39th WORLDS of WOMEN's Artistic Gymnastics 2018

Team- and All-around titles for USA -
 ... but Simone Biles made it exciting!

For the first time in the Middle East, the 39^th WOMEN's WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS of ARTISTIC GYMNATICS 2018 in the Aspire Dome of Doha (Qatar; 27 October to 03 November) - already awarded the first Olympic tickets, for winning Team USA, Russia and China...
Nation Number ONE was the US Team with altogether 4 Gold, 2 Silver and 2 Bronze medals!
RUSSIA's women remained without a victory. Strong Canadians won silver twice. Romania could not be seen in the finals ...!
The title on Balance Beam went to LIU, Tingting fom China and the very first World titel in history for Belgium went to Nina DERWAEL, who celebrated the strongest exercise on Uneven Bars at thes Worlds!!
 

→ ... Final PART  II

B A L A N C E  B E A M       > Qualification resultate;   > S t a r t  l i s t   1. LIU, Tingting                   (CHN)  - (6.3) = 14,533   2. PADURARIU, Anne-Marie (CAN) - (6.0) = 14,100   3. BILES, Simone               (USA)  - (6.2) = 13,600 4. DERWAEL, Nina       (BEL)  - (5.4) = 13,466 5. BLACK, Elsabeth      (CAN) - (4.8) = 13,033 6. EAKER, Kara           (USA)  - (6.2) = 12,833 7. WEVERS, Sanne     (NED)  - (5.3) = 12,666 8. ZHANG, Jin              (CHN)  - (5.3) = 11,500 .      ► DETAILED RESULTS                 > HISTORICAL WCh RESULTS ---

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* THURSDAY, November 01 !

♦♦  WOMEN's ALL-AROUND FINAL
      > Qualifying Results 1-24;  > Startliste

* After her fantastic preliminary results nobody doubted the expected all-round gold, but in their 4^th record WCh all-around victory Simone BILES wobbled more often than expected. Japan's women have their first Vice World Champion in history with Mai MURAKAMI and defending champion Morgan HURD (USA) was not unhappy with Bronze ...:

♦♦   R E S U L T S
  1. BILES, Simone               (USA)  - 57,491
  2. MURAKAMI, Mai             (JPN)  - 55,798
  3. HURD, Morgan                (USA)  - 55,732
       4. DERWAEL, Nina              (BEL)  - 55,699
       5. MELNIKOWA, Angelina   (RUS)  - 55,698
       6. deJESUSdosSantos, M.  (FRA)  - 55,599
         ►► FINAL- RESULTS.
♦♦  R E V I E W:
→  After the competition get an overview of the Women's WCh history
►► Statistics: All WOMEN's AA Results
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* Biles with a historical Record!
Simone BILES, who won three world all-around titles from 2013-2015, was previously tied with Svetlana Khorkina (RUS), who won in 1997, 2001 and 2003. Biles now has 16 world championships medals, second only to Khorkina's 20, and has more world gold medals than any other female gymnast with 12.
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Biles shocked herself and the crowd with two falls, the first falls from the apparatus for her at the world and Olympic level. In the first rotation, she sat down the new vault she debuted in Doha, finding herself in an unusual position of having to come from behind with a 14.533, that was only the sixth-best score of the day on the event. After a strong routine on Uneven Bars, she fell off beam on her barani salto. She refused to water down her difficulty on her final event, Floor Exercise, where she scored 15.000, a full point ahead of anyone else on the event.
Biles, who won the qualification round by 4.5 points, still managed to win by a comfortable margin, 57.491-55.798. Despite the historic finish, Biles said she was disappointed in herself and did not blame her mistakes on her health, even though she has suffered from a painful kidney stone in Doha.

* Murakami made also history with silver
Mai MURAKAMI claimed the All-around silver with four solid routines, with scores between 13.566 on Uneven Bars and 14.566 on Vault. She was most focussed on Balance Beam, where she lost the gold medal in last year's world All-around final with a fall on her turn. This year she finished on Floor Exercise, where she is the reigning world champion, and was in tears after nearly falling on her quadruple turn. But her score of 14.000 was just enough to guarantee her a medal with only the Americans left, and she held on for silver.
Murakami's medal is the third All-around medal for the Japanese women and the first silver following bronzes from Keiko Ikeda in 1962 and Koko Tsurumi in 2009.

