Masterful lineup at Cottbus World Cup starts up Artistic Gymnastics World Cup season
02/21/2023
Ten titles are up for grabs in Cottbus (GER) 23-26 February as the 2023 FIG Apparatus World Cup series in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics gets underway — and one of the largest and strongest fields in recent years will be pursuing them.
In the penultimate year before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, this long-running “Tournament of Masters” is the place to be. Numerous champions-to-be have passed through the princely city southwest of Berlin en route to World and Olympic glory, a tradition highly likely to continue with the 46th edition.
Nearly 200 gymnasts from 50 nations registered to compete in Cottbus, and while future champions are almost certainly among them, many of the glittering names on the roster already know what it is to stand atop World and Olympic podiums.
More than medals are at stake in this World Cup series: also on the table is qualification to the World Championships in Antwerp (BEL) 30 September-8 October, where teams and individuals can qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The eight highest-ranked eligible gymnasts per apparatus will earn berths to Antwerp.
Champions everywhere you look
The massively talented starting lineups includes four Olympic champions:
Shin Jeahwan (KOR),
Artem Dolgopyat (ISR),
Eleftherios Petrounias (GRE) and
Oksana Chusovitina (UZB), the eight-time Olympian who is aiming, at age 47, to earn one more ticket to the Olympic Games.
Also set to contend: World champions
Artur Davtyan (ARM),
Rhys McClenaghan (IRL),
Ashikawa Urara (JPN),
Carlos Yulo (PHI),
Tin Srbic (CRO) and
Kaya Kazuma (JPN).
Olympic medallists Srbic,
Filip Ude (CRO),
Lee Chih-Kai (TPE),
Igor Radivilov (UKR) and
Ferhat Arican (TUR) are in the mix as well.
As for the host of World medallists — the likes of
Illia Kovtun (UKR),
Elisabeth Seitz (GER),
Ahmad Abu Al Soud (JOR),
Andrey Medvedev (ISR),
Alice D’Amato (ITA) and
Elisa Iorio (ITA) — their performances are expected to light up the Lausitz Arena too.
Then there are the newcomers: among those making their Cottbus debuts include 2022 World finalist
Laura Casabuena (ESP),
Anna Lena Koenig (GER),
Poppy-Grace Stickler (GBR) and former European Championships competitor
Dorien Motten (GEO).
World Cup series kicks off
Cottbus is the first of four FIG Apparatus World Cup events that will determine the 2023 FIG World Cup Series champions based on a point system that takes placements at individual World Cup events into account, in addition to serving as an individual qualification to the Antwerp Worlds.
After Cottbus, the series turns to Doha (QAT) and Baku (AZE) before wrapping up in Cairo (EGY) at the end of April.
Ten titles are up for grabs in Cottbus (GER) 23-26 February as the 2023 FIG Apparatus World Cup series in Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics gets underway — and one of the largest and strongest fields in recent years will be pursuing them.
www.gymnastics.sport
i mean it’s pretty lazy of me, it’s like an hour from Berlin
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