Rotterdam (Netherlands) (AFP) – American teenagers Claire Pease and Reese Esponda reaped the reward of high-difficulty routines to take the top two places in the women’s floor exercise Sunday on the final day of the World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam. Their medals allowed the United States, which collected eight medals, three of them gold, to edge China for the top spot in the medal count. China finished with seven medals including three golds, the last of them earlier Sunday when Zou Jingyuan continued his domination of the men’s parallel bars.
In the women’s floor event, the 17-year-old Pease scored 13.866. Esponda, also 17, was second with 13.566, just 0.010 off French 16-year-old Maiana Prat and Britain’s Abigail Martin, the oldest of the quartet at 18, on a tiebreak. Prat, who had the lowest degree of difficulty, was awarded bronze because her execution score was better than Martin’s.
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The American women put on a spectacular show in Rotterdam, led by Skye Blakely, who won gold in the all-around and bronze on the uneven bars and vault. The Texan, a model of resilience, was the feel-good story of this week in the Netherlands. She was forced to withdraw from the 2020 Olympic Games, held in 2021 in Tokyo, and the 2024 Paris Games due to injuries.
Zou was again untouchable on the bars. The 28-year-old finished on 15.733 for his fifth world title in the event. Illia Kovtun, who left his native Ukraine after the Russian invasion and represents Croatia, was a distant second on 14.900, just ahead of Russian Daniel Marinov, representing World Gymnastics, on 14.866.
On the beam, Algeria’s Kaylia Nemour claimed her second gold in two days as she edged China’s Zhang Qingying on a tiebreak. Brazil’s Flavia Saraiva was third. The 19-year-old Nemour finished tied with Zhang on 14.566 points. Nemour rebounded with two golds after finishing fourth in Friday’s all-around due to errors on the vault and uneven bars. After finishing close to tears on Friday, Nemour beamed as she received a standing ovation on Sunday. She said she was happy “even if it doesn’t make up for the all-around competition.”
Armenian Artur Davtyan opened the day’s competition by winning the men’s vault. The 34-year-old collected 14.850 points to finish ahead of Britain’s Jake Jarman on 14.650, with Norway’s Sebastian Sponevik third. A double Olympic medalist in the event — with a bronze in Tokyo in 2020 and a silver in Paris in 2024 — the veteran from Yerevan claimed his second vault world title, following victory in Liverpool in 2022.
Taiwan’s Chia-Hung Tang brought the competition to a close by winning the horizontal bar ahead of Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka and Russian Sergei Naidin. At age 30, Tang claimed his first world title on the apparatus that had earned him an Olympic bronze in Paris.
© 2024 AFP
