iMSPORT.TV – A decade after her World Gymnastics Championships debut, Sugihara Aiko (JPN) has finally got her gold. The two-time Olympian was the breakout star on the final day of the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Jakarta (INA), winning her first World title on Floor Exercise and adding bronze on Balance Beam in the extremely competitive finals.
The final three men’s titles were all won by gymnasts who have held them before: 2021 World champion Carlos Yulo (PHI) reigned on Vault, 2022 World champion Brody Malone picked up a second title on Horizontal Bar, and Parallel Bars king Zou Jingyuan (CHN) grabbed World title number four.
Zhang Qingying (CHN) maintained her world-beater status on Balance Beam to earn China’s first World title on the apparatus since 2018.
Ten years of growth, and now dominance
During Sugihara’s time on the national team, the Japanese women have reached their greatest heights in half a century. Murakami Mai (JPN) and Watanabe Hazuki (JPN) have captured historic World titles and the Japanese have risen as high as fourth in the Olympic team competition.
But Sugihara never had a crowning moment of her own on the world stage until Saturday. Fittingly, it came for her autobiographical Floor Exercise routine, which tells the story of her early successes, later struggles, and ultimate triumph, and in the final it earned 13.833 points.
That was enough to best Olympians Ruby Evans (GBR) and Abigail Martin (GBR), whose 2-3 finish gave Great Britain two on a Floor podium for the first time.
“I am so happy!” exclaimed the exuberant Sugihara, who was at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics but just missed out on being selected for Paris last summer.
“Without worrying about medals or results I focused on myself, concentrated on the performance, and really enjoyed it, which led to this result,” she added.
“I was able to enter the zone — that was the best part.”
Familiar faces adorn the podiums as the World Gymnastics Championships end
Sugihara also took bronze in a highly competitive Balance Beam final World Gymnastics, won by top qualifier Zhang with 15.166 points for a magnificent exercise filled with unusual combinations.
“I didn’t even dare to imagine this,” said Zhang, who also won All-Around bronze Thursday.
“Although I thought about wanting to win, I was always afraid that if I thought about it too much, it wouldn’t happen, so when I stepped up to the podium I was actually a bit nervous, but my coach kept encouraging me. He said not to overthink it. The more you think, the less you get, and told me to just focus on remembering the movements. So I performed as I had practiced. And that’s how it went.”
Kaylia Nemour (ALG) hit the harder iteration of her beam routine for silver, a relief for the 18-year-old who wants to be known for more than Uneven Bars. Beam has been a battle for Nemour at this World Gymnastics championships: she fell on her wolf turn in qualification and barely grabbed the last place into the final, then fell again on the same skill in the All-Around final.
But with a medal on the line Saturday, the routine was flawless all the way through.
“I am extremely happy with the routine I did today. More than the score, more than the medal, I’m so happy because I barely got into the final. I was just happy to be here, I just wanted to do what I know how to do. Having the silver medal is a dream — truly a dream. It’s different from a medal on Uneven Bars, because it’s one I’ve never had.”
(adm/amr)
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