Petrounias awarded gold for Baku World Cup
It was announced that Eleftherios Petrounias would take gold in the men’s rings at the Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Baku after the Greek had finished first in qualifying, before the rest of the competition was called off.
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As Petrounias (who missed most of 2019 due to injury) needed to finish in first place in the World Cup standings in order to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, this win in Baku has significantly increased his chances of qualifying for next year’s Games. The FIG (International Gymnastics Federation) decided yesterday that the results of the qualification stage from the Baku World Cup would be considered as the final rankings and that points would be awarded according to those rankings. Petrounias achieved the top score in qualifying (15.100), finishing above current World Cup leader Liu Yang of China (15.000). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the event was stopped on March 13, and the finals never took place.
Petrounias now has 85 points in the World Cup standings and is ranked second behind Yang, who has 90 points. It should be noted that only a gymnast’s top three results count towards the standings, meaning that 90 points is the maximum score. With only one event left, it is mathematically impossible for anyone to overtake Petrounias in second place. That event, the Doha World Cup, is now likely to be moved to March 2021. It was originally set to take place March 18-21 of this year and was later rescheduled for June 3-6.
This has now opened up two possible scenarios for Petrounias to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics, something that seemed unlikely just a few months ago.
Scenario 1
Most notably is the fact that China can only send one gymnast to the Olympics based on their World Cup performances. As China’s Weng Hao is ranked first in the pommel horse, China would have to choose between him and Yang to represent them in Tokyo. Given the fact that Hao’s three best scores give him 45.932 points (15.266 + 15.233 + 15.433), he is likely to get picked over Yang who has only 45.499 points (15.200 + 15.166 + 15.133).
Of course, things could change after Doha, but it is virtually impossible that Yang would be able to surpass his countryman. As long as Hao stays ahead of Yang (which is extremely likely), Petrounias will take Yang’s spot and qualify for the Olympics.
Scenario 2
The other scenario is for Petrounias to overtake Yang on his own. Petrounias would need to win in Doha with a score of 15.566, which would move him into first place in the men’s rings World Cup standings via tiebreaker. Although that is less likely, it is still a possibility for the Greek.
In light of this news, Petrounias took to Twitter to celebrate his probable Olympic qualification and proudly declared that he will defend his Olympic title next year.
