Cali – Colombia, FIG Office, August 04, 2013: The Gymnastics competitions at The World Games 2013 Cali concluded on Saturday with qualifications and finals in the Aerobic Gymnastics Individual Women, Trio and Group categories as well as the Aerobic Step final. Once again gymnasts enjoyed the backdrop of an amazing crowd at the sold-out El Pueblo Coliseum that pushed them to their best performances. With 18,000 spectators, this competition will go down in Aerobic Gymnastics history and will be remembered by gymnasts as well as officials for a long time to come.
Oana Corina CONSTANTIN of Romania took the Gold in Individual Women, while CHINA prevailed in Trios and Groups and also won the first ever Aerobic Step World Games title.
Individual Women
In an overall strong field Aurélie Joly of France, Sara Moreno of Spain, Oana Corina Constantin of Romania and Austria’s Lubov Gazov qualified for the Individual Women final, leaving the entries from Thailand, China, South Korea and Italy in their wake.
While top qualifier Moreno impressed with very creative choreography and excellent interpretation of her music that resulted in the highest artistic score of the field, she could not match Constantin’s high difficulty and was narrowly outscored by the Romanian gymnast. Constantin’s high jumps, her flexibility and clean execution won her the Gold. However, the night belonged to Lubov Gazov, who was the final competitor of the day. With her powerful and clean routine, Gazov reached out to the audience like no other competitor in this final, winning many Colombian hearts and on top of that a Bronze medal. With a lower execution score compared to the medalists, Joly settled for fourth place.
Trio
Colombia and South Korea were the two countries that failed to advance to the Trio final. While Colombia’s competitors enjoyed their performance before their enthusiastic home crowd to the full, South Korea’s trio experienced an unfortunate interruption of their routine when one of the gymnasts slipped out of his shoe, resulting in an early finish for a team that had high hopes.
The final four, China, Romania, Vietnam and Russia, put on an excellent show at El Pueblo Coliseum. China’s all-male trio set the bar high for this final, topping their own qualifying score with perfect synchronisation, superb choice of elements and extremely high difficulty. They stormed to the title with great confidence. Romania’s all-woman team knew how to emphasise their femininity to their advantage, showing very elegant moves and flexibility. Also combining high-level jumps and excellent technique, they scored high to take the Silver. Russia’s mixed trio boasted the highest difficulty of this competition and they impressed with an overall powerful performance that won them Bronze. A relatively low difficulty value left Vietnam out of the medal ranks.
Group
It was not a lucky day for South Korea. After the mishap in Trios, their Group, who had the highest artistic and execution scores, made a mistake that resulted in major deductions from their difficulty score. The group ranked last in the preliminaries. While Hungary lacked points in execution, the groups of China, France, Romania and Russia advanced to the final.
France’s five-man group not only performed the routine with the highest difficulty, they reached out to the audience brilliantly, highlighting their unique personalities. Their entertaining choreography did not go unappreciated by the public, who loved the group’s choice of music and appreciated their matching moves. France won the Bronze, outscoring the mixed group of Russia.
Romania and China battled it out for the title. The Romanian women played with their femininity and elegance, scoring high in artistic and execution. However, they also showed impressive difficulty that they owe to excellent physical preparation, proving that it is possible for women to compete with the men in this discipline.
China’s group, composed of five men, stunned the crowd with flawless precision and execution. The high quality of their elements and their excellent music interpretation won them another title.
Aerobic Step
The mixed Aerobic Step teams of China, Russia and France as well as Hungary’s all-woman team had qualified on Friday for this final.
France’s performance was an absolute crowd-pleaser. With a good feel for trends, they chose modern and fashionable music that amazed the audience. Combined with their enthusiastic attitude and the complexity of their moves, the team’s routine won them the Bronze.
The team of Russia displayed excellent musicality and presentation, telling a story with their performance of tango dance moves. Having shown an energetic routine, the eight Russians deservedly stepped on to the podium to receive their Silver medals.
The Step team finally won another title for China. Their complex routine was peppered with creative formation changes and original transitions that together with the Chinese gymnasts’ impressive precision and perfect synchronisation could not be beaten.
China came out on top of the overall medal table for all Gymnastics disciplines at these Games, garnering a striking nine Gold medals. Russia came second with three Golds, five Silvers and two Bronzes, followed by Great Britain, who won three Gold, three Silver and one Bronze medal.
Concluding with the Closing Ceremony at the city’s Pascual Guerrero Stadium on Sunday, The World Games 2013 Cali will say “Thank you” and “Goodbye” to the 109 delegations that participated in 31 sports over 11 days.
The 10th edition of the World Games will be held from August 3–13, 2017 in Wroclaw, Poland. The city won the right to host the games ahead of Budapest, Hungary, and Cape Town, South Africa, with the official announcement made on January 12, 2012 by International World Games Association (IWGA) President Ron Froehlich (USA) in Lausanne (SUI). The Gymnastics events in Wroclaw are set to take place in the magnificent Centennial Hall, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a seating capacity of 10.000. —- Photo © Robert Niedźwiedzki
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