05 Mar 2023
Aspire Academy is proud to have once again hosted and sponsored the TaiShan Artistic Gymnastics World Cup yearly event.
It is the 15th time that Aspire Academy in conjunction the Qatar Gymnastics Federation has organised the four-day event from 1 to 4 March.
This year’s edition at the Aspire Dome and featured 112 men from 39 nations competing on six different pieces of apparatus and 42 women from 24 nations in four disciplines.
Aspire Academy graduate Rakan Al-Harith represented Qatar on the pommel horse on the opening day of the event but was unable to progress as one of the top eight to Friday’s final (as he finished 37th out of 49).
“We had a championship that was difficult because it was held in Qatar which put a lot of pressure on me,” the 18-year-old admitted after his turn on the pommel horse.
“However, thank God, we performed well, and I hope to achieve better results in the future.”
“Of course (these events) are something that strengthens the athlete and I gain experience and show it to the people I train with. This doesn't help me alone, but it helps everyone.”
The pommel horse was eventually won by Kazakhstan’s Nariman Kurbanov, while China’s reigning Olympic champion Liu Yang won on the rings and former world champion Carlos Yulo of the Philippines claimed gold on the floor.
In the women’s finals on Friday France’s Coline Devillard won the vault title as Anna Lashchevska of Ukraine picked up the gold on the uneven bars.
On Saturday reigning world champion Artur Davtyan of Armenia won gold on the men’s vault, the parallel bar event was won by Ukraine’s Illia Kovtun and Japan’s Yuya Kamoto took the horizontal bar title.
In the women’s events on Saturday the star of the show was 15-year-old Sabrina Maneca-Voinea of Romania as she won gold on the balance beam and the floor exercise.