Lausanne, Dec 10: Elizabeth Price (USA) and Marcel Nguyen (GER) followed up their wins in Stuttgart (GER) earlier this month with further victories at the latest stage of the Women’s and Men’s All-around 2012/2013 World Cup Series, which took place in Glasgow (GBR) on December 8. The two gymnasts now head the overall World Rankings after three of the five competitions in the series.
In the Men’s competition, Scot Daniel Purvis, who scored highest on Pommel Horse and Vault, led through the first five rotations and looked set to crown an incredible year by taking Gold in front of his home crowd, just as he did last year at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall. However, after a mistake on Horizontal Bar he slipped back into third place and had to settle for Bronze with a total of 89.864.
Despite a Floor routine with a relatively low difficulty value, Kazuhito Tanaka, a member of Japan’s Olympic team at London 2012, put in a series of consistent performances on each apparatus to climb steadily up the rankings and improve on his performance in Stuttgart with a score of 89.998 points, enabling him to claim the Silver.
Nguyen, a double Olympic Silver medallist at London 2012, recorded the highest scores on Rings and Parallel Bars in Glasgow, and despite struggling on Horizontal Bar his 14.600 was just enough to outscore Purvis on the final piece of apparatus, taking his total to a title-winning 90.098.
Danell Leyva (USA) and Fabian Gonzalez (ESP) tied for fourth place; Yusuke Saito (JPN), top scorer on Horizontal Bar, finished sixth and Kristian Thomas (GBR) finished in a disappointing last place, despite outscoring the field on Vault.
One notable absentee in Glasgow was Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev, who was unable to travel due to visa problems. Nguyen (140 points) now leads the overall rankings, ahead of Purvis (120 points) and Leyva (115 points).
Men
1. Marcel Nguyen (GER) 90.098
2. Kazhuito Tanaka (JPN) 89.998
3. Daniel Purvis (GBR) 89.864
4= Fabian Gonzalez (ESP) 88.232
4= Danell Leyva (USA) 88.232
6. Yusuke Saito (JPN) 87.464
7. Kristian Thomas (GBR) 84.897
In the women’s event, Price outshone the field with a total of 59.165 and a huge margin of 4.5 points over second-placed Elisabeth Seitz (GER). Price, who also won last week’s DTB Cup in Stuttgart, led from the first rotation, when she was the only gymnast to produce an Amanar Vault. The 16-year-old was a paragon of consistency throughout, sailing to her second World Cup Gold with error-free and top-scoring performances on all four pieces of apparatus.
German Olympians Seitz and Kim Bui failed to reproduce the form they showed in Stuttgart, but still managed to take Silver and Bronze respectively, with Seitz edging her team-mate by a margin of just .067.
Italy’s Vanessa Ferrari and Great Britain’s Rebecca Tunney finished close behind in fourth and fifth position respectively, more than 1.3 points ahead of the remaining three competitors Niamh Rippin (GBR), Wakana Inoue (JPN) and Kaitlyn Hofland (CAN). Price leads the overall rankings with 100 points, followed by Seitz (90 points) and Bui (75 points).
Women
1. Elizabeth Price (USA) 59.165
2. Elisabeth Seitz (GER) 54.799
3. Kim Bui (GER) 54.732
4. Vanessa Ferrari (ITA) 54.432
5. Rebecca Tunney (GBR) 54.431
6. Niamh Rippin (GBR) 53.099
7. Wakana Inoue (JPN) 52.765
8. Kaitlyn Hofland (CAN) 52.099
The FIG World Cup series continues with the American Cup in Worcester (USA) on March 2, 2013. Meanwhile, Gymnastics is set to return to Glasgow, when the Scottish city plays host to the 2014 Commonwealth Games and 2015 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.
About 2012 / 2013 FIG Artistic Gymnastics All-around World Cup Series
The 2012 / 2013 FIG All-around World Cup Series in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics includes five World Cups over the period of two years.
With stopovers on three continents, World Cup competitions are slated for March 3 in New York (USA), December 1 – 2 in Stuttgart (GER) and December 8 in Glasgow (GBR) for 2012, before turning to Worcester (USA) on March 2, 2013, and concluding in Tokyo (JPN) on April 6 – 7, 2013.
The All-around World Cups feature a single final round. Invitation is based on the CII rankings from the previous World Championships / Olympic Games and limited to eight gymnasts plus one wild card from the organising member federation, with a maximum of two entries per country.
World Ranking lists will be established for men and women, with the best four results per gymnast counting for the total ranking. The top scorers will be crowned the winners of the overall series at the ultimate event of the series. —- FIG/Photos: © British Gymnastics/Alan Edwards
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