29th Universiade 2017 - Artistic Gymnastics

29^th Summer UNIVERSIADE 2017
   - Teipei /Taiwan, Aug 19 - 23 -

... event summaries will follow soon !
* MEN's TEAM FINAL: -- Japan succeeded in defending its title in the artistic gymnastics men’s competition yesterday, taking gold with 260.225 points. Ukraine, led by Olympian Oleg Verniaiev, claimed silver with 257.900 points. Russia (253.150 points) came in third, followed by South Korea (249.900 points) and Chinese Taipei (245.125 points). The fifth-place finish was the host team’s best result ever in the men’s competition. Japan’s head coach said that although the team did not perform as strongly as expected in the horizontal bar and floor exercise events, the other team members compensated well enough to bring home the gold. Japan was not necessarily the best team out there, he said, citing the serious challenge posed by Ukraine and Russia. But, the coach added, he had believed that as long as everyone had faith, the team would prevail.
Rio Olympics athlete Oleg Verniaiev made a surprise early exit in the parallel bars after getting only 13.75 points (ranking 24th) in the qualification round due to a major mistake. Another star athlete, Shogo Nonomura of Japan, also performed poorly in the event, falling during the horizontal bar qualifications and coming in 48th. It was a surprise result for Shogo Nonomura, who was the men’s team gold medalist as well as individual horizontal bar and all-round silver medalist at the last Universiade. Nonomura, who is also Japan’s team captain, said he was not disappointed by his failure to advance in the horizontal bar competition, adding that he was already focused on winning the men’s individual all-around category.
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* WOMEN's TEAM FINAL: -- Defending champion Russia triumphed in artistic gymnastics on Monday, claiming gold in the women’s team event with 163 points. Canada took silver with 161.1 points and 2015 Universiade silver medalist Japan bagged bronze. Chinese Taipei team finished sixth with 142.725 points.
The Russian team’s head coach Liudmila Marunova said that Taiwan’s humid weather presented her team with its biggest challenge but that the athletes had overcome the weather conditions to deliver their best performance. She said that the U.S. team had once been Russia’s biggest rival. Over the last four years, Russia had caught up to the Americans and now expected to compete head-to-head. She said she hoped Russia would be able to defeat the U.S. and win gold in the World Championships slated for September in Canada.

Russian gymnast Daria Spiridonova said she had given her best on Monday. After years of strict training, she had gone into the games truly hoping to win the gold, she said. Captain Maria Paseka said that a key to taking the Universiade gold had been the close bonds of friendship between the team members. She said that she hoped that Russia could add another gold in the individual vault event, though ultimately the main goal for Russia would be the World Championships.
Led by Daria Elizarova and Maria Paseka, who both helped Russia take the title in the last Universiade, the Russian team ranked first in all events except balance beam, where Canada triumphed. In the floor exercise, the final event, Daria Elizarova and rookie Lilia Akhaimove won the highest and second-highest scores: 13.85 and 13.6, respectively.
Maria Paseka contributed to the team win with a highly difficult vault jump that earned her the top score of 15 points.

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