The first day of the Gymnastics World Cup FIG Challenge has come to an end today. The official opening ceremony of the tournament and qualifying competitions in the three men's and two women's disciplines took place today.
The day began with men's in floor exercises and exercises on the pommel horse. Artem Dolgopyat (Israel) was the best in floor exercise with 15.15 points, the second was Azerbaijani gymnast Petro Pahnyuk with 14.95 points, and the third was Kenzo Shirai (Japan) with 14.85 points. Rock Klavrova (Slovenia), Tomislav Markovic (Croatia), Naoto Hayasaka (Japan), Ahmet Önder (Turkey) and Alexander Shatilov (Israel) also qualified for the finals.
Tomomasa Hasegawa (Japan) with 15.1 points, Maxim Gentges (Belgium) with 14.75 points and Styan Skerahaug (Norway) with 14.4 points won the first three places in floor exercises on the pommel horse. In the finals, they will compete with Ferhat Aridzhan (Turkey, 14.25 points), Syed Reza Keyhoy (Iran, 14.15 points), Renato Prpichem (Croatia, 14.15 points), Dmitrijs Trefilov (Latvia, 14 05 points) and Artem Dolgopyat (Israel, 14 points).
In the qualifying rounds in the exercises on gymnastics ring Ibrahim Çolak (Turkey) won the first place with 15.05 points. Totomasa Hasegawa (Japan) with 14.65 points and Azerbaijani gymnast, bronze medalist of the World Championship Oleg Stepko received the same number of points. On Sunday they will compete with Scott Morgan (Canada, 14.55 points), Kevin Litvin (Canada, 14.4 points), Ruben Lopez (Spain, 14.15 points), Adrian Vera Mora (13.85 points) and Vladislav Hryko (Ukraine, 13.65 points).
Finally, in the uneven bars the first two places were won by Lina Philipp from Germany and Flavia Lopez with 13.85 points. Brazilian Daniel Matthias with 13.4 points was in the top three. Among the qualifiers were Azerbaijani gymnast Julia Inshina (12.3 points), Lisa Ecker (Austria, 12.95 points), Florin Harder (Germany, 12.8 points), Jan Horokova (Ukraine, 12.2 points), Zuph Feldon ( Israel 11.95 points).
Thus, the Azerbaijani athletes were able to receive four tickets to the finals on the individual disciplines out of five: Oleg Stepko will compete for the victory on rings, Petro Pahnyuk in the floor exercises, Maria Smirnova in the vault, Julia Inshina in the uneven bars.
According to the head coach of the men's team of Azerbaijan Pavel Netreba, both good performances and bad ones were today, "it is a sport." "We still have the second day, other apparatuses and we hope to perform in proper manner.
Petro Pahnyuk assessed his performance as normal in an interview with a correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza. "This is the first start of the season. I made some little mistakes on the pommel horse. The first apparatus was very accurate, so it was difficult to do it as usual. Then floor exercises started and I felt a bit better," the gymnast said.
