Romanian gymnast who has earned gold in all three apparatus she has competed in Ana Barbosu was the only gymnast to win more than one title at the Challenge Cup of Mersin, which ended Sunday.
16-year-old Barbosu, who finished seventh overall at the European Championships in Munich in August, took first place on uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise in Mersin.
Champion in the women’s jump Teja Belak from Slovenia collected the 24th Challenge Cup or World Cup medal of her long career. Belak, 28, who gave birth to a son in May 2021, previously won 19 medals on vault, three medals on balance beam and one medal on uneven bars in Challenge Cup or World Cup competition. Her first Challenge Cup gold was at the 2014 Anadia competition, where she placed first on vault.
The 22-year-old from Kazakhstan is in the men’s category Dmitry Patanin made his first Challenge Cup or World Cup final a gold final, winning floor exercise. Earlier this year he was 31st in the floor exercise qualifier for the Cairo World Championships and 11th in the qualifier for the Baku World Championships.
Shiao Yu Jan from Chinese Taipei took his first Challenge Cup medal, also gold, on the pommel horse. He placed seventh on the pommel horse at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart and was a member of the 10th-placed Chinese Taipei team at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, where he placed 54th overall in qualifying.
Junior World Champion in Vaulting 2021 Gabriel Burtanete from Romania won gold on his best apparatus, improving his bronze medal result on vault at the 2021 Challenge Cup in Mersin. Burtanete, a 20-year-old native of Buzau, was first on vault at the Challenge Cup in Varna in May, fifth on vault at the Challenge Cup in Koper in June, and fifth on vault at the European Championships in August.
Turkish followers Adam Asil and Ferhat Arican accounted for five of their country’s eight medals in the competition, as Asil won gold on still rings and Arican gold on bars.
Two-time Lithuanian Olympic champion Robert Tvorogal placed first on the bar. He also won silver at the 2016 Varna Challenge Cup, silver at the 2018 Osijek Challenge Cup, gold at the 2020 European Championships in Mersin, bronze at the 2021 Mersin Challenge Cup, bronze at the 2021 Cairo Challenge Cup, and silver at the World Championships 2022 in Doha and silver at the European Championships 2022.
Challenge Cup 2022 from Mersin
9 October (finals)
Women:
vault:
- Teja Belak SLO 13.875
- Bilge Tarhan TUR 13,000
- Tijana Korent CRO 12.875
uneven bars:
- Ana Barbosu ROU 13,600
- Jessica Dowling can 13,350
- Barbara Mokosova SVK 13.100
balance beam:
- Ana Barbosu ROU 13,950
- Lai Pin-Ju TPE 12.950
- Andreea Preda ROU 12,600
floor exercise:
- Ana Barbosu ROU 12,900
- Andreea Preda ROU 12,650
- Sevgi Kayisoglu TUR 12,400
men:
floor exercise:
- Dmitri Patanin KAZ 14.550
- Adem Asil 14,300
- Tang Chia-Hung TPE 14,250
pommel horse:
- Shiao Yu Jan TPE 15.05
- Ferhat Arican TUR 14,450
- Radomir Sliz CZE 14,050
Still ringing:
- Adem Asil TUR 15,000
- Lin Guan-Yi TPE 14,500
- Ibrahim Colak TUR 14,400
vault:
- Gabriel Burtanete ROU 14,725
- Léandre Sauve CAN 14.325
- Tseng Wei-Sheng TPE 14.100
bars:
- Ferhat Arican TUR 14,800
- Robert Tvorogal LTU 14,550
- Andrei Muntean ROU 14,400
Horizontal line:
- Robert Tvorogal LTU 14.350
- Adem Asil TUR 14.050
- Jordan Aleksandrov BUL 13,700
International Gymnast Online’s coverage of Mersin’s 2022 Challenge Cup competitors includes:
Croatia:
Korent on COVID-19: “We must all get through this together”
Croatia’s Mateo Žugec on first Challenge Cup medal: “Anything is possible in the final”
Romania:
Romania’s Ana Barbosu: “For me, every competition is the same”
Slovenia:
World Cup successes motivate Slovenian Lucija Hribar to “many more competitions and medals”
Turkey:
Turkish Arican: “This is a really big, big, big medal”
Arican credits post-COVID Europeans Gold for “One Word – Devotion”.
Arican from Turkey: “I’m ready and conscious like never before”
Turkey’s Adem Asil: “It took a long time to reach this level”
Ahmet Onder from Turkey: “I’ve grown mentally; that’s the important thing
Ahmet Onder from Turkey: “My time will come; I know that’
Üçtaş Şanlı’s wish for 2021: “A healthy year full of medals”
Comments are closed.