Hurd happy with bronze
Morgan HURD, the surprise winner of the 2017 World Championships in Montreal, hit three of four events. She grabbed the early lead with a strong double-twisting Yurchenko on Vault and showed excellent execution on Uneven Bars. But she also struggled on Balance Beam with a large balance break on her standing full twist and a near fall on her side aerial, in which she was forced to grab the Beam to stay on. Needing a 13.900 on Floor Exercise to pass Murakami, Hurd scored 13.866 to take bronze, her fourth world medal, and was all smiles afterward.
Hurd blamed her Beam error on "trying to be too perfect" and said it was difficult to compare her first and second world championships.
"It is kind of hard to say because they are very different circumstances," said Hurd, who tallied 55.732. "Last year it was my first time, so I did not really know what to expect. This year I came in basically as a veteran, and I had a lot more expectations of myself."

* A FIG-VIDEO-Summary
documents the historical dimension of the victory of Simone Biles

* YOUTUBE (00211)

Crowded at the top
The close competition saw the silver medallist and the gymnasts ranked fourth, fifth and sixth separated by just .199.
Nina DERWAEL from Belgium, fourth, had a chance at a medal thanks to her 15.100 on Uneven Bars, the highest score of the day, but a weak vault kept her off the podium by .034.
Russia's Angelina MELNIKOVA stepped out of bounds on Floor Exercise, landing her in fifth place instead of in the medals.
France's Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos took a large hop on her vault in the final rotation that dropped her to sixth.
Following the competition, Angelina MELNIKOVA and compatriot Artur Dalaloyan, who won the men's All-around title on Wednesday, were awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance.
* source: fig report
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* Saturday, Oct 27  /  Sunday, Oct 28
♦ WOMEN's Qualification

2016 Olympian Angelina Melnikova led Russia, the 2010 world champion, to second place with 165.497, well behind the 174.429 posted by the U.S. team on Saturday evening.
* IMPRESSIONS of Russian Team ...:


China was close behind Russia with 165.196. The 2006 world champions tallied the second-best team totals on Uneven Bars and Balance Beam, but were seventh as a team on Vault and 10th on Floor Exercise.
In search of their first world team medal, the Canadians had an outstanding performance to finish fourth, with Ellie Black, Brooklyn Moors, Shallon Olsen and Ana Padurariu reaching individual finals. Brazil likewise were elated with fifth place, despite multiple falls off Balance Beam, that, if corrected in team finals, could land the 2016 Olympic hosts on the team podium for the first time.
France finished seventh behind Japan, who competed on Saturday along with Germany, whose team total held up well enough to grab the eighth and final spot to the final. Surprisingly, Great Britain, the defending team bronze medallists from Glasgow 2015, fell to ninth and out of the final by .107, after suffering several falls on Balance Beam.

* TEAM R E S U L T S:
1. USA - 174,429;   2. RUS - 165,497;   3.CHN - 165,196;  4. CAN - 163,897;
5.  BRA - 162,529;   6. JPN - 162,180;  7. FRA - 161,629;  8. GER - 161,071;

9. GBR - 160,964;  10. NED - 159,029;    11. BEL - 158,970;  12. ITA - 156,830; 
13. ROU - 153,763; 14. KOR - 153,237;  15. AUS - 153,231; 16.PRK - 152,796;
17.HUN - 152,395;  18.ESP - 152,364;  19. MEX - 152,197; 20. UKR - 150,329;
21. SUI - 149,863;   22.POL - 149,671;  24.ARG - 149,603;  24. CZE - 147,996;
→ Rank 1 - 24:  - qualified for  WCh 2019 in Stuttgart!
25. EGY - 146,163;  26. GRE - 144,897;  27. AUT - 143,729;  18. POR - 143,298;
29. COL - 142,862;  30. TUR - 142,246...
►► T E A M  Results

