There have been years when the Doha World Cup has been a prelude to the European Championships. 2011 is not one of them.
This weekend's Doha Challenger World Cup (read: A World Cup event where not all of the participants have to have competed at last year's World Championships) is more like a competition for everyone who won't be heading to Berlin next week.
That does not make it second rate by any means -- indeed, Doha is an opportunity to see more of the developing rivalry between newly minted seniors Tan Sixin and Yao Jinnan, who starred at the Cottbus World Cup several weeks ago. After Wednesday's preliminary round, Yao is leading floor and is second to Tan on bars and beam.
It is also a chance to see gymnasts from countries who don't often make it to the bigger meets. Brazil's Daniele Hypolito leads with two solid if easy-by-World Cup-standard vaults, followed by Makarena Pinto of Chile and Egyptians (Egyptians!) Farida Shokry and Nancy Taman. Hypolito, the 2001 World silver medalist on floor, is also currently in bronze medal position on that event.
The Brazilian men, who seemed to take a long hiatus from competition after last year's World Championships, made a strong return in Qatar, though there is still no sign of the injured Diego Hypolito, who will be expected to lead the Brazilian bid for an Olympic berth at the World Championships this fall. Youngsters Sergio Sasaki and Victor Rosa both did fairly well, but it was again the Chinese that had the best competition.
2008 triple Olympic gold medalist and 2009 World high bar champion Zou Kai also made his return to competition, where he is leading the pack on high bar over teammate Chen Xuezhang. Chen is also in silver medal position on parallel bars, behind Yernar Yerimbatov of Kazahstan. Yerimbatov's countryman Stepan Gorbachev is the frontrunner on floor.
World pommel horse bronze medalist Prashanth Sellathurai is in first place on his specialty, and Jordan's Ali Al Asi seems poised to win another World Cup gold on rings. China's Huang Yuguo is also first on vault.
Related: For complete results of day one at Doha, please visit the Qatar Gymnastics Federation's site here.
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