03. April 2016  
Putian / CHN  
Sports Acrobatics

25th ACROBATIC GYMNASTCS WORLDS 2016

Twenty-two years after the 1994 Beijing Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships, the People’s Republic of China welcomed again the world’s top Acrobatic gymnasts, with best-on-the-planet status on the line: The 2016 25th Acro Worlds took place at the Putian Sports Complex Gymnasium in the 3.5 million metropolis of Putian City in China’s Fujian province, midway between Hong Kong and Shanghai, from April 01 - 03. World titles are up for grabs in all five disciplines of Acro: Men’s and Women’s Pairs, Mixed Pairs and Men’s and Women’s Groups. More than 150 athletes from 21 different countries who tooke part  – including first-time competitor Iran – as gymnasts get set to compete for World glory.
Host nation China has a strong Acrobatic Gymnastics programme with the federation's most recent success being the World title won by the Chinese Men's Group at the 2014 World Championships in Levallois-Paris (FRA) in July; this year a the new four-man Group of Zheng Li, Luoming Rui, Zhang Teng and Zhou Jiahuai, aims to continue the tradition. Russia's Marina Chernova is the only reigning queen who can defend her title at this week's the World Championships in Putian, China, where six titles are up for grabs.

* GYMmedia-Reports are supported by Hearts and Minds-TV

Venue: Putian Sports Gymnasium

ACROBATIC GYMNASTICS - one of the most aesthetic disciplines of Gymnastics, is also the only one in which all gymnasts work with at least one partner to perform complicated Acrobatic series.
* Gymnasts perform in one of five categories:
- Women's Pair, Men's Pair, Mixed Pair, Women's Trio and Men's Group. A team title will also be awarded.
* Three routines are performed in competition:
-  a Balance exercise (focusing on hand balances);
- a Dynamic exercise (focusing on throws and other complicated Acrobatic elements); and
- a Combined Exercise, containing elements of both.
* The top eight groups in each category following the qualification rounds advance to the World finals, where they will perform their Combined exercise a second time.
* The top three Combined exercises in finals determine the medallists. Musicality and Artistry are also paramount: the best performances can transcend athletics, blurring the boundaries between sport and art. Routines receive scores for technical merit, execution and artistry, which are combined to form the final score.
(source/info: f i g press release)


* Youtube (8.109)

* fig-report:
Golden fortunes for Russia, Chinese Men's Group as Acrobatic Worlds comes to a close

Russian gymnasts picked up an additional three golds at the Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships Sunday, capping the country's most dominant performance at the World Championships in 12 years. The final day of competition saw the coronation of Marina Chernova and Georgy Pataraya in Mixed Pairs, while Zhanna Parkhomets, Yulia Nikitina and Valeriia Belkina won their first World title in Women's Group. Only in Men's Group, where the Chinese proved insurmountable, did Russia fall short of total command of the competition. Russia's golden harvest yielded five of the six World titles contested in Putian, including the team gold, which is determined by results at the end of the qualification round.
China saves its best for last
China, whose goal in Putian was to win medals and increase Acro visibility among the public, achieved both: in the last performance of the competition, its celebrated Men's Group delivered a four-man fireworks show to give the Chinese the only World title not destined for Russia. The foursome (Li Zheng, Rui Liuming, Zhang Teng and Zhou Jiahuai) lived up to the precedent set by their predecessors at the past two World Championships, finishing 1.6 over silver medallist Israel, the largest margin of victory in any category.
Reversals of fortune for Belarus,
China Belarus and China each won three medals in Putian, a marked improvement over their classifications two years ago in Paris. Belgium, a traditional Acro powerhouse, contented itself with one silver and a bronze, and will aim to build on those results as Antwerp gears up to host the next World Championships in 2018.
Mixed Pairs, Men's and Women's Group qualify to The World Games 2017
The Putian Worlds is the only qualifier in Acrobatic Gymnastics for The World Games 2017, an Olympics-style event for non-Olympic sports. By dint of their results in qualification, the following nations have qualified to send Women's Groups to Wroclaw, Poland, next summer: Russia, Belarus, China, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Great Britain and Portugal. China, Great Britain, Israel, Russia, Ukraine and Australia also qualified Men's Groups, while Russia, USA, Portugal, Belarus, Great Britain and Poland earned the right to send Mixed Pairs.
* source: fig-report

♦ From Friday, April 01 to Sunday April 03 you will find daily news/results from Putian on the
► FIG Microsite

►► FIG- RESULTS, Overview (Final standing)