2026 African Championships (Worlds Qualification)

[mle]

I am glad other people are asking this because I was wondering how continental allocations work too.

 

[CameliasFingerpaint]

What a bummer the team from Chad looks to no longer be training or competing. That was such an awesome story a few years back.

 

[Denn]

Neymour is still doing a pretty-meh Yurchenko full. This is holding her back in terms of Worlds AA prospects. At this point, if she had a good DTY, she'd be the top gymnast in the world (exception: if Shilese Jones or Rebeca Andrade actually come back, they would be better)

 

[RAFIKI]

But presumably they have some mechanism for reconsidering the allocation and process.

 

[Puffin]

Neymour is still doing a pretty-meh Yurchenko full. This is holding her back in terms of Worlds AA prospects. At this point, if she had a good DTY, she'd be the top gymnast in the world (exception: if Shilese Jones or Rebeca Andrade actually come back, they would be better)

She has a DTY - she did it at Worlds last year.

IIRC it looked OK-ish in PT but it was badly underrotated in qualifying with hands down

Probably not worth risking an injury by competing it so early in the season

 

[david]

Neymour is still doing a pretty-meh Yurchenko full. This is holding her back in terms of Worlds AA prospects. At this point, if she had a good DTY, she'd be the top gymnast in the world (exception: if Shilese Jones or Rebeca Andrade actually come back, they would be better)

Nemour usually waits to do the DTY until worlds/olympics. She had big errors in prelims and AA finals at worlds last year. She did get 14s on it at the olympics in both rounds. So, as long as she can get back to that level, I think she's in good shape.

 

[tempest]

Is this the nemour 3?

 

[RichardL]

Is that a double double laid out for the dismount? The video quality is poor...

 

[RedBirdie]

I think she only does one twist. But I agree it's hard to tell from that video quality.

 

[irichluck21]

Its a full twist not double

 

[Puffin]

A better video has popped up on my youtube feed

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

Are the continental championships the only way countries can advance a team to worlds? Given roughly equivalent competitiveness, would be preferable to see the 2nd best country from one continent over the 13th best country from another at a World Championship.

They're not really roughly equivalent. To the extent that comparison is possible, South Africa's score here would've been 16th at last year's Euros. There'll probably be better teams than them at Euros who dont make worlds. It's more an argument about how to balance the reality that strength in the women's sport is disproportionately concentrated in 3 regions with the need to ensure global opportunities.

There's no other route to full team qualification other than continentals. Given the practical limitations, the only way I can think of to expand that would be to let teams who qualify sufficient individuals be entered into the team event also. But even that would probably require allowing apparatus qualifiers to do AA. In theory I'm all in favour of that but in practice there's not space for it at worlds. It's not an ideal situation but just not sure there's a way around it.

 

[Denn]

@Puffin @david Thank you both — I know all about her DTY, but my point is that she's not doing it. It's still a bad vault for her. Otherwise, wouldn't she do it at the same competition where she's scoring around 15 on beam and 15.5 on bars, at least for the experience and to develop consistency?

 

[MaryClare]

You cannot compare continental championships. Nearly every country in Europe will compete at euros

 

[RedBirdie]

A better video has popped up on my youtube feed

I've always marveled at just how patient she is, never rushing her releases and transitions, which is how she is able to so effortless do those connections. And yet she whips her dismount right off the bar, no patience at all. The difference is so stark.

 

[Caligym]

Assuming Algeria is going to get the Africa spot for the foreseeable future, what if we got to the point where South Africa or Egypt was fielding a stronger team than Finland/Czech Republic/Austria etc (whoever is the last European qualifier)…what would be the path to changing the qualifications process to worlds?

Edit to add…or if they are stronger than the last Pan Am or Asia qualifier

 

[BB12]

Assuming Algeria is going to get the Africa spot for the foreseeable future, what if we got to the point where South Africa or Egypt was fielding a stronger team than Finland/Czech Republic/Austria etc (whoever is the last European qualifier)…what would be the path to changing the qualifications process to worlds?

Edit to add…or if they are stronger than the last Pan Am or Asia qualifier

Even if one of those teams dont outscore the lowest European team, I can see an argument for adding a 2nd African team qualification spot as a way to encourage teams of athletes living and training in Africa to continue to invest in the sport.

And that's not to take anything away from the Algerian athletes nationality or achievements but it might be a way to continue to grow/support those developing countries who just cant compete with those athletes who have European roots and training.

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

The difficulty with the idea of changing quotas to encourage athletes training in poorer countries is that there's no guarantee that's who will get those spots. It's also possible that the number of dual citizens based in Europe and North America rises to match the increase in opportunities.

If giving opportunities and ensuring some representation from athletes who are less geographically and economically privileged is the goal, and I'm not saying it has to be, the most efficient way to do that might be to make some spots contingent on where an athlete trains/spent a minimum number of years training. This would have to be as an addition to continental spots though, not a replacement.

Or maybe we just accept there are going to be a lot of dual citizens competing, and that doesn't have to be a big concern in a sport that everyone doesn't have remotely equal access to even outside of that. Maybe we go to two African spots anyway because it looks better.

It's difficult to balance everything. I accept that we couldn't continue having such massive numbers at worlds, but the change did create another thorny problem.

 

[Aizheng]

How comparable is scoring at the different regional championships?
Would it be an option to do something like “top X countries from each continent make it”, not necessarily each continent having the same X and the rest goes by score?
I guess in addition to scoring discrepancies, the problem could also be that teams could realistically find out relatively late, since continental championships are at different times in the year. And it could also lead to even more concentration at the top.

To some extent, the world championship and Olympics will probably need to make a determination: is it more important to them that they get the best gymnasts, or that they have geographic diversity? Both goals seem unlikely to be met at the same time.

What I hate about the current system is how inflexible it seems to be, with the allocations of spots pre-determined…

 

[ArnoldRimmer]

How comparable is scoring at the different regional championships?
Would it be an option to do something like “top X countries from each continent make it”, not necessarily each continent having the same X and the rest goes by score?
I guess in addition to scoring discrepancies, the problem could also be that teams could realistically find out relatively late, since continental championships are at different times in the year. And it could also lead to even more concentration at the top.

To some extent, the world championship and Olympics will probably need to make a determination: is it more important to them that they get the best gymnasts, or that they have geographic diversity? Both goals seem unlikely to be met at the same time.

What I hate about the current system is how inflexible it seems to be, with the allocations of spots pre-determined…

We last tried going by score at different competitions at some point in the 70s and by all accounts it led to a scoring arms race. I like to hope it wouldn't be as bad now, but maybe someone needs to post the sweet summer child meme again.