In the last two days of these championships, the event finals took place, offering an extra chance for gymnasts to earn more medals and providing specialists with the opportunity to show off their skills on the international stage.
Among the senior women, Liu Jinru of China took the title with 14.400 after throwing a double twisting Tsukahara and a Rudi, adding another gold medal to her recent Chinese Nationals win on this event. In second and third place were two North Koreans, Kim Su-jong and Pyon Rye-yong, averaging 14.000 and 13.900, respectively, who seem to be on the right path to continue their country’s tradition of producing strong vault specialists. Pranati Nayak of India was fourth with 13.300, followed by Fang Ko-Ching of Chinese Taipei in fifth with 13.225. The last three finalists had some issues with Aruna Reddy of India finishing sixth with an average of 12.825 after having some trouble with her second vault, Malyasia’s Tang Ing Yueh finishing seventh with 12.788 due to a fall on her first vault and Wu Sing-Feng of Chinese Taipei receiving a 12.238 average after a fall on her second vault and finishing last.
On bars, Luo Huan and Liu Tingting once again took the two top spots, with Luo winning the gold medal with 14.475, while Liu was second with 14.350, both hitting their routines cleanly and elegantly. Almost one and a half points behind them was bronze medalist Jon Jang-mi of North Korea, who posted 13.000 for a solid performance, though her difficulty is still quite low. Outside the podium was Honoka Koga of Japan in fourth with 12.700 after some issues throughout her exercise, followed by Kim Ju-ri of South Korea in fifth with a total of 12.525. Her teammate Lee Eun-ju was sixth with 11.825 after a fall, Japanese Marina Kawasaki was seventh with 11.700, also counting a fall and some other issues, and Kim Su-jong was eighth with 11.075 after two unfortunate falls.
The next day, it was time for the balance beam final, where Liu and Luo switched places, leaving Luo with the silver with 14.350, while Liu took the title here with 14.700. Liu started off with a front pike mount with a tiny hop forward, followed by a FHS to front tuck series, with a small wobble at the end. She continued on with a switch leap to ring leap to Korbut, a split leap to side aerial to split jump and a switch ring, but missed her front aerial to ring jump connection, losing some difficulty points, before finishing with a double tuck with a step forward. Luo, on the other hand, opened her routine with a switch leap to ring leap to BHS, moving next to her acro series of round-off to layout where she also counted a wobble. She then showed a front aerial to split jump, breaking the connection to the Onodi, and had another wobble on her switch ring, finishing her routine with a double pike with a big step back. Once again scoring quite behind the two top medalists, the bronze medal went to Lai Pin-Ju of Chinese Taipei with 13.175 who presented a switch ring, a double turn and a Y turn, both with wobbles, and some very nice individual skills that could gain a bit more value if connected, capping everything off with a original front 1.5 twists dismount with a tiny hop. In fourth place was Pyon with 12.900, followed by Nayak in fifth with 12.125. Kasumi Murohashi of Japan was sixth with 11.725 after falling on her side aerial, while Lee was seventh with 11.275, counting two fall, and Koga was eighth with 10.125, suffering three falls in her routine.
At last floor was the only final without any Chinese medalists, with both Liu and Luo tying for fourth place with 12.800 after landings issues and slightly lower difficulty. The gold medal was then shared between Koga and Kim Su-jong, who received a score of 13.125 for their routines. Koga showed a stuck 2.5 twists with some messy legs in the air, a quad turn into a full turn, a 1.5 twist to front full landed with the tiniest of hops and a double tuck to finish, while Kim started off with a full-in with a step forward, followed by a triple twist to front tuck with a tiny step forward, a 1.5 twist to front full with a big step forward and out-of-bounds and a 2.5 twists to front tuck with a step back to close her exercise. In third place was Lee with 12.875, showing a double pike with a hop back, a Memmel turn, a 1.5 twist to front full with a hop to the side and 2.5 twists with a step to the side as her last pass, totaling a bit less in difficulty, compared to the two gold medalists. Behind both Chinese girls in fourth place, was Tan Ing Yueh in sixth with 12.675, followed by Nozomi Toyoda of Japan in seventh with 12.575 and lastly Jong Un-gyong of North Korea in eighth with 10.300 after falling on her opening 3.5 twists and counting super low landings and messy form on her other tumbling passes.
As for the juniors, China managed to take all four titles after solid performances by their finalists. On vault, Liu Jieyu won the gold medal with a somewhat low average of 13.325 for her DTY and full twisting Tsukahara, both appearing to have had major execution issues. The silver medal was then shared between Daria Yassinskaya of Kazakhstan and Shin Sol-yi of South Korea, both scoring an average of 13.300. In fourth place was Japan’s Mana Oguchi with 13.263, followed by Chan Cheuk-Lam of Hong Kong in fifth with 12.950 and Ryu Jim-in of South Korea in sixth with 12.900. Lastly, Anastasia Miroshnichenko of Uzbekistan was seventh with 12.875 and Olga Sanjiyeva of Kazakhstan was eighth with 12.413.
