Uchimura crashes out in vault, horizontal qualifiers
Doha: Reigning Olympic champion Kohei Uchimura once again disappointed his fans after he failed to qualify for the men’s vault and horizontal here at the 11th FIG Artistic Individual Apparatus World Cup at the Aspire Dome on Thursday.
In the first event, the six-time all-around champion, widely regarded as one of the greatest in modern gymnastics, finished 10th with 14.100 points.
Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov and Chinese duo Huang Mingqi and Qu Ruiyang took the first three positions to book their berths in the final alongwith five other qualifiers.
““From day one, something was wrong. I will have to figure it out. I didn't get enough time to practice, but I've no complaints as I didn't do well. I will check the footages when I get back to Japan and need to iron out the flaws before the World Championships in October,” Uchimura told www.dohastadiumplus.com.
Uchimura, who missed out on his seventh consecutive world title last year in Montreal, Canada, also came a cropper on the horizontal bar, where he ended up 10th.
Interestingly, China’s Xiao Ruoteng, who succeeded Uchimura in Montreal, topped the chart followed by Frenchman Edgar Boulet and compatriot Deng Shudi.
In the women’s balance beam, French duo Melanie de Jesus and Marine Boyer grabbed the first two qualification spots followed by Belgium’s Nina Derwael .
Japanese duo Yuki Uchiyama and Nagi Kajita also made it to the finals.
But Uzbekistan’s veteran gymnast Oksana Chusovitina, who had qualified for the vault final on Wednesday, finished 12th.
Great Britain’s Taeja James with an effort of 13.533 points advanced into the final along with Rune Hermans (Belgium), Elisa Meneghini (Italy), Nagi Kajita (Japan), Liu Jinru (China), Lara Mori (Italy), Kim Su Jong (PRK) and Marine Boyer (France).
