2nd Junior WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS of Artistic Gymnastics 2023

Almost 4 years after the premiere of the 1^st Gymnastics Youth World Championships 2019 in Györ, Hungary, the World Gymnastics Federation FIG invites the ambitious gymnastics youth to its 2^nd Junior World Championships of Artistic Gymnastics in Atalya, Turkey (29. 03. - 02. 04.).
Today the smallest gymnast of the Armenian team became the star of the first day of the finals of this 2nd JWCh and was the greatest twice: Hamlet MARUTYAN won gold on pommel horse and still rings! Gold also went to Colombia, as the all-around runner-up Angel BARAJAS took the title on floor. Equally pleasing were very first Gold medal for Argentina, by Mia Giuliana MAINARDI on vault, and uneven bars gold went to Italy's Caterina GADDI.
* All this happened today, and what has happened so far, now one after the other ...:
♦ After Japanese Teamgold now China won the individual gold medal: With a touch of +0.68 points lead the new Junior World All-around Champion is QIN Guohuan, in front of the silver medalist Angel BARAJAS from Columbia, leading after the preliminaries  ...!
♦ Not unexpectedly, the Japanese women dominated the all-around final, this time even with a double success: gold and silver went to 14-year-old Haruka NAKAMURA from Osaka and to Sara YAMAGUCHI. The latter missed her possible victory on vault and also here it was an Italian who held Europe's gymnastics honour high with Caterina GADDI and her bronze medal.
Considering that 4 years ago Emma Malewski was the best German in 16th place, now the 6th place of Germany's Marlene GOTTHARDT from Stuttgart can also be called almost sensational!
* DAY 2 -: In the girl's team event, JAPAN already won the second JWCh gold, ahead of the U S A and Italy, after the boys had already successfully defended their title from 2019 the day before.
The German team improved by one rank to 7th place and also in the individual ranking Sara Yamaguchi (52.065), a Japanese woman, was the best all-around athlete. Stuttgart's Marlene Gotthard qualified for the all-around final in an excellent sixth place after junior European champion Helen Kevric fell behind with good prospects after a completely wrong beam routine, but entered the final with the second-best parallel bars score....
* DAY 1 -:  In the boys' team competition JAPAN defended the success of the first JWCh ahead of China and Italy. US boys came on 6 and the British trio on 7th place.
In the individual all-around, 16-year-old Colombian Angel Barajas is in the lead after the qualification, followed by Japanese and Chinese talents ...

* Friday, March 31. :      →  STARTLIST
♦♦  JUNIORS (Boys) ALL-AROUND FINAL
... Less than a hundredth between gold and silver!!
The exciting decision between gold and silver was played out in the range of hundredths of a point. After problems on pommel horse, the preliminaries winner Angel BARAJAS also failed his vault, and although he came within -0.068 points of China's QIN, Guohuan on his last apparatus, high bar, with the most difficult routine of all participants (4.8) and the highest score of the day (14.000), gold went to China and silver to Colombia.
Europe celebrated a bronze medal with Riccardo VILLA from Italy, and Japan had to settle for fourth place with Tomoharu TSUNOGAI after their victory four years ago.
But the fact that a German talent, Timo EDER, placed fifth, is almost sensational, considering that the protégé of coach Jörg Schwaiger was less than four tenths of a second short of a medal, which he might have been able to make up for with slight instabilities on parallel bars. China and Japan were the only nations to place both athletes in the top ten. China and Japan were the only nations to place both athletes in the top ten.
Disappointingly, the USA, whose best and only gymnast, only finished 19th in the final ... and also the British had probably expected more than the 10th and 16th places ...

* BOYS - AA RESULTS

  QIN Guohuan              (CHN) - 80,199
  BARAJAS, Angel        (COL)  - 80,131
  VILLA, Riccardo            (ITA) - 79,665
   4. TSUNOGAI, Tomoharu  (JPN) - 79,664
   5. EDER, Timo                  (GER) - 79,297
   6. MANUKYAN, Hamlet     (ARM) - 78,666
...
14. KOVALENKO, Maxim  (GER) - 76,764)
17. SCHWAIGER, Alfred   (AUT) - 75,598
    ► Detailed Results
   + + +

