Men’s Vault
The men’s vault final successfully fulfilled the prophecy, with half the competitors staying upright and half of them, well…we’ll always have Paris.
The two world-final-level vaulters rose to the top here, with Andrei Medvedev taking gold and Courtney Tulloch taking silver, each showing two 5.6 vaults. Medvedev’s landings proved a little stronger, particularly on his handspring front double pike with only a minimal hop back. Tulloch successfully completed a Dragulescu and Tsuk double pike but was pretty deeply crunched in his double pike landing and wasn’t going to get the execution scores to match Medvedev.
Canada’s Felix Dolci came through with a bronze, completing a solid Kas 2/1 for 5.6 D, a vault that will help his quest to emerge as Canada’s new top all-arounder. He did land a bit lock legged on his double front second vault, but it was fine. The only other real hitter in the final was one half of Romania’s only hope for continuing to have a men’s gymnastics program, Gabriel Burtanete, who performed well, but with two 5.2 vaults, didn’t have the difficulty to get into the medals.
Meanwhile, what you’re really here for with the men’s vault final: Ondrej Kalny squirted sideways on an underrotated Kas 2/1 and slid into the gutter, Riley Loos’s attempt to become the Holy Grail—a US men’s team member with an actual 5.6 vault—hit a literal stumbling block on a handspring 2.5, and William Emard directly connected a handspring double front to butt bounce.
My favorite part is how he still tries to show control on the landing after the butt bounce. Gotta minimize those deductions.
Balance Beam
Hit for the win! As is our only expectation for beam finals at a world challenge cup, staying on the apparatus was the standard for winning a medal in this final as, unfortunately, the majority of competitors suddenly found themselves performing inside the concept of ennui. These things can happen.
Continue reading What Happened At the World Cup? Koper Day 2 Recap →