Valentina Georgieva
The 2024 world cup sequence wrapped up with the fourth and closing competitors in Doha on Saturday, the place a complete of 20 athletes earned their tickets to Paris.
Athletes eligible for Olympic berths needed to compete at at the least three of the 4 world cup competitions held over the previous couple of months with the objective of incomes sufficient factors at every to complete within the prime two of the general sequence rankings. The highest two on every equipment on the conclusion of the sequence would win the coveted Olympic spots, with Doha providing the ultimate alternative for athletes to spice up their standing.
A complete of eight WAG athletes and 12 MAG athletes in the end certified via the world cups. On the ladies’s facet, that included An Chang Okay of North Korea and Valentina Georgieva of Bulgaria on vault, Georgia-Rose Brown of New Zealand and Levi Jung-Ruivivar of the Philippines on bars, Nina Derwael of Belgium and Ting Hua-Tien of Taiwan on beam, and Charlize Mörz of Austria and Laura Casabuena of Spain on ground.
A few of these athletes got here out of Baku in early March with their spots safe, together with Derwael, who earned an ideal 90 factors after selecting up 30 factors on beam at every of the primary three competitions, permitting her to skip Doha fully. However the race got here right down to the wire for others, together with Jung-Ruivivar, who had been a number of rankings away from one of many prime spots on bars with simply 44 factors going into Doha, although a silver-medal end and 30 factors right here allowed her to bypass the remainder of the sector, placing her into second place within the total rankings simply seven factors forward of Alena Tsitavets of Belarus and Nathalie Westlund of Sweden.
Issues additionally acquired a bit thrilling within the beam and ground battle, as Casabuena completed second on each with 61 factors on beam and 75 factors on ground. On this case, there was a tie-break to find out on which equipment Casabuena would formally qualify, with ground popping out the winner and her beam spot then awarded to Ting, who was subsequent consistent with 57 factors. Had Casabuena certified on beam as a substitute, the ground spot would have gone to Emma Malabuyo of the Philippines, who appeared fairly prone to earn that spot till she missed the ultimate in Doha and wasn’t ready so as to add to her factors complete, permitting Casabuena to sneak forward by simply six factors after Casabuena earned 30 right here together with the bronze medal.
On the boys’s facet, the Olympic qualifiers included Ryu Sunghyun of South Korea and Aurel Benovic of Croatia on ground, Ahmad Abu Al Soud of Jordan and Nariman Kurbanov of Kazakhstan on pommel horse, Samir Aït Saïd of France and Vahagn Davtyan of Armenia on rings, Shek Wai Hung of Hong Kong and Mahdi Olfati of Iran on vault, Angel Barajas of Colombia and Rasuljon Abdurakhimov of Uzbekistan on parallel bars, and Tang Chia-Hung of Taiwan and Robert Tvorogal of Lithuania on excessive bar.
Tang was the one MAG athlete to earn an ideal 90 factors, however just a few others acquired shut, together with Abu Al Soud with 85 and Ryu, who didn’t compete in Doha, with 80. There have been additionally many shut battles for the second spots, with Nikita Simonov of Azerbaijan coming inside two factors of incomes a spot on rings, Benjamin Osberger of France solely three factors away on ground, and Lee Chih-Kai of Taiwan coming inside seven factors on pommels.
The closest separation, nonetheless, was on vault, the place Olfati with 62 factors was only one level forward of James Bacueti of Australia with 61. Olfati missed the ultimate and didn’t decide up any further factors in Doha after sitting his first vault to earn a zero and end in final place with a 6.700 common, whereas Bacueti had a powerful efficiency to complete fifth within the closing and earn 20 factors. It wasn’t fairly sufficient to take over the lead, although many thought he’d carried out it after assuming he’d get 25 factors resulting from Audrys Nin Reyes of the Dominican Republic, who completed fourth within the closing, not being eligible for factors after qualifying to Paris via the all-around at Pan Ams.
Nevertheless, the FIG clarified final yr that each one world cup berths could be awarded first, regardless of when the continental qualifiers occurred, so though Pan Ams occurred six months earlier and it was clear Nin Reyes could be the continental all-around qualifier for the Americas, he wouldn’t formally be awarded the spot till after the world cups, making him eligible to earn factors in Doha.