* QUALIFYING,  Ind. AA Results:  (- after grroup 11 of 11)
Biles' total of 60.965 remained unreachable for any other competitor on Sunday as she leads the 24 qualifiers into the All-around final, and she also stayed in first place in the qualification for Vault, Balance Beam and Floor Exercise. She held onto second place in the qualification for Uneven Bars behind Nina Derwael (BEL). The top four qualifiers from Saturday remained unchanged. Reigning world champion Morgan Hurd (USA) stayed solidly in second ahead of Mai Murakami (JPN) and Derwael, with Melnikova qualifying fifth over Black and De Jesus Dos Santos.
Two-time Olympic Uneven Bars champion Aliia Mustafina returned to do three events for the Russian women after becoming a mother in 2017. Mustafina, who has been struggling with a knee injury this year, was a late substitution on Floor Exercise for teammate Angelina Simakova, who injured her ankle in Doha. Mustafina qualified sixth to the Uneven Bars final. Melnikova and Lilia Akhaimova qualified to the Floor Exercise final, and Melnikova and first-year senior Irina Alekseeva advanced to the All-around final.

* AA R e s u l t s --:
1. BILES, Simone       (USA) - 60,965 (!!)
2. HURD, Morgan    (USA)  - 56,465
3. MURAKAMI, Mai (JPN)  - 55,635
4. DERWAEL, Nina        (BEL) - 55,564;  5. MELNIKOVA, A. (RUS) - 55,465;
6. BLACK, E. (CAN) - 54,999            7. deJesusdosSANTOS (FRA) - 54,798;
7. McCUSKER, Riley (USA) - 54,765;      9. LUO, Huan          (CHN) - 54,131;
10. SARAIVA, Flavia (BRA) - 53,999;     11. DOWNIE, Elissa (GBR)  - 53,532;
12. ALEKSEEVA, Irina (RUS) - 53,532;  13. CHEN, Yile          (CHN) - 53,499;
14. TERAMOTO, Asuka (JPN) - 53,466;    15. SIMM, Kelly       (GBR) - 53,099;
16. HATAKEDA, H.         (JPN) - 53,466;    17.VISSER, Naomi  (NED) - 52,832;
18. SEITZ, Elli               (GER)  - 52,798;  19. GOLGOTA, Denisa (ROU) - 52,765;
20. BARBOSA, Jade (BRA) - 52,733;     21. MOORS, Br.             (CAN) - 52,632;
.  ►► Ind. AA Results

!! Sensational
At the jvaulting table, the exceptional athlete Simone BILES created a new, difficult vault, which is included in the "Code de Pointage" with the enormous difficulty factor of D= 6.4. Look for yourself ...:

* Youtube (2.012)

→ All  A p p a r a t u s  Results:
►V A U L T - 1          ►V A U L T-2      ►UNEVEN BARS ; 
►BALANCE BEAM ►FLOOR EXERCISES

♦ QUALIFICATIONS APPARATUS FINALS:
The 4x8 = 32 apparatus final places go to a total of 16 different countries!
* The USA reached 7 of the max. 8 final places - 4x alone occurs Superstar Simone Biles, of which 3x with the best preliminary score.
* 5 finalists were won by the Canadians, 2x on uneven bars, 2x at the beam and promising 1x at the vault.
* 4x CHINA - of which 2x at the beam u. once each vault and uneven bars;
* 3x finals for the Russians, including 2x on the floor and with Alina Mustafina on the uneven bars;
* 2x final for Belgium with best score by Nina Derwael at the uneven bars, where Germany's Elisabeth Seitz had placed third in the preliminary fight just behind Simone Biles!
* The following 11 countries each achieved a final qualification on the devices:
BRA, GBR, GER, FRA, JPN, NED, MEX, PRK, SWE, UZB - in fact, the 43-year-old exceptional athlete Oksana Chusowitina, born in 1991 in Indianapolis - 27 years ago! - already ground world champion was - is again in a World Cup final (5th jump) - an incredible career!
(c) gymmedia / -ehe-
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