World Championship Qualification – Oceanic Update

The Oceanic Championships met and surpassed the requirements for drama yesterday as men’s team qualification for the world championships came down an anxious wait for the final score to be posted.

Australia opened the competition with three strong counters on floor, led by Heath Thorpe’s 13.933, but it was New Zealand’s superior pommel horse work that upended the standings early, with Ethan Dick outscoring the rest of the field by well over a point. New Zealand retained an advantage through rings to continue putting the pressure on the favored Australians, but falls from both of the Dick brothers on vault forced New Zealand to count a miss and allowed Australia to flip the competition again, thanks especially to a beautiful Kas 1.5 from James Hardy, taking over the lead by a point heading to the final two events.

New Zealand’s non-secret weapon—Misha Koudinov’s parallel bars—proved the highest score of the day for anyone on any event with a 14.700, which halved the Australians’ lead to just five tenths with only high bar remaining. Thorpe’s leadoff 13.633 proved the heroic score for Australia in that final rotation as Hardy had two falls in his routine, after an otherwise stellar day, which meant an additional Cassina fall from Mitchell Morgans had to count, leaving the door open a crack for New Zealand to finish out the day. New Zealand ultimately put up a solid high bar rotation but, aside from Koudinov who won the event with 13.800, didn’t quite have the D scores to catch Australia, with the Australians ultimately making it to worlds by a half-point margin.

Still, encouraging stuff for New Zealand as what was a five-point deficit last year became just a five-tenth deficit this year.

As the top two all-arounders for New Zealand, Koudinov and Ethan Dick will also advance to worlds as individuals.

The women’s team competition had no such drama, with the Australians taking the lead early and running to a 16-point victory over New Zealand. Although, since New Zealand did not participate in the women’s team competition last year, this 16-point deficit also represents a massive improvement over last year’s 156-point deficit.

The angst on the women’s side was saved for New Zealand’s intra-team race for the all-around spots, where Reece Cobb easily took the first but the second came down to decimal-place truncation as Madeleine Marshall finished .001 ahead of Keira Rolston-Larking despite them both having the same actual total score because the FIG cuts off individual event scores at three decimal places.

The current qualification picture for the apparatus world cups also gets a slight adjustment, as all Australian athletes and all qualified New Zealand individuals are removed with their points redistributed.