Doha was the debut meet for Nin Reyes this yr, so his 25 factors right here weren’t almost sufficient for him to earn an Olympic spot, however had he competed and earned factors all through the sequence and completed among the many prime two, he would have earned an Olympic spot right here, which might have them made him ineligible for the Pan Ams spot. Though he wasn’t reaching for an Olympic spot through the world cups, he was nonetheless eligible to earn factors as a result of order of Olympic qualifiers as said within the guidelines, and so as a substitute of Bacueti getting 25 factors for a complete of 66 factors – which might have pushed him as much as second place – Bacueti was solely capable of get 20 factors for complete of 61 factors, holding him again to 3rd.
On parallel bars, the third-place finisher, Jossimar Calvo of Colombia, was simply two factors again from second place and three factors away from matching Barajas, his teammate. Had he completed second, he wouldn’t have been eligible to qualify, as the foundations permit for just one athlete per nation on every equipment, however going into the Doha match, each Colombians had a authentic shot of reaching Paris. Nevertheless, neither ended up making the ultimate, with Barajas not including any factors to his complete right here, whereas Calvo was solely to choose up 10 in {qualifications}, which was his lowest among the many 4 meets and likewise added nothing to his complete. To surpass Barajas, he would have wanted to at the least qualify the place Marios Georgiou ended up, in twelfth place to earn 14 factors after reallocation, however he ended up simply over two tenths away from making that occur.
Now one closing tangent about how issues ended up figuring out on ground, which highlights the issue of permitting non-eligible athletes to have an effect on the factors and rankings of eligible athletes. In accordance with the foundations, any athlete not eligible for factors would have the factors that correspond to their rating reallocated to the subsequent eligible athlete, however solely as much as sixteenth place in {qualifications}. For some occasions, like rings, nearly all of athletes competing all through the world cup sequence have been eligible to earn factors, however for others, like ground, we’ve seen dozens of non-eligible athletes outranking eligible athletes, pushing them far down the rankings in {qualifications} and inflicting them to complete outdoors the highest 16.
At Cottbus, for instance, solely six athletes ended up eligible to earn factors on ground, as a result of there have been so many ineligible athletes that 10 eligible athletes completed outdoors of the highest 16 in {qualifications}, leaving them unable so as to add to their factors complete. Essentially the most egregious instance was Eddie Penev tying Kaya Kazuma of Japan with a 13.933, however as a result of execution rating tie-break, Kaya ended up in sixteenth whereas Penev, whose execution rating was one tenth decrease, was seventeenth. As an alternative of getting 12 factors, he would obtain zero, leaving him at a complete of 45 for the sequence after selecting up 20 in Cairo and 25 in Baku. Had he earned the 12 factors in Cottbus, nonetheless, he could be at 57 factors, which might have tied Benovic for the second-place spot within the rankings, and Penev would have gained the tie-break to earn the Olympic spot.
As a result of the disparity of ineligible athletes throughout all apparatuses is so extensive, I hope the FIG reconsiders not permitting their rankings to have an effect on the rankings and factors reallocation of eligible athletes in the event that they use this mannequin going ahead. The redistribution of factors ought to go right down to the bottom potential rating, in any other case who we see qualify to the Olympics relies upon simply as a lot on what number of ineligible athletes compete because it does on the eligible athletes’ personal performances. Penev qualifying or not qualifying to Paris ought to have depended solely on how he competed at Cottbus, not on the truth that Japan, Ukraine, Germany, Nice Britain, and different prime packages despatched a number of the world’s finest ground staff to push Penev out of the highest 16.
With the world cup sequence now over and all athletes added to the listing of qualifiers, the FIG was additionally lastly capable of make official the athletes who certified at Pan Ams, together with Nin Reyes, who was the highest eligible MAG athlete in Santiago final fall, and Luisa Blanco of Colombia, who earned the one accessible WAG spot. Moreover, with Aït Saïd incomes one of many Olympic berths together with his efficiency on rings, the FIG was capable of reallocate France’s non-nominative host nation berth to the next-eligible athlete, which was Khabibullo Ergashev of Uzbekistan, who was the primary reserve within the males’s all-around qualification competitors at world championships final yr.
You could find the up to date listing of certified Olympic groups and athletes right here for WAG and right here for MAG, and we even have the whole lists of WAG world cup reallocated factors and MAG world cup reallocated factors up to date and accessible.
Article by Lauren Hopkins
