The Grand Prix Osijek will give us a great preview of this month's World Championship competition. Let us take a look at the athletes who qualified to the finals.


(c) Melissa J Perenson

Two-time Olympian and former NCAA All American Jessica Lopez of Venezuela posted the top score on bars, beam and floor during qualifications and is the one to beat in finals.  Lopez is competing an upgraded bar routine that has the highest difficulty score in the final with a 6.300. Make sure to catch her incredible tkatchev gienger combination.  Lopez won a gold medal on uneven bars at the 2010 Moscow World Cup

Rebecca Tunney, the youngest member of the 2012 Great Britain Olympic team, is one of the reserve athletes for the bar final.  Tunney's bar routine has huge potential but she struggled to execute in qualifications scoring a 13.175.  Tunney did qualify to the floor final.

Noel Van Kalvern of the Netherlands posted the top score on vault in qualifications  averaging a 14.463. Van Klavern is the 2013 European Championships silver medalist on the vault. Van Klavern competes a double twisting yurchenko and a full twisting tsuk.

Another gymnast to keep an eye on in the final is Phan Thi Ha Thanh of Vietnam. Thi Ha Thanh  is a 2012 Olympian who made history when she won a bronze medal on vault at the 2011 World Championships.  Phan Thi Ha Thanh competes a double twisting yurchenko and a handspring pike Rudi. She struggled on her second vault in qualifications and only averaged the fifth highest score with a 13.713.



(c) Professional Gymnastics Challenge/ Eltherious Petrounias


Expect a exciting ring final with a deep field of ring specialists that includes  Eltherious Petrounias of Greece, Danny Pinheiro Rodrigues of France, Samir AitSaid of France and Tommy Ramos of Puerto Rico. Petrounias posted the top score in the qualifying round and should be the favorite. Petrounias placed 3rd on rings at the 2011 European Championships and has won numerous World Cup medals on the event.

2010 World floor champion Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece leads the men's field on floor.  Kosmidis posted the top score qualifications with a 15.225.  Japan took the third and fourth qualifying spots with Kenzo Kaneko and Kazuyuki Takeda. Kaneko earned the higher difficulty rating of the two gymnasts but Takeda had higher execution. Expect both of the Japanese men to contend for a place on the podium.  Tomislav Markovic of Croatia finished just behind the Japanese men in qualifications and will be one to watch in the final. Markovic is competing in front of a home crowd and won the floor title at the 2009 and 2010 Osijek finals.

Gymnastike is thrilled to bring you LIVE coverage of the 2013 Osijek Grand Prix Finals, which will stream this weekend, September 14- 15.