Jakov Vlahek on pommel horse and Sara Šulekić on uneven bars are the first reserves for the final, Filip Ude is the second reserve for the pommel horse final.
Aurel Benović on the floor and Tijana Korent on the vault qualified for the Saturday finals of the 14th edition of the FIG World Challenge Cup – DOBRO World Cup Osijek, which officially started in the Gradski vrt hall! Jakov Vlahek is the first reserve for the pommel horse final, Filip Ude is the second reserve on the same apparatus, and Sara Šulekić is the first reserve for the final for the uneven bars.
On the first qualifying day, Aurel Benović, the gymnastics star from Osijek, did an excellent exercise on the floor and with the best qualification score, 14.400, won the fight for medals. It will be Aurel’s 15th World Cup final in his career (8 medals won) and the 304th in Croatian men’s sports gymnastics.
“I am very satisfied with my performance. Considering that I’m sick, struggling with a cough and a wrist injury, I got 300% out of myself. However, there is not much time for rest, I immediately turn to tomorrow’s vault qualifications, where I hope to repeat this performance of today. I expect the final on the vault as well”, announced Aurel Benović, former European vice-champion on the floor (2020) and last year’s winner in Osijek.
“I will not be burdened with the fact that I won gold last year. I will just try to concentrate on doing the performance as well as possible on Saturday in the final. I hope the outcome will be good”.
Tijana Korent, who two weeks ago at the World Cup in Varna won gold on vault, entered the finals in Osijek for the 9th time. With a score of 12.899 (12.833 and 12.966) and reached her 42nd World Cup final in her career. Among the 10 medals from World Cup’s, there are also 2 from Osijek – silver in 2009 and bronze in 2010. Today, only the Australian Georgia Godwin (13,816) was better than her in the qualifications.
“I’m glad that I made it to the final in front of the home crowd. The hall is always full in the finals in Osijek, the audience cheers brilliantly, and that is another additional reason why we all want to enter the finals. I performed my jumps solidly, I hope to be able to repeat it and hope to improve it in the final. I had some mistakes that I would like to correct in the final”, said our most experienced member of the national team, Tijana Korent.
In the pommel horse qualifications, our duo trembled until the last rotation. In the end, the penultimate qualifier eliminated Jakov Vlahek from the final (9th with 13,750), while Filip Ude finished right next to him, 10th with 13,700.
“Ninth place, I can’t say I’m satisfied, I missed the final by half a tenth. I made a mistake near the end of the exercise that decided it. I have myself to blame for that mistake. I did it unnecessarily, I panicked a little towards the end and here I am, I paid the price.” said Jakov Vlahek.
Sara Šulekić had an identical outcome. She finished 9th on uneven bars with score 12.466.
“I performed last, I felt great, but I didn’t perform my best and that resulted in 9th place. I’m a little bit sad”, said the youngest member of our national team, 17-year-old Sara Šulekić.
Christina Zwicker took 19th place with 11,133 points on the uneven bars, while Marko Jovičić, in his first appearance at the DOBRO World Cup in Osijek, was 24th with 11,900.
Tomorrow, on the second qualifying day, which starts at 3 p.m., Tin Srbić on high bar, Aurel Benović on vault, Christina Zwicker and Tina Zelčić on balance beam will be chasing the finals.
Videos and qualification results: Elevien app – app.elevien.com/download
Results: https://dwcosijek.gymscoring.com/live/1/results.html
