(Antwerp) The American Simone Biles, back on the world stage after a two-year break, dominated the qualifications for the World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, where her duel with the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade should punctuate the rest of the competition.
On Monday, no one managed to dethrone the gym superstar who had accumulated 58,865 points during his appearance on Sunday. She notably made an impression in the vaulting competition by successfully completing an extremely difficult takeoff, a Yurchenko double pike which now bears her name.
Biles dominated the qualifications on all apparatus except the uneven bars, where the Chinese Qiu Qiyuan, 16, culminated.
In total, she is almost two points ahead of her compatriot Shilese Jones (56.932 points) and the British Jessica Gadirova (56.766).
The Brazilian Rebeca Andrade, revelation of the Tokyo Olympics two years ago, took fourth place with 56.599 points. Her only disappointment came from the uneven bars where she was penalized by a fall. “I don’t know, it happens in gymnastics! “, she simply declared to explain her disappointment. “You have to think quickly so as not to forget the sequences. I recovered well and that’s the most important thing. »
Her duel with Simone Biles is one of the most anticipated issues of the week, the Brazilian having established herself as one of the new faces of world gymnastics during the American’s two-year absence.
In the team rankings, the Americans are in the lead ahead of Great Britain and Brazil.
The qualifications were also used to allocate the last team tickets for the Paris Olympic Games next summer. China, Brazil, Italy, the Netherlands, France, Japan, Australia, Romania and South Korea joined the United States, United Kingdom and Canada who had already qualified.