43rd WOMEN's ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

.
⇒ The chronology of events ... :

♦♦ WOMEN's TEAM COMPETITION
     (*FINAL: Wednesday, Oktober 04)

* The Initial Situation --: In addition to the three medallists already qualified at the 42^nd World Championships in Liverpool 2022, world champions USA, runners-up GREAT BRITAIN and bronze medallists CANADA, a further 9 nations will now compete in Antwerp for the coveted Olympic quota places.
* Germany finished 12^th in Liverpool last year and will be severely handicapped this year:
After Elisabeth Seitz tore her Achilles tendon and former European champion Emma Malewski injured her syndemous ligament, the German girls not only have to cope with these two absences: To make matters worse, Lea Quaas from Chemnitz suffered a knee injury during the podium training on Friday (29 September), the consequences of which are absolutely not conducive to the team profile of a desired Olympic qualification when she is scheduled to perform on two apparatuses !
.
* Wednesday, October 04: ►STARTING LIST
♦  WOMEN's TEAMFINAL

  GOLDEN TEAM  U S A - 9^th WCh titel - the 7^th GOLD in direct row!!

* R E S U L T S :

1. USA            - 167,729
2. B R A        - 165,530
3. F R A          - 164,064
4. CHINA                 - 163,162
5. ITALY                   - 162,997
6. GREAT BRITAIN   - 161,864
7. NETHERLANDS    - 159,563
8. JAPAN                 - 157,469
         ► Detailed Results
.

As described at the beginning, there was a highly exciting medal fight of a quartet, which was surprisingly joined by the French instead of Great Britain.
Sad Britain had a sad fall today due to too many instabilities, also because their top gymnast Jessica Gadirova already had a fall on the first apparatus vault and then in succession did not have a good day. The leading gymnasts of Brazil, Rebeca ANDRADE, and France, Melanie de Jesus DOS SANTOS, created a fighting atmosphere in their teams, which the other teams did not manage to do, also because the most powerful gymnasts were not without instabilities and thus failed to score points, e.g. Alice D'Amato for Italy (fall on vault) and Olympic beam champion Sanne Weavers for the Netherlands.
And China's absolute strengths on uneven bars with fantastic super techniques and their breathtakingly difficult beam exercises were not enough to maintain the initial contact with the sovereign top nation USA, but they could not compensate for their weaknesses on vault (content) and floor.
* Overview of
► All WCh Women's Team decisions of the last years
.
 
(→... next:
* Thursday, Oct. 05, from 07.30 pm on: ► MEN's All-around Final)

♦♦ INDIVIDUAL ALL-AROUND: Who will be Gymnastics Queen 2023?
      (Friday, October 06)

Liverpool 2022 saw the crowning of the first Brazilian all-around world champion in history with Rebecca ANDRADE, who had already won Olympic silver in Tokyo the year before. In the absence of defending champion Angelina Melnikova and the sanctioned Russians, Shilese JONES (USA) and Jessica GADIROVA took the medal places ahead of Alice Kinsella (GBR) and Elsabeth Black (CAN), who will all be favourites again in Antwerp 2023. Germany's only finalist Karina Schoenmaier finished 22nd in Liverpool.
* Overview of ► All Worlds All-around decisions of the last years

* F I N A L   R E S U L T S  :

1. BILES Simone              (USA)  - 58,399
2. ANDRADE Rebeca       (BRA)  - 56,766
3. JONES Shilese            (USA)  - 56,332
      4.  QIU Qiuyan                     (CHN)   - 54,799
      5. D'AMATO Alice                   (ITA)  - 54,265
      6. THORSDOTTIR Eythora     (NED)  - 54,098
... 22. VOSS Asahra                     (GER)  - 50,799
... 24. SCHAEFER-BETZ Pauline   (GER)  - 49,932
         ► Detailed Results

Even though the ex-French gymnast Kayla NEMOUR, who has been competing for Algeria since July, started with a great routine on parallel bars and took the lead, Simone BILES calmly registered a -0.7 point deficit on this apparatus, the exceptional gymnast then marched through on the following apparatus as expected:
On beam, floor and vault the sovereign top favourite left the competition behind her. Her team mate and last year's vice world champion Shilese JONES offered less substance, especially in the medal fight against the Brazilian defending champion Rebeca ANDRADE - on floor even half a point less, which she then lacked in the final ranking. And so, as already in Liverpool in 2022, the Brazilian passed Jones in Antwerp, although she also over-rotated her dismount row with double somersault bent over on floor and landed outside. Nevertheless, the 24-year-old was very happy about the silver medal, because she also knew that at the moment nobody can threaten Simone Biles in this form.

Surprisingly, last year's third-placed Jessica Gadirova (GBR) did not compete. Alice Kinsella, however, represented her in a worthy manner in 6th place. Weak floor and vault performances as well as a beam fall did not make the petite Chinese QIU Qiyuan on rank 4 (54.799) a real threat for the medal trio. And Italy's star Alice D'AMATO did not have a good day either, falling her 2nd acro row on floor, but then kept the damage in check on uneven bars with the third-best performance (14.666) in the last round and finished a comforting fifth (54.265).
However, there were a double-digit number of falls (!!) in the second rotation alone, which also affected Canada's Elsabeth Black and France's Melani de Jesus dos Santos, as well as 32-year-old Flavia Saraiva, so that this WCh All-around final should probably be denied the title "outstanding". The two German gymnasts Pauline Schäfer-Betz (on floor) and Sarah Voss even twice (on parallel bars) were also badly affected, so that they did not get beyond the ranks 24 and 22, but also because of the insufficient content compared to the international competition.
   + + +.

♦♦ WOMEN's APPARATUS FINALS  (Sat / Sun, October 07/08)

** PREVIEW / Situation --: After the sanctions against Russia, all the apparatus titles 2022 in Liverpool - as in the men's - went to gymnasts from four different nations:
* Vault:        Jade Carey (USA),                //   * U. bars:    Wei, Xiaoyuan (CHN)
* B. beam:  Hazuki Watanabe (JPN);   //    * Floor ex.: Jessica Gadirova (GBR).
The leading nation USA altogether won the most medals with 1 gold, 3x silver and 1x bronze.
Germany's exceptional gymnast Elisabeth Seitz only just missed a medal this time as fourth on parallel bars, after winning bronze in Doha in 2018 and having been in a World Championships uneven bars final a total of 5 times since 2010. A torn Achilles tendon prevented her active participation in the World Championships this time.
* Historical Overview about the Apparatus Champions:
  ►VAULT;   ►U. BARS     ►B. BEAM;   ►FLOOR EX.;
   + + +

  F L O OR  E X E R C I S E S- * Titel holder : Jessica Gadirova (GBR)
  * Quali.:   ► FLOOR e.

Not unexpectedly Simone BILES literally gymnastics everything "in the ground ... "better on the floor: highest difficulty (6.7) - not even an unauthorised landing outside the mat border after one of her flights almost under the roof of the hall affected that. And not unexpectedly, the women's duo from Brazil also set a new benchmark on the last apparatus: Brazil's Rebeca Andrade ahead of her compatriot Flavia Saraiva, silver and bronze on one apparatus - that has never happened before, although Andrade was able to truly "silver" her bronze medal from last year.

BILES Simone           (USA) - (6.7) - (14,633
ANDRADE Rebeca     (BRA) - (6.1) =14,500
SARAIVA, Flavia        (BRA) - (5.7) =13,966
             ► Detailed Results

►►
WCh F L O O R  Champions, All
.
   + + +