28. March 2021  
Sofia, BUL  
Rhythmic Gymnastics

World Cup Rhythmic Gymnastic: Bulgarian Fivefold Success

After two competitions in Moscow, the World Cup event in rhythmic gymnastics this weekend is the first major international competition this year, after a break from competition for more than a year, tries to carry out its extensive program under corona conditions without prejudice.  The Bulgarian capital Sofia has risen to this demanding challenge and will not be hosting a large number of "competition-hungry" gymnasts from 38 nations on this weekend (March 26-28) as the World Cup host for the first time. Among them 60 individual gymnasts from 36 countries who have been on the mat in three groups since Friday up to Sunday, but despite the announcement, top nation Russia was not at the start.

♦ Qualification (Friday, March 26):
Israel's ex-vice world champion and current European champion Linoy ASHRAM prevailed in the qualifying all-around competition with 98,450, and relegated Bulgaria's local hero from the 2018 silver Worlds team, Boryana KALEYN, to second place with +0.2 points , followed by two Belarusians: Vice European Champion Alina HARNASKO (96.150) and compatriot Anastasia SALOS (93.250) as well as the second Bulgarian Katrin TASEVA (92.250) in 5th place. Sixth was the best Ukrainian, Victoria ONOPRIENKO with 90,700 points.
Germany's 17-year-old ex-Potsdam World Cup debutant Margarita Kolosov is 27th with 81.050, Austria's Nicol Ruprecht with 79.250 was 30th out of a total of 60 individual starters. The oldest top athlete at 28 was very satisfied with her performance relatively shortly after a ligament injury and under the conditions of the corona year.
►Individual All-around Results
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(C) Tom Theobald

* Sunday, March 28:
♦♦ THE INDIVIDUAL WORLDCUP FINAL on the final day experienced a triple triumph for the Bulgarian Vice European Champion Boryana KALEYN, who won all equipment except with the ball. Only the ball competition went to the all-around best with the highest score of the day (26,500), to Linoy ASHRAM from Israel, in front of Alina HARNASKO (BLR), and before Boryana KALEYN, who had a great day! Otherwise, the actual top favorite, Ashram, surprisingly remained without any further podium placement.
►► FINALS Reifen & Ball;    ►► Finals Keulen & Band
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♦ In the World Cup groups competition, ensembles from 16 nations were initially registered, but 11 actually came, including the Russian group.
→ The all-around qualifying was won by the Bulgarian hosts (84,350), followed by Azerbaijan (70,950), Japan (70,650), Russia (69,500) and the German group (68,950), which even achieved second place with 3 hoops / 4 clubs ahead of Russia and Azerbaijan and stands in both finals. Belarus, on the other hand, fell back to 10th place in the combined exercise.
► Groups All-around WC Qualifying     ► Qualifikation (Disziplinen)
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♦♦ In the first final of the groups, with the exercise 5 balls, it was extremely exciting: A duel between BULGARIA vs. JAPAN had clearly set itself apart, which the hosts just won by just a tenth of a point, although they had reduced the difficulty of their presentation by approx. Four points compared to the pre-match, it was just enough to win.
The RUSSIAN GROUP took 3rd place - Azerbaijan fell back due to some mistakes. The German girls finished fifth behind Mexico, ahead of Estonia and Belarus.
►► GROUPS FINAL - 5 balls
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♦♦ The second group final of the combined exercise (3 hoops / 2 clubs) also dominated by the BULGARIAN girls and defeated the JAPANESE group here too, but with a clear lead of almost 4 points. Bronze here went to Azerbaijan in front of before Russia. The German girls could not follow up on their 2nd place from the preliminary fight and dropped to 7th place due to too many instabilities.
►► GROUP FINAL - 3 hoops / 2 clubs
(c) gymmedia

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