Davtyan, Steingruber rock Doha

Armenian gymnast Artur Davtyan yesterday rocked the men’s vault competition with a sublime routine, taking the gold with a score of 15.025 on the final day of the 8th FIG Artistic Gymnastics Challenge Cup. The Peninsula reports.

Regaling more than 3000 fans at Aspire Academy, Dalton beat arch-rival Brazil’s Diego Hypolito (14.662) and Latvia’s Vitalijs Kardasovs (15.200).

Also yesterday, Swiss star Giulia Steingruber continued with her fine form, winning the women’s floor exercises with a score of 14.550.

The scores were very close between the second and the third placed Romania’s Laura Jurca (13.800) and Switzerland’s Ilaria Kaeslin (13.750).

“I am pleased with my efforts. But I could have done better,” Steingruber said.

“I made few mistakes in beam, which cost me gold. Otherwise I had a good outing here,” she added.

“Now I need to get back to training and practice more as the European championship is coming up in April.

“I am the defending champion there, so there will be lot of expectations from me,” Steingruber said.

Also to shine with a gold winning performance was Argentina’s Nicolas Cordoba who scored 15.250 points in the men’s horizontal bar.

Japan’s Kazuyuki Takeda (14.900) was second Danell Leyva of the US had to settle for the bronze with 13.975.

Cordoba said: “I am very happy. I am glad I managed to win against such a tough field.”

The Argentine added: “I have to say I am happy but tired at the same time. It was very satisfying.”

Vietnam’s Thi Ha Thanh Phan showed clean exercises on the beam to pocket gold with a score of 14.250. Steingruber finished with the silver medal (14.125) while Romania’s Diana Bulimar got the bronze with 14.025.

There were no surprises in the parallel bar final as Azerbaijan’s Oleg Stepko topped the field with 15.750.

Columbia’s Jossimar Calvo finished in second spot with 15.725.

But the big surprise was Romania’s Andre Muntean who jumped from the fifth place in qualifications to third to pocket the bronze with 15.550.

Ivan Bravo, Director General of Aspire Academy, praised the gymnasts for their performances.

“As you can see, we got to watch some spectacular performances from the world-class gymnasts,” Bravo said. “We were privileged to see such high class performances,” he added.

“I am sure this venue will welcome back these athletes and new ones in the coming years.

“This venue will host the 2018 World Championships and I predict a spectacular event then,” Bravo added.

The event, hosted by Qatar Gymnastics Federation (QGF), witnessed a huge crowd at the venue yesterday.

Organisers said more than 3,000 fans had turned up to see the gymnasts in action.  The total number of participating gymnasts was 128, including 84 males and 44 females, QGF President Ali Al Himti said.

Qatar was represented by Farah Mahmoud, Ahmed Al Dayani and Mahmoud Al Saadi who featured in the qualifying rounds.

Al Himti was a pleased man after the event - that offered more than $50,000 in prize money - concluded to loud cheers. “We have the best possible facilities and infrastructure to host any world class event,” Al Hitmi said. 

“We have qualified manpower working professionally. This makes us ambitious to go for bigger events and we are gearing up to host 2018 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships,” the QGF President said.

“In fact, this was a test event for the 2018 World Championships. We will welcome back these gymnasts next year also,” he said.

Gymnasts representing Armenia, Australia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Brazil Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iraq, Jordan, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Mongolia, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taipei, Turkey, USA, Uzbekistan, Venezuela and Vietnam featured in the event.

Doha was the second stop on the 2015 World Challenge Cup series. The first event was held in Cottbus, Germany.