Panama’s Karla qualifies for vault final; Georgia-Rose Brown secures uneven bar berth
DOHA: Panama’s talented vault gymnast Karla Navas showed grit and determination to top the qualification in a field that also featured seasoned Oksana Chusovitina at the the 16th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Championships here at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall on Wednesday.
Total eight gymnasts in the WAG event qualified including Chusovitina and India’s Dipa Karmakar.
Karla, who won back-to-back bronze medals in Cottbus and Baku World Cups, accumulated 13.916 points ahead of Bulgaria’s Valentina Georgieva (13.316) and North Korea’s An Chang-Ok (13.166).
The performance at the qualifiers will boost her confidence to aim for a top finish, but it remains to be seen how the 2022 Pan American champion performs in the final on Thursday.
17-year-old Georgieva, who has already secured her berth in March for this summer’s Olympic Games, was docked -0.10 points during her effort which saw her finish behind Karla in the qualification.
Georgia-Rose Brown of New Zealand, who currently leads with 50 points despite not having scored in Baku, qualified for the women’s uneven bar.
As many as 95 male (MAG) and 55 female (WAG) gymnasts representing 55 countries are taking part in the event.
The Doha stopover is the final qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
