Gymnastic Planet's top 10 memorable moments from Artistic World Championships in Liverpool

Wow. The 51st World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, from 29th October – 6th November, have been the perfect climax to an incredible year for gymnastics. The week of competition gave us the whole range of emotions from nail-biting tension, disappointment and humour to jubilation and awe. Let’s recap 10 of our most memorable moments:

World gymnastics championships MS Bank arena

Image 1 The M&S Bank Arena (Formerly The Echo Arena) In Liverpool, ready to host the 51st World Gymnastics Championships

  • The Women’s Team Final

Whilst America led the field throughout to win the coveted title of World Champions, it wasn’t with such an absurd lead as we’ve become used to in recent decades. Shaky starts for China on beam and Italy on bars left the coveted podium positions open, with countries battling for a top-three finish that would qualify a team for the Paris 2024 Olympics. Canada’s WAG team emerged as the competition’s dark horse, swiping a historical bronze in the final rotation after qualifying in 8th. They were later awarded the Fujitsu Infinity award at a closing banquet. Great Britain’s team of Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, Jennifer Gadirova, Jessica Gadirova, Ondine Achampong and reserve Poppy Grace Stickler secured their best ever women’s team result. They qualified an Olympic team at the first opportunity with the silver medal, which a beaming Jennifer said ‘has a nice ring to it’.

WA team gymnastic final 2022

Image 2 The Women's Team Final Podium. Gold: USA, silver: Great Britain and bronze: Canada.

 

  • The GB Men’s Team Turnaround

Team GB’s men team, consisting of Joe Fraser, James Hall, Giarnni Regini-Moran, Courtney Tulloch, Jake Jarman and reserve Adam Tobin, had a less consistent outing. Pommel proved their nemesis, with the team down in eighth position after the second rotation and a momentous task ahead. A solid rings routine from Courtney proved pivotal and high-scoring vaults followed by stuck landings on p-bars saw the team claw back up to the bronze medal in a dog-fight of a final that had spectators on tenterhooks to the last. Joe Fraser said their bronze finish behind China and Japan was ‘hard to believe’ but credited the fact that ‘we all believed in each other’ and home-crowd support. Despite the team’s golden summer, Giarnni deemed the third-place special ‘because of the fight’, a comeback which later earned them the Fujitsu infinity award as well as an Olympic slot.

ME Team gymnastic final

Image 3 The Men's Team Final Podium. Gold: China, silver: Japan and bronze: Great Britain after a huge comeback

  • An unbelievable High-Bar save

American gymnast Asher Hong fell after catching too close on his full twisting tucked Kovacs. On his second attempt, Asher again caught close but managed to stay on by swinging round on the straps of his handguards.

 

  • Joe Fraser being ultra-relatable

Despite a cracking year, the AA final sadly didn’t go to plan for Great Britain’s Joe Fraser as he carried multiple falls despite great tenacity. Face-down on the floor in the middle of his high-bar routine however, Joe flashed a thumbs up and shrug that will resonate with anyone who’s had to pick themselves up and persevere.

Team Gb Gymnastics Men team

Image 4 The GB MAG team were presented with the Fujitsu Infinity Award. Canada won the same award for demonstrating the most challenging spirit during the Team Final.

 

  • The WAG All-around final

Rebeca Andrade’s triumph to secure the title of World Champion for Brazil in the AA final by over a mark was sublime to watch. USA’s Shilese Jones took the silver and GB’s Jess Gadirova was just 0.2 behind her in third. Jess’s bronze is the first World AA placing for a British woman, and teammate Alice Kinsella’s commendable 4th place less that 0.2 below was a bittersweet finish just outside the medals but a huge improvement on her previous 14th place finish in 2019. With Russia absent due to the invasion of Ukraine and an apparent decline of gymnastics domination from China and America, a refreshing reshuffle seems to be underway on the global gymnastics stage.

WA all round final World champs

Image 5 The Women's All-around Podium. Brazil's Rebeca Andrade became World Champion with USA's Shilese Jones in silver, GB's Jessica Gadirova in bronze. 4th-8th were (L-R): GBR Alice Kinsella, CAN Ellie Black, USA Jade Carey, CHN Yushan OU, JPN Miyata Shoko

  • Great Britain’s Double win on Floor

Giarnni Regini-Moran and Jessica Gadirova wiped the floor of their competitors in apparatus finals – quite literally. Giarnni became the first British MAG gymnast to secure the floor title with a near-faultless outing, and Jessica replicated Beth Tweddle’s 2009 success to win the WAG floor title with the perfect blend of power and poise. She said afterwards: ‘performing makes me feel really alive’.

 

  • Four on a podium

The WAG Floor Final was not without controversy. A D-score enquiry came from USA’s Jade Carey, who initially tied with her teammate Jordan Chiles but was awarded the bronze on tie-break rules with the lower e-score whilst Chiles took the silver. The enquiry backfired and saw Carey’s d-score downgraded by 0.1, which made no change to her placing but created a new tie between her and Rebeca Andrade on both D and E score, meaning that both gymnasts earned bronze medals.

 

  • The Lambanana

The presentation of Lambanana sculptures during medal ceremonies caused intrigue, humour and confusion at this championships, with Asher Hong pretending his was a phone and Brummie lad Joe Fraser also seeming baffled by the mascot. The Superlambanana is a famous sculpture in Liverpool, commissioned in 1998 and the work of Japanese artist Taro Chieso. The sculpture is a humorous representation of the issue of genetic engineering, but also speaks to Liverpool’s history as a vibrant trade city, which would have included bananas and sheep as cargo.

Lambanana world gymnastics championships

Image 6 Colourful Lambanana sculptures outside the Tate Museum in Liverpool

 

  • These wow moments:

Rebeca Andrade’s vault. The new AA world champion’s Cheng was just stunning. Also Adem Asil’s celebration after securing the Ring’s World Champion title for Turkey (0.2 ahead of GB’s Courtney Tulloch in bronze) – we all want to feel this jubilant. Zou Jingyuan’s winning p-bar routine scoring 16.166 was out of this world and finally the historic medal for Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who won the silver on pommel behind Ireland’s Rhys McClenaghan in a first for Jordan. Yes that’s a few things but they were quick ones and it turns out that ten is not enough.

Courtney Tuloch Ring World bronxe medalist

Image 7 GB's Courtney Tulloch with his bronze medal for Rings

 

  • The whole world getting together, with a live crowd.

‘You’ll never walk alone’, the title of a song covered by Gerry and the Pacemaker’s in 1963, is famously associated with Liverpool and has become a motto for the city. The sense of friendship and good company was certainly strong at this World Championships, the first world-stage event since the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, where heavy social restrictions remained in place due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Seeing gymnasts, coaches, judges, officials and fans from gymnastics delegations all over the world able to truly come together (‘right now, over me’ as the Beatles sang) has left us with heaps of warm-fuzzy feels.

World gymnastics championships Liverpool 2022

Image 8 The M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool with a roaring crowd

 

Well done to all gymnasts and coaches on a brilliant World Championships. A full list of results can be found here: https://www.2022worldgymnastics.com/live-scoring/