On bars, All-Around Champion Chen Yile took another gold medal with a total of 14.150, beating her teammate Zhou Ruiyu by quite a margin, with Zhou finishing second after having some major mistakes and scoring just 13.200. Closely behind was North Korean Sim Hae-won in third place with 13.050 after a solid performance of her own. Outside the podium, Japan’s Yuki Murakami was fourth with 12.175 and Miroshnichenko was fifth with 12.100. Tied for sixth place were Chiaki Hatakeda of Japan and Shin, both scoring 12.000 due to a fall on their routine. In last and eighth place was Ryu with 10.750 after counting two falls in her performance, scoring well below her true capability.
On the next day, Li Qi of China stole the show, winning the gold medal on both beam and floor after great performances. On beam, she scored just above 14 after counting big wobbles at the end of her switch leap to sheep jump connection, as well as on her round-off to layout series, though she was clean otherwise, hitting her switch half to Korbut and her awesome front aerial to split jump to Onodi to stag ring jump series without major issues before finishing with a triple twist dismount with just a tiny hop on the landing. After her great performance in the all-around, Baby Hatakeda managed yet another silver medal at this meet, posting a total of 13.375 for her routine, where she showed a round-off to layout full (!), landed a bit low and with a step forward, as well a switch ring with a small wobble and some nice individual skills that could turn into interesting connections in the future, capping everything off with a triple twist dismount with just a hop to the side. The other six finalists all counted falls into their performance, so Chen ended up being the bronze medalist thanks to her superior difficulty. She received a final score of 12.925 for her exercise, where she fell on her round-off to layout series and had some wobbles and broken connections, though she managed to finish her set on a high note with a triple twist dismount with a step to the side. In fourth place was Oguchi with 12.675 after a fall on her front tuck mount, followed by young Dildora Aripova of Uzbekistan in fifth with 11.950, also counting a fall of her own. Lee Yun-seo of South Korea was sixth with 11.850 after falling on her LOSO, Ting Huan-Tien of Chinese Taipei was seventh with 11.825 and Do Thi Ngoc Huong of Vietnam was eighth with 10.175, mostly likely counting two falls.
In the last final of the day, Li took the title after receiving a total score of 13.425 for her routine featuring a triple turn, a slightly underrotated triple twist to front tuck, a 2.5 twists to front layout with a step forward, a double tuck with a big hop and multiple steps back and a double pike with a hop back to finish. Chen managed yet another medal here, this time with a hit routine albeit with some mistakes, posting a 13.200 after showing a 1.5 twist through to triple twist with a step back and a 2.5 twists to front layout with a deep landing and a step forward, before finishing with a double tuck with a big step back. The bronze medal then belonged to Lee who scored 12.975 after also performing her exercise cleanly. Her teammate Shin was fourth with 12.700, while Miroshnichenko was sixth with 12.650, both showing nice sets but with low difficulty scores. The last three finalists all had falls, with Hatakeda finishing sixth with 12.500 after falling on her triple twist, Oguchi posting 12.125 for seventh place after a fall on her 2.5 twists to front full and lastly Aripova receiving a 11.775 for eighth place.
Among the senior men, the Chinese also dominated the show, with only Le Thanh Tung of Vietnam breaking their winning streak with his gold on vault, after receiving an average of 14.563 for his front handspring with 2.5 twists and Tsukahara, also with 2.5 twists. On floor, Lin Chaopan took the title with 14.675, edging out teammate Xiao Ruoteng by just 0.025, which happened once again on high bar where Lin won gold with 14.550 and Xiao had to settle for silver with 14.500. Xiao, however, managed to win the pommel horse final, posting a fantastic 15.125, and his teammate Zou Jingyuan took the title on rings and parallel bars, with a 15 even on the former and a huge 15.850 on the latter, scoring over 1.5 points above second place finisher Han Jong-hyok of North Korea.
On the junior side things were a bit more diverse, with China and Japan winning two titles each, while the Philippines and Chinese Taipei took the remaining gold medals. Su Weide of China started his country’s gold medal count with a win on floor, after receiving a 14.200, over half a point above silver medalist Kakuto Murayama of Japan, and his teammate Yin Daehang continued the show with a 13.735 on pommel horse, taking another another gold for Team China. After his silver on floor, Murayama managed to reach the top of the podium on high bar, though this was a super messy final and even his gold medal winning routine wasn’t free of mistakes, scoring just 13.050, while the second Asian title for Japan came on vault thanks to Shiga tachibana’s 14.288, which he received after a solid Shewfelt and a double twisting Tsukahara. Lin Guan-Yi of Chinese Taipei managed to take the title on rings with 13.700 and Carlos Yulo from the Phillipines became the parallel bars champion with 13.825.
After many days of competition, this year’s Asian Championships finally came to an end, with new champions on pretty much every event, drawing the first draft of the gymnastics scene in the continent for this new Olympic cycle. With most teams already starting their Worlds selection process, this meet will surely factor into their decision and many federations took this opportunity to test their gymnasts on a big international stage. While some of these athletes are still juniors and won’t really be part of any major teams for some time, the young Asians showed tons of potential here, suggesting this continent could become a very competitive field in the near future, making for even better gymnastics all over the world.
Full results: senior women | junior women | senior men | junior men
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