The gymnasts in the above video are the uneven bars medal contenders at the 2023 World Gymnastics Championships event finals that will take place in a few days.
Although Simone Biles is the favorite to win several medals (most of them gold), this is the only event where she is not the leading gymnast to even win a medal.
The strongest contender throughout the season until June this year was French-Algerian gymnast Kaylia Nemour, who posted a 6.8 D-Score (difficulty score) earlier in the season, that she managed to upgrade to a 6.9 D-Score, being the highest D-Score of the year, getting a 15.066 total score, breaking the 15.000 barrier. Her routine consist of succession of skills all of them in connection, except for a break just before her dismount (which consist of a full turn connected to a double back layout). If she manages to perform it without breaking the connection and without falls, she will be on the podium.
The only other gymnast that matches Nemour in terms of D-Score is Qui Qiyuan, from China, who received a 6.7 D-Score at the Asian Championships, and a massive 15.233 total score. Later on, by linking her Pak salto to her pirouette series, she increased her D-Score to 6.9, but she hasn't performed it in competition yet.
China has a bars specialist, who is at these championships solely to do uneven bars, who has a 6.5 D-Score, but no international experience, which doesn't need to be a hurdle for her. Her routine is quite similar to Qui Qiyuan, displaying several connected pirouettes. If she manages to minimize the handstands angle deductions, she could be on the podium.
Rebeca Andrade and Shilese Jones both have introduced new dismounts this year, Rebecca performed it in competition and Jones in podium training at these worlds. Rebeca has a similar routine, in terms of composition, to Kaylia Nemour, managing to connect mos of her skills except for her Jaeger release and her dismount (a full turn followed by a double twisting double back salto). When she hits, she is beautiful, finishing her handstands right on the top of the bar. She just needs to polish her new dismount, which is the most difficult from all the contenders. Jones, also has many skills in combination, and like Rebeca, she is very good at doing those handstands next to perfectly. If she manages to stick her landing, she will be hard to beat.
Mélanie De Jesus Dos Santos comes from winning 2 gold medals at the Paris Challenge Cup, one of them on uneven bars. She has the most difficult dismount after Andrade, and this year, she has been able to stick it, and she has beaten Andrade.
Alice D'Amato is another gymnast who, when she performs to her best, is able to win medals. She has the ability to increase her dismount difficulty, she is very consistent, and she rarely makes mistakes.
Sanna Veerman has a lower D-Score than other gymnasts, but when she is on, she gets a good E-Score (execution score).
Simone Biles, is unlikely to win gold, but, she is a very solid bar worker, if she does her best routine and, if some of the top gymnasts fail, she could get a bronze medal.
Also, Naomi Visser, from the Netherlands, has a chance of getting into the bars final, but her chances to medal depend much more on other gymnasts failing than on her doing her best gymnastics.
We will have to wait until the first day of event finals to see what happens, but it is expected to be a very exciting uneven bars final, there is no doubt about that.
Comments