
9. Italy 242.495
10. Belgium 240.894
11. France 238.663
12. Kazakhstan 237.594
13. Canada 237.326
14. Taiwan 236.261
15. Germany 235.928
16. Spain 235.329
17. Australia 235.094
18. Hungary 234.927
19. Brazil 232.694
20. Israel 232.528
21. Ukraine 232.296
22. South Korea 231.994
23. Egypt 229.962
24. Cyprus 225.495
ALL-AROUND QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Oka Shinnosuke, Japan, 85.098
2. Hashimoto Daiki, Japan, 84.632
3. Arseniy Dukhno, Russia, 83.866
4. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 83.699*
5. Jake Jarman, Great Britain, 83.698
6. Yang Haonan, China, 83.464
7. Illia Kovtun, Ukraine, 83.099
8. Joe Fraser, Great Britain, 83.065
9. Angel Barajas, Colombia, 82.831
10. Camilo Vera, Colombia, 82.764
11. Fred Richard, United States, 82.098
12. Daniel Marinov, Russia, 81.564
13. Yumin Abbadini, Italy, 81.065
14. Florian Langenegger, Switzerland, 80.599
15. Noe Seifert, Switzerland, 80.598
16. Krisztofer Meszaros, Hungary, 80.264
17. Nurtan Idrissov, Kazakhstan, 79.665
18. Elijah Faverus, Netherlands, 79.466
19. Saveliy Syedin, Russia, 79.331*
20. Matteo Giubellini, Switzerland, 79.299*
21. Anthony Mansard, France, 79.199
22. Victor Martinez, Belgium, 79.063
23. Naël Sakouhi, France, 78.999
24. Danila Leykin, United States, 78.998
25. Sam Zakutney, Canada, 78.764
26. Timo Eder, Germany, 78.465
27. Jermain Grünberg, Netherlands, 78.432
R1. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 78.132
R2. Mario Macchiati, Italy, 77.965
R3. Omar Mohamed, Egypt, 77.899
R4. Ignacio Yockers, Spain, 77.832
FLOOR QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Arseniy Dukhno, Russia, 14.700
2. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 14.500
3. Artem Dolgopyat, Israel, 14.300
4. Fred Richard, United States, 14.233
5. Jake Jarman, Great Britain, 14.133
6. Yahor Sharamkou, Belarus, 14.100
7. Noam Berkovich, Israel, 14.033
– Doi Ryosuke, Japan, 14.033
R1. Illia Kovtun, Croatia, 14.000
R1. Danila Leykin, United States, 14.000
R3. Harry Hepworth, Great Britain, 13.966
POMMEL HORSE QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Hamlet Manukyan, Armenia, 14.933
2. Nariman Kurbanov, Kazakhstan, 14.866
3. Gabriele Targhetta, Italy, 14.833
4. Mamikon Khachatryan, Armenia, 14.733
5. Patrick Hoopes, United States, 14.666
6. Hur Woong, South Korea, 14.633
7. Kilan van der Aa, Belgium, 14.600
8. Hashimoto Daiki, Japan, 14.533
R1. Reuben Ward, Great Britain, 14.466
R2. Rhys McClenaghan, Ireland, 14.400
R3. Ignacio Yockers, Spain, 14.300
RINGS QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Lan Xingyu, China, 14.733
2. Ilya Zaika, Russia, 14.533
3. Courtney Tulloch, Great Britain, 14.500
4. Artur Avetisyan, Armenia, 14.233
5. Mehmet Ayberk Kosak, Türkiye, 14.233
6. Glen Cuyle, Belgium, 14.100
7. Oka Shinnosuke, Japan, 14.066
8. Eleftherios Petrounias, Greece, 14.033
R1. Nikita Simonov, Azerbaijan, 13.900
R2. Kameron Nelson, United States, 13.833
R3. Hashimoto Daiki, Japan, 13.733
VAULT QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Jake Jarman, Great Britain, 14.633
2. Artur Davtyan, Armenia, 14.633
3. Nazar Chepurnyi, Ukraine, 14.450
4. Arseniy Dukhno, Russia, 14.350
5. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 14.283
6. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 14.266
7. Sebastian Sponevik, Norway, 14.233
8. Harry Hepworth, Great Britain, 14.216
R1. Yahor Sharamkou, Belarus, 14.166
R2. Kameron Nelson, United States, 14.150
R3. Simone Speranza, Italy, 13.950
PARALLEL BARS QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Zou Jingyuan, China, 15.466
2. Illia Kovtun, Croatia, 14.900
3. Oka Shinnosuke, Japan, 14.866
4. Hashimoto Daiki, Japan, 14.800
5. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 14.800*
6. Daniel Marinov, Russia, 14.700
7. Arseniy Dukhno, Russia, 14.600
8. Noe Seifert, Switzerland, 14.600
9. David Rumbutis, Sweden, 14.500
R1. Jake Jarman, Great Britain, 14.466
R2. Shane Wiskus, United States, 14.466
R3. Yang Haonan, China, 14.466
HIGH BAR QUALIFICATION STANDINGS
1. Kawakami Shohei, Japan, 14.600
2. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 14.566
3. Oka Shinnosuke, Japan, 14.500
4. Jesse Moore, Australia, 14.366
5. Angel Barajas, Colombia, 14.333
6. Sergei Naidin, Russia, 14.233
7. Camilo Vera, Colombia, 14.166
8. Yumin Abbadini, Italy, 14.166
R1. Fred Richard, United States, 14.133
R2. Arseniy Dukhno, Russia, 14.033
R3. Félix Dolci, Canada, 14.033
*Did not qualify due to two-per-country limitations
Article by Lauren Hopkins
