The women’s all-around medals were awarded at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool. Karina Schönmaier was the only German starter.
In the absence of the all-around Olympic champion Sunisa Lee from the USA, the world elite of gymnastics all-rounders put up a thrilling competition. In front of around 9,000 spectators in the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool, the Brazilian Rebeca Andrade (56,899) finally secured the world championship title. Silver went to Shilese Jones of the United States (55,399 points), while Jessica Gadirova of Britain won bronze (55,199). For the Brazilian it is the second world championship title after her world championship gold in vault last year.
This is how the women’s all-around at the World Gymnastics Championships works
24 gymnasts qualified for the all-around final. In four rounds, they compete in different disciplines one after the other: floor, vault, uneven bars and balance beam. Six athletes start in one round per piece of equipment. The entire group then rotates to the next device. In the end, the gymnast with the most points was the winner.
Rebeca Andrade showed the best jump
Unsurprisingly, Rebecca Andrade was convincing in her prime discipline right from the start. The jumping Olympic champion from Tokyo didn’t give the competition a chance on her favorite apparatus in Liverpool either and after the first round she secured the overall lead with 15,166 points. Behind the Brazilian lined up the team world champions from the USA, Jade Carey and Shilese Jones with 14,733 and 14,233 points.
Shilese Jones impressed on the uneven bars
The duel between Brazil and the USA also continued on the uneven bars. Rebeca Andrade showed a good freestyle and was able to defend her lead on the second apparatus with 13,800 points. But her American competitor Shilese Jones caught up. With a higher level of difficulty, she finished her exercise with 14,366 points, the best score on this device, putting pressure on the Brazilian. Jones’ teammate Jade Carey showed the easiest freestyle of the three and had to settle for 13,166 points. The three-way battle for the title seemed to be turning into a duel here.
Duel for the title
Brazil vs USA went on to the next round on the balance beam. This time with a better ending for Rebeca Andrade. She showed the second most demanding exercise of the evening and, with 13,533 points, extended her lead over the American, who, with an equally good exercise but much less difficulty, took second place with 13,100. Jade Carey had to say goodbye to her medal dreams after a poor performance on the balance beam. On the other hand, the Brit Alice Kinsella showed a strong performance on her third apparatus with 14,166 and catapulted herself to bronze place in the meantime. She was closely followed by her teammate Jessica Gadirova, who showed the second best exercise on the balance beam with 13,733 points.
Thrilling floor final
The medals were decided in the final round on the floor. The strongest freestyle of the evening was shown by the Brazilian with 14,400 points and thus secured her world championship title. In the end, it was 1.5 points behind second-placed Shilese Jones, who had to admit defeat on the floor. Britain’s Jessica Gadirova was just as strong on the floor as the Brazilian, overtaking her teammate Alice Kinsella to secure third place and her first World Championships individual medal.
Schönmaier with rank 22
Karina Schönmaier, who had moved up to the final of the top 24 after several failures by other gymnasts, began her all-around on the balance beam and after a few wobbles had to settle for 11,666 points. That left her just a little behind on her qualifying performance, finishing third from bottom after the first apparatus. Nothing changed after her floor exercise, which she also performed a little weaker than on Sunday with 12,566. The German achieved the best rating of her competition on vault with 13,066 points. At the end of the competition, she couldn’t really be satisfied with her exercise on the uneven bars with only 12,133 points. In the end, Karina Schönmaier ended up in 22nd place with 49,431 points. But for the 17-year-old, reaching the final was already a success.
