World Championships Qualification List Becomes Official With FIG Update

The international gymnastics federation has added the world championships qualification list to its event page for the competition, making official what we’ve been following all season since the start of the world cup series back in February and concluding with European Championships in August.

For a refresher, nations and athletes had to qualify to worlds this year, and had three ways in – earn one of 24 team berths available through continental championships, earn up to two all-around spots, also available via the continental route, or pick up apparatus berths through the world cup series. Once the continental championships series concluded, world cup ranking points were reallocated to eligible athletes (those who hadn’t yet qualified as part of a team or through the all-around) in order to fill eight spots per apparatus.

Once the qualification process was over, the FIG gave the official nod to each federation regarding its team or individual qualification standing. From there, the federations either accepted or declined all team or all-around spots, and then the specialist process began, with the points redistributed and offers sent out to athletes and their federations, and once these were accepted or turned down, the final list of all qualifiers was published on August 31.

All teams for both WAG and MAG accepted their spots at worlds, but of course, over such a long process, a number of athletes who earned individual berths have unfortunately had to decline their spots, either due to injury or due to circumstances within the federation beyond their control, such as budget constraints or athletes not meeting internal qualification standards.

Poland, for example, qualified four women to worlds, with Emilia Kulczynska and Brygida Urbanska earning berths at Euros, while Wiktoria Lopuszanska earned a spot on vault and Ada Ogieglo earned one on floor through the world cups. Lopuszanska ultimately injured her knee at Euros and likely would have been forced to withdraw on her own, but Poland opted to deny the spots for the other three, citing no reason to the athletes when they denied their participation. Ogieglo, who finished fifth on floor at Cottbus, even said she’d fund the trip herself, but the federation still turned her down.

Other declined WAG berths include all-arounders Valentina Pardo of Colombia, who was injured on floor in the team final at Pan Ams, and Valentina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who was injured on vault in the apparatus final at Euros. Olivia Kelly of Barbados and Celeste Mordenti of Luxembourg, both of whom narrowly missed out in their own right, will step in as replacements.

A number of athletes – or their federations on their behalf – turned down apparatus spots, with Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan not accepting her spot on vault after previously stating that she did not intend to compete at worlds this year, while Tjasa Kysselef of Slovenia declined her spots on vault and beam, and Göksu Üctas Sanli declined hers on floor. These, among others who declined apparatus berths, opened the doors for several athletes from Vietnam to qualify after previously not earning any spots at worlds, while Morocco also picked up vault and floor spots for Nisrine Hassanaine, and a couple of athletes from Greece were added as well, joining all-arounder Elvira Katsali.

On the MAG side, both all-around qualifiers from Georgia – Bidzina Sitchinava and Saba Abesadze – withdrew, replaced by Jonas Thorisson of Iceland and Petar Vefic of Serbia, while in the apparatus field the notable declines came from Artur Davtyan of Armenia on floor and high bar (though he accepted his spot on vault), and Antonios Tantalidis of Greece on floor.

We’ve been following the qualification process from the very beginning via our WAG tracker and our MAG tracker, both of which can be found in the menu bar at the top of the page, and which we’ll continue to update as teams are named and as any additional changes take place. You can also find the full current list of qualifiers below.

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – WAG QUALIFIERS

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – MAG QUALIFIERS

Article by Lauren Hopkins

-----------------------

By: Lauren
Title: World Championships Qualification List Becomes Official With FIG Update
Sourced From: thegymter.net/2022/09/01/world-championships-qualification-list-becomes-official-with-fig-update/
Published Date: Thu, 01 Sep 2022 18:43:05 +0000