As pommel horse took center stage, it seemed all eyes were on the battle between reigning champ Stephen Nedoroscik (USA) who entered the competition second after Qualifying and fan favorite Rhys McCleneghan (IRL). Nedoroscik’s routine today wasn’t quite up to the best we’ve seen from him, and while he fought through the performance (6.2 D, 14.400 final score), it wasn’t enough to surpass McCleneghan (15.300) who earned one of the biggest cheers we’ve heard here for his difficult and extraordinary artistic routine to capture gold. Ahmad Abu Al Soud (14.866) and Harutyan Merdinyan (14.744) took silver and bronze. McGleneghan is the first Irish World champion in history while Abu Al Soud is the first gymnast from Jordan to ever make a World final, let alone medal.
“It’s been a long time coming and it’s been a difficult year, so I’m just glad that I could finish off the year very strong and with my greatest achievement ever,” McGleneghan said after the competition. “To be world champion sounds amazing. It’s something I’ve dedicated my life to. To finally be world champion means it’s all worthwhile.”
In the women’s uneven bar final, Shilese Jones (USA) took an early lead with one of the best routines we have seen her do since arriving in Liverpool (14.766). For the first time at these World Championships, Jones connected her pak to Van Leeuwen, which gave her a slight edge (1 tenth) over reigning Olympic champion Nina Derwael (BEL), who entered the competition in second after Qualifying. Of course a favorite for gold, Derwael hit a beautiful routine, as stunning as always, but a devalued skill (Derwael-Fenton) lowered her start value and placed her behind Jones (14.700). Defending World champion on uneven bars, Wei Xiayuan (CHN), came through as the second to last competitor to defend her title (14.966) with a stunning routine marked with textbook form and execution.
“I have no words,” Wei said. “I cannot believe I have just defended the title. I am super happy, especially that I managed to stick my dismount today.”
The day wrapped up with the men’s ring final and strong routines from start to finish. Adem Asil (TUR) took home the gold (14.933) – the look on his face when he stuck his dismount said it all! Jingyuan Zou took the silver (14.866) and Courtney Tulloch the bronze (14.733) the first World medalist ever for Great Britain on rings!
Following the medal ceremony, an emotional Asil told the media,“I can’t explain my emotions. I’m so happy because my first world medal is a gold. It is a second World Championship gold for Turkey, so I am very happy. I just can’t explain how I feel. I am over the moon. I worked very hard and finally here I am a World Champion. I can’t believe it. I finally made it, I can’t believe it.”
Tulloch also didn’t hesitate to share his emotions: “I’ve done so many World Championships and made the final but I haven’t quite got the medal, so to finally come away with a bronze on my favorite event, I’m just so happy… the journey’s been tough. I’ve made so many finals and not quite hit it, I’ve had to learn a lot about how to deal with the pressure and it’s finally starting to pay off.”
Event finals continue tomorrow, Sunday, November 6th at 8:30 a.m. ET with the women’s beam and floor final and the men’s vault, parallel bars, and high bar final. Skye Blakely will lead off U.S. competitors on the balance beam. Carey and Chiles will be back at it in the floor exercise final and Brody Malone, the 2021 World horizontal bar bronze medalist, has sights set on the world title on high bar. All finals will air live on Peacock.
