In first subdivision news, Belgium has recorded the current team score to beat with 158.970. It’s a fine total, but it does include counting a mistake on both bars and beam.
Derwael was the star, going 55.564 in the all-around, hitting all four sets, and breaking 15 on bars for a routine that will surely make the final. We also learned that it’s not 2017 worlds anymore as she got an E score over 8.5 on beam.
A really tight fight among the other two teams in subdivision 1 ended up with Poland ahead of Argentina by less than a tenth, 149.671 to 149.603. They are both in my top 24 but on the lower end, so that difference could be significant. Other teams will be looking at hitting 150 now as the “phew, we’re in the top 24” goal.
What you need to know, in quick, easily digestible bullet points.
The pommel horse is a butthead
The team final qualifiers are Russia, China, Japan, USA, Great Britain, Brazil, Netherlands, and Switzerland
China only might be better than Russia after a fantastic first half of the meet (vault, PBars, HBar) and a weakish second half of the meet (floor, horse, rings) saw the Chinese men qualify second, behind the Russian team
China was not the only team to suffer multiple falls on pommel horse: so did the US and Japan…and basically all the countries. Mexico counted a 3. Argentina counted a 4.
2017 silver medalist Lin Chaopan has been 2-perred out of the all-around final after a struggle on floor and a miss on horse put him behind Sun Wei. He joins David Belyavskiy, who suffered the same fate yesterday
Xiao Ruoteng is now an even stronger favorite to defend his AA title
Sam Mikulak had his best-ever day at a major international meet, hitting all six events, qualifying 3rd into the AA final, and advancing to four event finals (FX, PH, PB, HB)
After Xiao, the remaining AA medal spots are truly open to be won, with Nagornyy, Mikulak, Dalaloyan, Sun, and Shirai joining him in the lead group
Beyond Mikulak, the US team was a mixed bag, struggling on pommel horse (most notably Yoder, who fell and will miss the final), but not falling on any HB routines. Back to normal?
Yul Moldauer also advanced to the AA final and the FX final
The US qualified in 4th as a team, exactly meeting expectations in the end
Rhys McClenaghan fell twice on horse and will miss the final, as will fellow specialists like Ude, Seligman, Bertoncelj, Merdinyan, and a host more.
Even Kohei fell on horse
Japan qualified in 3rd, and Kenzo advanced to both of his finals—floor and vault. Despite the mistakes, Japan does not look like it will challenge Russia and China at this point even with a clean meet in the final, at least without serious help
Marcel Nguyen and Marios Georgiou barely (and I mean barely) squeaked into the AA final. Phew
Whitlock was impervious to the pommel devil, hitting his routine and qualifying in first
GB was on track to overtake the US, but struggled on HB and finished fifth. It should be a good fight between the two in the team final
Ukraine will miss the team final after a strong five-event performance from Brazil (once pommel horse was done) knocked the Ukrainians out
Germany had a tough one and finished 10th. That damn pommel horse (and high bar) (and floor kind of)
Netherlands and Switzerland held on!
Did I mention the pommelling was bad?
47 people scored under 10.000 on horse. Meanwhile, 7 people broke 14.000.
Somehow, Eleftherios “my shoulder is missing” Petrounias is still in first place on rings.
No finals for Manrique Larduet, as he finishes 9th on HB, which was his best result.
Simone is in the ER because of kidney stones but will be fine (??????allthequestionmarks)
There were definitely at least 23 people in the stands today
We start day 2 with the featured subdivision from all of men’s qualification, subdivision #6, featuring both the US and Japan. The US begins on vault, and Japan starts on the boring one. (The boring one is rings.)
Since both nations are putting up just 2 AAers, we won’t have any Russia-style, 2-per drama in this session regarding the AA final, but Japan being Japan, we might still have some intra-team 2-per drama regarding event finals.
What you need to know, in quick, easily digestible bullet points.
2017’s 4th-place finisher David Belyavskiy will miss the all-around final (save some last minute Galiyevaing) after falling on floor and finishing 3rd among the Russians.
Nikita Nagornyy leads the all-around after day 1 with 87.098.
Russia is good.
Carlos Yulo of the Philippines is 18 years old, destroyed the all-around with 81.230 to sit 5th (4th after 2-per), is a perfect little hummingbird, and should make vault and floor finals
The NETHERLANDS IS IN SECOND!
Epke Zonderland leads high bar with 14.400
Casimir Schmidt and Bart Deurloo each hit all five of their events like princes, with counting scores on each one, to lead the team
Switzerland struggled in a few places but still sit in 3rd with a solid shot to make the team final
Oliver Hegi fell on his Def and will miss the high bar final
Oleg is kind of. He leads PBars with 15.458 and will make that final, but he struggled on horse and high bar for 80.522 in the all-around.
Igor Radivilov missed his hand on his Dragulescu, did only a double front, and sat it, opting not to do a second vault because LIFE.
Igor needed 15.050 on that vault for Ukraine to pass Switzerland for 3rd place. Alas, Ukraine sits on the bubble in 4th.
With China, Japan, the US, and GB still to compete tomorrow, no one currently below 4th will advance to the team final.
Kazakhstan is in 7th. Go ahead on, Kazakhstan. Nariman Kurbanov leads pommel horse, so that’s probably a name we should learn.
We will likely have no Croatians in the pommel horse final. WHAT?
Shatilov will not make the floor final.
Marian Dragulescu did not attempt 2 vaults and will make no finals
European bronze medalists France counted a 10 on pommel horse and will not make the team final
Ri Se Gwang chucked his body into the ether randomly and it worked out, so he’s in 1st place on vault. His body shape on those vaults remains unclear.
Manrique Larduet will not compete the all-around tomorrow
Akash Modi is no longer in the all-around lineup for the US and will not compete floor tomorrow. Sam Mikulak and Yul Moldauer will do AA.
