Gymnastics Canada – STUTTGART, GER (October 13, 2019) – The 2019 FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships wrapped up on Sunday in Stuttgart, GER with Canadians Ana Padurariu of Whitby, ON and Brooklyn Moors of Cambridge, ON competing in the beam and floor apparatus finals respectively, and René Cournoyer of Repentigny, QC finding out that he has qualified for the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020.
Padurariu, the reigning world silver medallist on beam, started the day off with her routine, which unfortunately didn’t go as well for her as it did in the qualifiers, with a fall soon after the start, and a second later on. She finished the competition in eighth position with a score of 11.933. American Simone Biles became the most decorated gymnast in history with her gold on this apparatus, pushing her ahead of Belarussian athlete Vitaly Scherbo with 24 total World Championships medals. Liu Tingting of China took the silver, while her teammate Li Shija took the bronze.
“Today wasn’t the best, but I was just happy to be out there again, and to be at another World Championships in another beam final, with some incredible beam workers was amazing,” said Padurariu who is still coming back from an injury she sustained just before the Pan American Games in July. “These World Championships would have been better for me if I hadn’t got sick, that kind of slowed me down a bit, but a lot of achievements have been made, and that’s always good.”
Moors was a last-minute addition to the floor final – finding out she was competing last night after Belgian athlete Nina Derwael withdrew. That didn’t seem to make any difference though as Moors laid down yet another beautifully emotive routine to finish the day seventh overall with a score of 13.600. Biles added to her medal haul from these Championships with another gold, followed by her teammate Sunisa Lee with the silver, and Russian Angelina Melnikova taking the bronze.
“Today was pretty unexpected that I was going to be competing, so I just wanted to come and enjoy it and being able to come seventh on the floor was pretty amazing,” said Moors who won the Longines Prize for Elegance at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal. “This has been a pretty insane competition with so many highs and a couple of lows, but our goal coming in was to qualify a team to Tokyo and that’s what we did, and so that was pretty thrilling.”
The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) released their updated list of individual athletes who have earned a nominative place at the 2020 Olympic Games following these World Championships just following the competition, and Cournoyer, based on his all-around score from the qualifiers, made the cut. This spot is awarded by name and can only be taken by Cournoyer.
“It feels absolutely amazing to realize that all those hard hours of training have paid off,” said Cournoyer who was the highest-scoring athlete for Canada in the all-around competition during the qualifying rounds at these Championships. “I still can’t believe my dream is about to come true. Now, it’s time to get back in the gym and to be the best gymnast I can be for next summer.”
For full results, please visit: https://live.gymnastics.sport/live/14274/womensfinal.php?app=vt
For the full list of MAG qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 thus far, please visit: https://www.gymnastics.sport/asset.php?id=fidb_8823
For the full list of WAG qualifiers for Tokyo 2020 thus far, please visit: https://www.gymnastics.sport/asset.php?id=fidb_8824
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