Veteran Chusovitina clinches Vault gold

The lifespan of a gymnast is known to be very short. Try telling that to Oksana Chusovitina and she will beg to differ. At 42, the Uzbek is breaking all the barriers associated with the sport.At the Rio Olympics last August, Chusovitina became the oldest Olympic gymnast in history, appearing in her seventh Games. While she returned empty handed from Rio and announced her retirement, a few months later she had a change of heart and was back in the gym, getting ready for the new season.Yesterday at the Aspire Dome, Chusovitina showed why she is one of the miracles of sport as she clinched gold in the 10th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup in Doha.The 1992 Olympic team gold medallist blasted her competition on Vault with a solid performance, even if she didn’t attempt the uber-difficult Produnova vault that she showed last summer in Rio. This was her second consecutive World Cup gold, repeating her feat from Baku, Azerbaijan last week.  In front of a packed, weekend crowd, Chusovitina leapt, twisted and swung to a thunderous applause. The Uzbek stunning vault shot her onto to the top of leaderboard with 14.166 points and pipped Australia’s emerging star Emily Little to second place. Little tallied 14,099, only 0.067 points behind Chusovitina. Just 0.016 points adrift was Slovenia’s Teja Belak, who took home bronze medal.“I do a lot of mental training,” Chusovitina, who has a 16-year-old son, had said recently. “I typically put in two hours in the gym. Then I visualise exactly how the skill needs to be done, and I know exactly what my body needs to be doing.”There could be more magic from Chusovitina today, as she is in the fray for her second gold in Doha when she competes in the Balance Beam final.Meanwhile, Chia-Hung Tang of Chinese Taipei produced a stunning show in the Floor Exercise to win gold. The 20-year-old’s perfect routine impressed the judges as he aggregated 14.366 points, just 0.100 more than second-placed Kazakhstan’s 17-year-old Milad Karimi. Marian Dragulescu of Romania had to settle for silver, after accumulating 14.100 points. The 36-year-old Dragulescu is one of the legends of the sport, having won an impressive tally of 29 Olympic, World or European Championships medals in his illustrious career. He was fancied to win gold in Doha yesterday, but had no answer to his younger opponents’ skills.The podium finishers of the event received their medals from Secretary-General of Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) Dr. Thani Abdulrahman Al Kuwari who also watched the proceedings of the finals.   There was no surprise in the Pommel Horse apparatus as Krisztian Berki, the 2012 Olympics gold medalist, won in his favourite discipline after registering 14.933 points. China’s Ruoteng Xiao (14.800) and Armenian Artur Davtyan (14.066) completed the podium line-up. In women’s Uneven Bars final, Huan Luo of China took gold medal with 14.433 points. Hungary’s Kovacs Zsofia (13.066) and Aussie Georgia-Rose Brown (13.033) claimed silver and bronze medals respectively.In men’s rings final what was the last event of the day, Armenia’s Artur Tovmasyan outstanding performance fetched him the gold with 15.133 points.Igor Radivilov of Ukraine grabbed silver with 15.066 points followed by China’s Zou Jingyuan, who got 15.033 points for bronze medal. Today, the final day of the championship, will see five finals - three in men’s and two in women’s. The male gymnasts will be battling for honours in vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars while women’s events include finals of balance beam and floor exercise.   ResultsWomen’s Vault1. Oksana Chusovitina (UZB) 14.1662. Emily Little (AUS) 14.0993. Teja Belak (SLO) 14.083Men’s Floor Exercise1. Chia-Hung Tang (TPE) 14.3662. Milad Karimi (KAZ) 14.2663. Marian Dragulescu (ROU) 14.100Men’s Pommel Horse1. Krisztian Berki (HUN) 14.9332. Ruoteng Xiao (CHN) 14.8003. Artur Davtyan (ARM) 14.066Women’s Uneven Bars1. Huan Luo (CHN) 14.4332. Kovacs Zsofia (HUN) 13.0663. Georgia-Rose Brown (AUS) 13.033Men’s Rings1. Artur Tovmasyan (ARM) 15.1332. Igor Radivilov (UKR) 15.0663. Zou Jingyuan (CHN) 15.033