Ruivivar boosts Olympic hopes

Levi Ruivivar boosted her chances to see action in the Paris Olympics as she reached the final round of the women’s uneven bars event in the Doha leg of the 2024 FIG Apparatus World Cup Thursday morning (Manila time) at the Aspire Dome in the Qatari capital.

Ruivivar, a Stanford University athlete, finished eighth after posting 13.200 points to make it to the medal round of this prestigious event that offers ranking points for the Summer Games this July.

Joining the Filipino-American ace in the final round are Kaylia Nemour of Algeria with 15.400 points, Alena Tsitavets of Belarus with 13.666 points and Georgia-Rose Brown of New Zealand with 13.400 points.

Rounding out the finalists are Nathalie Westlund of Sweden with 13.400 points, Filipa Martins of Portugal with 13.366 points, Maellyse Brassar of Belgium with 13.266 points, and Anna Lashchevska of Ukraine with 13.233 points.

Ruivivar has to come up with a podium finish as three of the four best scores in the four legs of the World Cup series in Baku, Cottbus, Cairo and Doha will be counted.

Right now, Ruivivar has 44 points and is tied withy Sara Sulekic of Croatia at the fifth spot. She has to finish at least second in the World Cup ranking to join Carlos Yulo and Aleah Finnegan in the Summer Games this July.

Meanwhile, Yulo crashed to 21st place in the men’s floor exercise after scoring 12.666 points.

The 24-year-old Yulo is using the Doha leg of the World Cup as a preparation for the Olympics. He is still competing in vault and parallel bars at press time while another Filipino in Emma Malabuyo is seeing action in floor exercise.

Malabuyo is at second spot with 69 points in the floor exercise ranking after winning the gold medal in the Cairo leg last February and silver medal in the Baku leg last month.