Shi Cong helped onto the all-around podium following his injury
The second day of all-around and team competition for the men ended as expected for China, which took the gold nearly six points ahead of Japan, but it wasn’t without drama, as all-around champion Shi Cong suffered an injury on his final event, vault.
Shi came into the final rotation looking pretty sure to take the gold after putting up the second-best parallel bars score and the top high bar score of the competition on Thursday. The fall on vault was disappointing, and the injury was even more unfortunate, but in the end, he still wound up less than a tenth ahead of the rest of the field to get the win with an 83.833.
This was also exactly a tenth ahead of teammate Yang Jiaxing, who won the bronze with an 83.733 after putting up an especially strong performance on high bar (14.0), while Yin Dehang ended up with an 83.199, just out of the all-around rankings due to the two-per-country limitations, though with Shi’s injury, he was able to make it into the p-bars final with a 14.833.
Also on the roster and winning gold for China were Lin Chaopan, who had a strong second day of competition to finish first on p-bars and fifth on high bar, and Lan Xingyu, who contributed a strong score on vault after leading rings qualifications a day earlier.
After falling short on day one, the Japanese men climbed ahead of Taiwan thanks to a superb p-bars rotation to narrowly take the silver medal with a 249.500, less than three tenths ahead of Taiwan’s 249.211, which was good for bronze.
The top all-arounders for Japan were Maeda Koki in fifth with an 82.932 and Tachibana Shiga in ninth with an 81.800, while Hasegawa Tsuyoshi just missed the all-around standings with an 81.535, though he did earn spots in the p-bars and high bar finals. Maeda also made it in on p-bars, Tachibana qualified second on vault, and Hidaka Daiki got in on high bar. Yuasa Kenya, meanwhile, didn’t compete on day two, with rings his only event.
Tang Chia-Hung continued to nail his competition on Thursday after an equally strong day one, and he came just a tenth shy of making the all-around podium, finishing fourth with an 83.600 and qualifying into the high bar final. Low difficulty on high bar held Lee Chih-Kai back to eight place in the all-around with an 82.000, and Lin Guan-Yi also competed all events for Taiwan, earning an 80.635 total. Hung Yuan-Hsi competed both p-bars and high bar, qualifying to the final on the former, while Tseng Wei-Sheng competed only on vault, adding that final to Taiwan’s collection.
The other two countries that qualified full teams to world championships were South Korea in fourth with a 428.267 and Kazakhstan in fifth with a 241.868. Things looked like they could be close between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan after the first day of competition, but Kazakhstan ended up 5.6 points ahead of Uzbekistan’s 236.268, besting the team by at least a point on all three events contested on Thursday.
Ryu Sunghyun and Lee Junghyo were South Korea’s standouts, finishing sixth and seventh all-around with scores of 82.034 and 82.000, respectively, with Lee qualifying into the p-bars final and Ryu into high bar alongside Yun Jinseong, who competed well across his three events on Thursday, while Kim Hansol made the vault final.
For Kazakhstan, Milad Karimi came back from a disappointing first day of competition – where he missed the floor final and had a rough go on pommel horse – to show excellent work across the board, making the vault, p-bars, and high bar finals while also ending up 10th all-around with an 80.700. Ilyas Azizov was 11th all-around with a 78.368, and Dmitriy Patanin qualified to the vault final.
Rounding out the teams here included Iran in seventh with a 233.234, India in eighth with a 227.600, the Philippines in ninth with a 227.533, Singapore in 10th with a 211.833, Mongolia in 11th with a 203.067, Thailand in 12th with a 202.500, Syria in 13th with a 176.733, and Saudi Arabia in 14th with a 167.133.
Carlos Yulo of the Philippines, who had a slight lead in the all-around competition after the first day, ended up very close to gold, but a weak high bar routine ultimately held him back to the silver medal with an 83.767. He performed phenomenally on both vault and p-bars, though, qualifying first into the vault final with a 14.917 average and sixth into p-bars with a 14.367.
