(Photo FIG)
Minamino Yume of Japan and neutral athlete Arsenii Dukhno made off with the Junior World All-Around titles Saturday in Manila, projecting themselves as early potential favorites for the 2028 Olympic Games.
Minamino, 14, and Dukhno, 17, arrived in the Philippines capital as virtual unknowns but made sure the gymnastics world saw what they could do as individual finals began at the Artistic Gymnastics Junior World Championships.
Third in Friday’s qualification round, Minamino paired daring difficulty with the fewest mistakes Saturday to finish atop the podium with 53.632 points. Impressive on every apparatus, Minamino started by Vaulting a 1.5-twisting Yurchenko for 13.566. She also caught her astonishingly difficult jam to handstand into full-twisting layout Jaeger combination on Uneven Bars to score 13.366, then surged into the lead after the high score of the day on Balance Beam, a 13.700.
13.000 on Floor Exercise was enough to hold off a late charge from Elena Colas of France, who needed better than 13.700 on Floor to take the title.
Two days into her first World Championships, Minamino feels she’s getting the hang of competing among the world’s best. “It’s interesting to note that I was able to calm my body down a little more than in the team competition,” she remarked afterward. “I’m very happy with this result.”
A final where Beam made the big difference
After leading France to victory in the team competition yesterday, Colas started with 14.100 for a stuck double-twisting Yurchenko vault but then had to swallow two large errors on Uneven Bars. She scored 12.666 but fought back with quality performances on Balance Beam (13.200), and Floor Exercise (13.366) to end with 53.298 and silver.
“It wasn’t as good as yesterday, but even so I’m happy because I battled all the way through,” Colas said. “I am a bit disappointed with my competition, but I think I haven’t realised that this is still a world medal, and that it’s still really something,” said Colas.
Colas said her hope of winning gold faded after she watched her nearest challengers — Minamino and Nishiyama Misa of Japan, U.S. gymnasts Lavienna Crain and Caroline Moreau, and Jiang Shuting of China — all hit their routines on Uneven Bars, but Balance Beam turned out to be the decisive apparatus of the women’s competition. Jiang and Moreau fell, and Nishiyama had a wild ride after a planned mount sequence went awry after the first skill.
Nishiyama improvised and saved herself a major deduction but gave away her chance to win at the same time. The 15-year-old ended with 53.066 and bronze. “I’ve been training hard with the goal of winning, but I’m glad that I was able to reaffirm that I still have a lot to learn at the world level,” Nishiyama said.
Crain had the second highest Beam score with 13.400 but opted for a lower value Vault than she showed in qualification and finished fourth. She was followed by Moreau, neytral athlete Milana Kaiumova, Maiana Prat of France and Jiang.
Nishiyama will be eligible to compete at the senior level next year, but Minamino will have to wait until 2027. Both Japanese gymnasts are coached by two-time World Floor Exercise champion Murakami Mai, who said that her new dream in gymnastics is to see her protegees on World and Olympic podiums.
Dukhno does it again
Dukhno was always going to be hard to beat: so high is his difficulty and so good his execution that even struggles on Still Rings and a fall from the Horizontal Bar were never going to eliminate him from contention.
He earned the title with the top scores of the day on Floor Exercise (14.500), Pommel Horse (13.866), and Parallel Bars (14.266), as well as the second strongest mark on Vault (14.233) for his Kasamatsu double twist, half a twist less than he has shown at other times.
All that meant that a missed Kolman on Horizontal Bar and the 18th best score on the apparatus didn’t alter the golden result, though it did make the competition closer. Having topped the leaderboard by 1.3 points in Thursday’s qualification, Dukhno’s margin of victory Saturday was 0.232.
He’ll take it. “At the beginning of this journey, I couldn’t say that I was going to win, but I said that I’ll try my best to win, so this medal means a lot to me,” said Dukhno. “It was a very interesting competition. In some places it was difficult, and in others it was easy, but the emotions were great. I really enjoyed everything. I’m very glad I came here.”
Japanese team captain Ojima Nao conducted a masterclass in consistency to pick up his second silver of the championships. Steady across the board, Ojima’s scores ranged from 13.200 on Still Rings to 14.100 on Parallel Bars. His 81.799 total put him 0.7 clear of bronze medallist Yang Lanbin of China.
“I was able to complete the competition without any mistakes, which is honestly a joyful feeling, as it fulfilled my goal,” said Ojima, whose long-term goal is gold at LA 2028. “I’m glad I was able to do what I set out to do.”
Yang was the only competitor Saturday to record an execution score of 9.0 or above on five apparatus, and his routines on Floor Exercise and Horizontal Bar were among the top three of the night. Lower difficulty on almost all apparatus kept him from rising above Dukhno and Ojima, but 81.099 put him comfortably ahead of elegant Danila Leykin of the USA, who finished more than a point behind him despite the best score of the day on Horizontal Bar (14.133).
“My biggest improvement today was my all-around score, which broke 81 points. I’ll continue to work hard after this competition,” said Yang, 16. “Next, my next goal is to move up to the senior World Championships.”
Elsewhere, Simone Speranza of Italy stuck his triple back Still Rings dismount en route to the highest score on the apparatus (14.100) and fifth. Briton Sol Scott, sixth, was bolstered by his wonderful Yurchenko triple twist vault (14.400). French hope Nael Sakouhi and home favourite Karl Eldrew Yulo rounded out the top eight.
