Favourites Tang and Karimi make horizontal bar nal

Longines Hathab Round 12: Al Marri wins Small Tour title

TANG Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei was confidence personified after the 27-year-old topped the qualification chart in men’s Horizontal Bar at the 16th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Doha at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall on Thursday.

Tang has been in great form recently after he picked up gold medals in Cairo and Cottbus events with his new routine that put him over the top.

Lithuania’s Tokyo 2020 Olympian Robert Tvorogal finished sixth yet he showed great spirit and determination and might as well finish on the podium in the finals.

As many as 95 male (MAG) and 55 female (WAG) gymnasts representing 55 countries are taking part in the event.

The Doha event is the final qualifying round for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Kazakstan’s Karimi Milad, one of the favourites to win a medal here, accumulated 14.466 points to finish behind Tang in the list.

Cyrpus’ Marios Georgiou, Arthur Barajas (Colombia), Isaac Nunez (Mexico), 2019 World champion Arthur Mariano (Brazil) and compatriot Caio Souza also made it to the finals where the eight competitors will fight it out for a podium finish.

The WAG and MAG final rounds will be held on Friday and Saturday.

On the parallel bars, Uzbekistan’s Rasulijon Abdurakhimov and local favourite and former world champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines qualified along with Karim and Yuan-Hsi Hung (Taipei).

Brazilian duo Diogo Soares and Caio Souza and Italian duo Lay Gianni and Nocolo Mozzato also secured berths among the top-eight finishers.

Six men are vying for two places MAG Vault for Paris Olympics.

Armenia’s seasoned gymnast Artur Davtyan and Yulo

made it to the Doha finals. Davtyan had a perfect landing on both his turns to accumulate 15.116 points, followed by Yulo’s 14.966.

Others to qualify include, Audrys Nin Reyes (Dominica), James Bacueti (Australia), Noccolo Vannucchi (Italy), Chen Chun NG (Malaysia), Aurel Benovic (Croatia) and Yahor Sharamkou (Individual Neutral Athletes).

Both Benovic and Bacueti are still in the race for an Olympic berth.

String competition: Mohamed Al Maraghi:

Mohamed Al Maraghi, head of

the tournament’s Public Relations and Media Committee, lauded the technical level of the tournament in the preliminary rounds.

“We have seen a strong competition over two days in the preliminary rounds, and now we are in the final rounds. THe gymnasts are in close competition to clinch top podium

places and we look forward to exciting finals.

“The Arab gymnasts have also achieved good results so far and we congratulate Ahmed Abu Al Soud (of Jordan) on his qualification for the Olympics, and we wish success to the rest of for the final two days of competitions,” he said.

Mohammed Dha Al Marri astride Destiny 297 won the Small Tour of the 12th round of Longines Hathab which got underway at the Qatar Equestrian Federation’s outdoor arena on Thursday. Al Marri clocked 55.16 secs to win the round ahead of Faris Saad Al Qahtani (Hidiene) and Mohammed Abdulla Juma (Fito R), who clocked 55.46 and 56.44secs respectively. Hadi Mansour Al Shahwani, who teamed up with Coco Chanel SB, prevailed in the 80cm Future Riders category, while Sultan Jassim Al Suwaidi rode Tabra Blue to win in the 60m Future Riders event. Longines Hathab Deputy Director Faisal Al Kahla honoured the winners.

Tang Chia-Hung of Chinese Taipei topped the quali cation chart in men’s horizontal bar event at the 16th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Doha at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall on Thursday.

A gymnast in action at the 16th Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Doha at the Women’s Sports Committee Hall on Thursday.

Mohamed Al Maraghi, tournament head PR & Media Committee.