He also earned the first of six all-around berths for world championships, followed by Mahdi Ahmad Kohani of Iran in 12th with an 80.700, Abdulla Azimov of Uzbekistan in 13th with a 77.733, Khabibullo Ergashev of Uzbekistan in 14th with a 77.267, Yogeshwar Singh of India in 15th with a 76.934, and Gaurav Kumar of India in 16th with a 74.533.
The biggest surprise for me was 2020 Olympian Rasuljon Abdurakhimov of Uzbekistan not earning a spot, falling behind his two teammates after a rough pommels routine on day one. He could be on the bubble for making it to Liverpool via the parallel bars world cup rankings, where he’s currently 16th, though the majority of those ahead of him are going to qualify through continental championships. Of course, this would mean he’d only be able to compete on this event, but it’s better than not making it at all!
Countries not earning spots here include Hong Kong, Jordan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Syria, and Thailand. Among these, Hong Kong and Jordan should both still have representation at worlds, as Shek Wai Hung of Hong Kong is currently ranked seventh on vault while Ahmad Abu Al Soud of Jordan is ranked seventh on pommel horse, but it’s a bummer to see several of the others missing out completely.
Though Vietnam missed out on Asian Championships after reportedly not knowing it was a worlds qualifier, Nguyen Van Khanh Phong is ranked 16th on rings via the world cups and will likely get in. It’s still super depressing that neither Le Thanh Tung and Dinh Phuong Thanh – who won the silver and bronze all-around medals at last month’s Southeast Asian Games – will be able to compete.
Other Asian countries with currently active MAG that didn’t participate here include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Kuwait, Malaysia, North Korea, and Pakistan.
Malaysia has Tan Fu Jie likely to qualify via pommel horse and Muhammad Sharul Aimy in a great spot to get in on vault, and though they do have some all-arounders who performed well at the Southeast Asian Games, I’m not sure they would have challenged any of the all-arounders who qualified here. The rest of the countries on the list, however, will not have any MAG representation at world championships, and with the exception of North Korea – which is still on lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic – I don’t believe any would have qualified to worlds regardless.
All-Around Final Results
1. Shi Cong, China, 83.833
2. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 83.767
3. Yang Jiaxing, China, 83.733
4. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 83.600
5. Maeda Koki, Japan, 82.932
6. Ryu Sunghyun, South Korea, 82.799
7. Lee Junghyo, South Korea, 82.034
8. Lee Chih-Kai, Taiwan, 82.000
9. Tachibana Shiga, Japan, 81.800
10. Milad Karimi, Kazakhstan, 80.700
11. Ilyas Azizov, Kazakhstan, 78.368
12. Mahdi Ahmad Kohani, Iran, 77.834
13. Abdulla Azimov, Uzbekistan, 77.733
14. Khabibullo Ergashev, Uzbekistan, 77.267
15. Yogeshwar Singh, India, 76.934
16. Gaurav Kumar, India, 74.533
17. Lais Najjar, Syria, 73.566
18. Saleem Naghouj, Jordan, 73.135
19. Seyedmohammad Shafiei, Iran, 72.034
20. Enkhtuvshin Damdindorj, Mongolia, 71.501
