2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships

Russia, China, Japan, & USA Top Worlds Men's Qualifications

Russia, China, Japan, & USA Top Worlds Men's Qualifications

Russia, China, and Japan top the men's team qualifications at the 2018 World Gymnastics Championship.

Oct 26, 2018 by Amanda Wijangco
Russia, China, Japan, & USA Top Worlds Men's Qualifications

After two days and 10 subdivisions of men's qualifications at the 2018 World Gymnastics Championships, Russia, China, and Japan top the men's team qualifications. China's Xiao Ruoteng, Russia's Nikita Nagornyy, and USA's Sam Mikulak qualified in the top three spots to the men's all-around final.



USA, Great Britain, Brazil, the Netherlands, and Switzerland round out the eight teams that have advanced to the team final. The Russian and Chinese men had strong performances on parallel bars and a solid pommel horse rotation to catapult them to the top two spots. Japan and USA both struggled on pommel horse, counting multiple falls, but did well on floor to maintain their spots in the team final. 

Competing in the last subdivision didn't stop Ruoteng from having great and consistent performances on all six events, scoring no lower than 14.133. Nagornyy and Mikulak also hit six-for-six to qualify in the second and third spots, respectively, to the all-around final.



Because Kohei Uchimura didn't compete on vault or floor due to an ankle injury, the top Japanese all-arounder is Kenzo Shirai. Shirai struggled on pommel horse but still qualified to the all-around final in the sixth place spot.

Other notable all-around qualifiers include Spain's Nestor Abad, the Philippines' Carlos Yulo Edriel, USA's Yul Moldauer, Germany's Marcel Nguyen, and Ukraine's Oleg Verniaiev.

For event finals, Russia's Artur Dalaloyan and Shirai tied in the top spot for floor exercise finals with a 14.833. Nagornyy, Edriel, Turkey's Ahmet Onder, Moldauer, Israel's Artem Dolgopyat, Japan's Kazuma Kaya, and Mikulak also advanced. Kaya and Mikulak tied for eighth, hence the nine gymnasts advancing to finals.

Great Britain's Max Whitlock excelled on his signature event to advance to pommel horse finals in the top spot with a fantastic score of 14.966. The other gymnasts advancing to pommel finals are Ruoteng, Kazakhstan's Nariman Kurbanov, France's Cyril Rommasone, Mikulak, Nagornyy, Russia's David Belayvskiy, and Chinese Taipei's Kai Lee Chih.



On rings, the top two event finals spots went to two superstar specialists, Greece's Eleftherios Petrounias and Brazil's Arthur Zanetti. Both scored above 15 with execution scores above 8.7. Armenia's Artur Tovmasyan, Ukraine's Igor Radivilov, Armenia's Vahagn Davtyan, Italy's Marco Lodadio, Azerbaijan's Nikita Simonov and Nagornyy also made rings finals. Six of the eight qualifiers' scores were within two-tenths of one another, making for a tight competition.

Korea's Ri Se Gwang leads the vault qualifications with a 14.966 average for his two vaults. Gwang was the only gymnast to score a 15.000 or higher on any vault, as he received a 15.033 on his second. Dalaloyan, Davtyan, and Nagornyy also advanced to the vault final with scores in the high 14.000 range. Great Britain's Dominick Cunningham, Brazil's Caio Souza, Shirai, and Hong Kong's Hung Shek Wai round out the vault final.

China and Russia dominated parallel bars as gymnasts from each country did not advance despite top 10 scores due to the two-per-country rule. China's Zou Jingyuan and Verniaiev advanced to the final in the top two places. Jingyuan earned a huge 15.800 while Verniaiev earned a 15.458. China's Lin Chaopan, Colombia's Jossimar Calvo Moreno, Dalaloyan, Belyavskiy, Mikulak and Germany's Lukas Dauser will also compete in the final. All qualifiers except for Dauser scored above a 15.000, noting the quality and difficult gymnastics that will be in the final.

Uchimura did not fail to deliver on the events he did compete as he sits in the top qualifying position on high bar with a 14.600. Mikulak and Ruoteng follow closely behind with a 14.566 and 14.433, respectively. Dutch star Epke Zonderland made the final to no one's surprise, in addition to Crotia's Tin Srbic, China'e Deng Shudi, Chinese Taipei's Chia-Hung Tang and Dalaloyan.

Full results can be found on the FIG's website.