 
V A U L T
1. BRUGNAMI, Victor    (ITA) - 14,133
2.CANUEL Victor          (CAN) - 14,016
3. ZAVORY Szilard       (HUN) = 13,833
  4. KOVALENKO, Maxim   (GER) =13,833
         ►  Detailed Results
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P A R A L L E L  B A R S
1.BARAJAS Angel           (COL)  - (5.3) =13,733
1.TSUNOGAI, Tomoharu  (JPN)  - (4.9) =13,733
3. ZAKARIA, Yahia           (EGY)  - (4.7) =13,700
         ►  Detailed Results
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  H I G H  B A R
1. TSUNOGAI, Tomoharu  (JPN) - (5.1) =13,666
2. HE Xiang   (CHN)  -(5.1) =13,633
3. BARAJAS Angel   (COL)  - (5.7) =13,433
             ►  Detailed Results
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* Freitag, 31. März
  →  ALL-AROUND  FINAL - G I R L S

Whereas the Japanese had a double victory in the boys' event at the JWM premiere, the girls did the same.
And if it wasn't for the missed vault, Sara YAMAGUCHI, the best gymnast in the preliminaries, already looked like the winner: Most difficult and best beam routine, most difficult floor performance, highest score despite over-stepping and also on parallel bars she presented the strongest content with (D=5.7). However, she fell short of her qualification performance on vault by about 1.5 points - gold was gone, but luckily she at least acknowledged the jump-in of her compatriot Haruka NAKAMURA with a silver smile.
Caterina GADDI's bronze medal proved the great leap in development that was generally seen in Italy - the last places noted for them were 12th and 13th.
Even more impressive was the way Stuttgart's Helene GOTTHARDT not only repeated her pre-competition performance (6th place), but even improved on three apparatuses (except beam) and achieved a previously hardly expected 5th place.

* GIRL's ALL-AROUND RESULTS

  NAKAMURA, Haruka      (JPN) - 51,765
  YAMAGUCHI, Sara         (JPN) - 51,532
  GADDI, Caterina             (ITA) - 50,899
   4. HANG, Jayla                  (USA) - 50,832
   5. MARTIN, Abigail            (GBR) - 50,266
   6. GOTTHARDT, Marlene   (GER) - 50,132
         ► Detailed Results
   + + +

.... at the weekend will follow the apparatus finals!

* TODAY  Saturday, April 01:           (► All Qualifiers)
♦  App. FINALS  G I R L S  (I)

  VAULT     (> Startlist)
1. MAINARDI, Mia Giuliana (ARG)  =13,383
2. MARANO, July                  (ITA)  =13,266
3. VAN EICKEN, Ming           (FRA)  =13,000

         ► Detailed Results

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UNEVEN BARS     (> Startlist)
1. GADDI, Caterina       (ITA) - (5.7) =13,600
2. KEVRIC, Helen       (GER)  - (5.6) =13,266 
3. PEROTTI, Giulia      (ITA)  - (5.1) =13,100
        ► Detailed Results

* The medal trio on uneven bars. European's All-around Champion Helen KEVRIC (left)
   won the very first JWCh medal for Germany
  + + +

* Thursday, March 30 :
 Team decision Girls + Individual qualifications     →  STARTLIST
Already in the first group the US girls set a first sign, but revealed weaknesses on beam. With best performances on beam and floor, the US team was outflanked in the 5th group by the Japanese girls, who won gold with a lead of only +0.1 points. Behind the USA, bronze went to Italy as the best European nation, ahead of Canada and the surprise team from Argentina in 5th place, still ahead of China, followed by Germany who improved by one place compared to the 1^st JWM four years ago in 7th place.
* Helen Kevric completely missed beam, but is in the final on parallel bars with the second-best score (13.066). Her Stuttgart teammate Marlene Gotthard also reached the beam final as third best and also shone on the 6th place of the all-around!
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* DAY 2 -: FINAL STAND TEAMS GIRLS (Thu, 30. March):

  Japan           - 104,230
  U S A            - 102,198
  Italy              - 101,996
   4. Canada         - 100,331
   5. Argentina       -  99,363
   6. China              - 98,231
   7. Germany         - 98,029
   8. Romania         - 97,964
   9. Great Britain   - 97,263
10. Belgium           - 97,231
     ► Detailed Results
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* MEHRKAMPF (Qualifikation)
1.YAMAGUCHI, Sara           (JPN) - 52,065
2. PEROTTI, Giulia               (ITA) - 51,598
3. NAKAMURA, Haruka       (JPN) - 50,399
   4. STASSI, Isabel             (USA) - 49,832
   5. GADDI, Caterina             (ITA) - 49,798
   6. GOTTHARDT, Marlene  (GER) - 49,498
          ► Detailed Results
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* Individual Apparatus (Qualification)
  ► Vault (2);  ► Vault (1);  ► Uneven bars; 
  ► Balance beam;            ► Floor exercises
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