21. Usukhbayar Erkhembayar, Mongolia, 70.467
22. Robin Sim, Singapore, 70.300
23. Juancho Miguel Besana, Philippines, 70.299
24. Zac Liew, Singapore, 68.700
Team Final Results
1. China 255.299
2. Japan 249.500
3. Taiwan 249.211
4. South Korea 248.267
5. Kazakhstan 241.868
6. Uzbekistan 236.268
7. Iran 233.234
8. India 227.600
9. Philippines 227.533
10. Singapore 211.833
11. Mongolia 203.067
12. Thailand 202.500
13. Syria 176.733
14. Saudi Arabia 167.133
Floor Qualification Results
1. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 14.800 Q
2. Maeda Koki, Japan, 14.433 Q
3. Ryu Sunghyun, South Korea, 14.433 Q
4. Kim Hansol, South Korea, 14.200 Q
5. Yang Jiaxing, China, 14.167 Q
6. Tachibana. Shiga, Japan, 14.033 Q
7. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 14.000 Q
8. Lee Chih-Kai, Taiwan, 13.967 Q
9. Dmitriy Patanin, Kazakhstan, 13.967 R1
10. Utkirbek Juraev, Uzbekistan, 13.900 R2
11. Shi Cong, China, 13.900 R3
Pommels Qualification Results
1. Lee Chih-Kai, Taiwan, 15.100 Q
2. Nariman Kurbanov, Kazakhstan, 15.067 Q
3. Ahmad Abu Al Soud, Jordan, 14.800 Q
4. Yin Dehang, China, 14.233 Q
5. Saeedreza Keikha, Iran, 14.133 Q
6. Hidaka Daiki, Japan, 14.000 Q
7. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 13.767 Q
8. Lee Junghyo, South Korea, 13.700 Q
9. Abdulla Azimov, Uzbekistan, 13.667 R1
10. Hasegawa Tsuyoshi, Japan, 13.667 R2
11. Lin Chaopan, China, 13.567 R3
Rings Qualification Results
1. Lan Xingyu, China, 14.900 Q
2. Lin Guan-Yi, Taiwan, 14.367 Q
3. Mahdi Ahmad Kohani, Iran, 14.367 Q
4. Yang Jiaxing, China, 14.233 Q
5. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 14.100 Q
6. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 13.833 Q
7. Ryu Sunghyun, South Korea, 13.767 Q
8. Lee Junghyo, South Korea, 13.700 Q
9. Abdulaziz Mirvaliev, Uzbekistan, 13.667 R1
10. Yuasa Kenya, Japan, 13.667 R2
11. Maeda Koki, Japan, 13.500 R3
Vault Qualification Results
1. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 14.917 Q
2. Shek Wai Hung, Hong Kong, 14.300 Q
3. Tachibana Shiga, Japan, 14.284 Q
4. Milad Karimi, Kazakhstan, 14.250 Q
5. Dmitriy Patanin, Kazakhstan, 14.200 Q
6. Tseng Wei-Sheng, Taiwan, 14.122 Q
7. Kim Hansol, South Korea, 14.084 Q
8. Ng Ka Ki, Hong Kong, 13.934 Q
9. Saleem Naghouj, Jordan, 13.917 R1
10. Mahdi Olfati, Iran, 13.900 R2
11. Juancho Miguel Besana, Philippines, 13.884 R3
Parallel Bars Qualification Results
1. Lin Chaopan, China, 14.900 Q
2. Shi Cong, China, 14.867 Q
3. Maeda Koki, Japan, 14.633 Q
4. Milad Karimi, Kazakhstan, 14.533 Q
5. Hung Yuan-Hsi, Taiwan, 14.500 Q
6. Carlos Yulo, Philippines, 14.367 Q
7. Hasegawa Tsuyoshi, Japan, 14.200 Q
8. Lee Junghyo, South Korea, 14.167 Q
9. Kim Hansol, South Korea, 13.967 R1
10. Farukh Nabiyev, Kazakhstan, 13.833 R2
11. Utkirbek Juraev, Uzbekistan, 13.800 R3
High Bar Qualification Results
1. Shi Cong, China, 14.133 Q
2. Tang Chia-Hung, Taiwan, 14.067 Q
3. Yang Jiaxing, China, 14.000 Q
4. Yun Jinseong, South Korea, 13.967 Q
5. Hidaka Daiki, Japan, 13.900 Q
6. Milad Karimi, Kazakhstan, 13.867 Q
7. Ryu Sunghyun, South Korea, 13.733 Q
8. Hasegawa Tsuyoshi, Japan, 13.267 Q
9. Farukh Nabiyev, Kazakhstan, 13.000 R1
10. Lin Guan-Yi, Taiwan, 12.967 R2
11. Yogeshwar Singh, India, 12.933 R3
Article by Lauren Hopkins