Following the cancellation and postponements of all of the FIG world cups this year, gymnasts around the world finally have a chance to return to international competition at the global level, with the World Challenge Cup in Varna, Bulgaria the first of five apparatus challenge cup competitions.
Three of the challenge cups – this week’s meet in Varna, next week’s in Cairo, Egypt, and the following week’s in Osijek, Croatia – will take place before the Olympic Games, making this series one of the only chances many of the Tokyo-qualified Olympians will have prior to Tokyo.
WAG Tokyo qualifiers set to compete here include Simona Castro of Chile, Oksana Chusovitina of Uzbekistan, Ana Derek of Croatia, Elisa Hämmerle of Austria, Barbora Mokosova of Slovakia, and Diana Varinska of Ukraine, while hopefuls from several qualified countries will use the experience to boost their chances at earning spots on their teams, including Marine Boyer and Coline Devillard of France, and Sara van Disseldorp and Vera van Pol of the Netherlands.
For MAG, the Tokyo qualifiers expected here include Rasuljon Abdurakhimov of Uzbekistan, Artem Dolgopyat and Alexander Shatilov of Israel, Marian Dragulescu of Romania, Loris Frasca and Cyril Tommasone of France, David Huddleston of Bulgaria, Tin Srbic of Croatia, Ivan Tikhonov of Azerbaijan, and Robert Tvorogal of Lithuania, while several athletes from Russia, Ukraine, and Brazil will
A full list of gymnasts included on the nominative registration is below. Qualifications will take place on Thursday, May 27 and Friday, May 28, while finals will begin at 2 pm local time (7 am ET) on both Saturday and Sunday. While there is no streaming link for qualifications, finals will be streamed live on BNT3.
| AUSTRIA | |
| Alexander Benda Xheni Dyrmishi Vinzenz Höck Daniel Kopeinik | Elisa Hämmerle Jasmin Mader Marlies Männersdorfer |
| AZERBAIJAN | |
| Nikita Simonov Ivan Tikhonov | |
| BELGIUM | |
| Maxime Gentges Maxime Guldemont Noah Kuavita Florian Landuyt Takumi Onoshima Luka van den Keybus | |
| BRAZIL | |
| Francisco Barretto Arthur Mariano | Ana Luiza Lima Julia Soares |
| BULGARIA | |
| Yordan Aleksandrov Dimitar Dimitrov David Huddleston Veselin Kavaldzhiev Hristos Marinov Martin Mishev Radoslav Rachev Teodor Trifonov | Viktoria Chakova Desislava Masleva Elizabet Nikolova Valentina Rashkova |
| CHILE | |
| Simona Castro | |
| CROATIA | |
| Aurel Benovic Tin Srbic | Ana Derek Tijana Korent Sara Sulekic Christina Zwicker |
| CZECH REPUBLIC | |
| Ondrej Kalny | Daniela Halova |
| FRANCE | |
| Loris Frasca Julien Gobaux Benjamin Osberger Mathias Philippe Cyril Tommasone | Marine Boyer Coline Devillard |
| GERMANY | |
| Pascal Brendel Alexander Kunz Nils Matache | |
| GREAT BRITAIN | |
| Joseph Cemlyn-Jones Sam Mostowfi Hayden Skinner Adam Tobin | Ondine Achampong Kelly Simm |
| HONG KONG | |
| Jim Man Hin Lee Man HIn | |
| HUNGARY | |
| Krisztian Balazs Krisztofer Meszaros David Vecsernyes | Csenge Bacskay Bianka Schermann Zoja Szekely Hanna Szujo |
| INDONESIA | |
| Samsul Arifin Agus Prayoko | Rifda Irfanaluthfi |
| ISRAEL | |
| Artem Dolgopyat Andrey Medvedev Alexander Myakinin Alexander Shatilov Michael Sorokine | |
| ITALY | |
| Edoardo de Rosa Ares Federici Thomas Grasso Carlo Macchini Salvatore Maresca Marco Sarrugerio | |
| LITHUANIA | |
| Tomas Kuzmickas Robert Tvorogal | |
| MONACO | |
| Kevin Crovetto | |
| NETHERLANDS | |
| Martijn de Veer Jermain Gruenberg Rick Jacobs Frank Rijken Casimir Schmidt Epke Zonderland | Sara van Disseldorp Vera van Pol Sanna Veerman |
| ROMANIA | |
| Marian Dragulescu Emilian Neagu | |
| RUSSIA | |
| Sergei Eltsov Sergei Krivunets Alexey Rostov | Irina Komnova Uliana Perebinosova Varvara Zubova |
| SERBIA | |
| Dusan Dordevic Vlada Rakovic Petar Vefic Petar Velickovic | Aleksandra Rajcic |
| SLOVAKIA | |
| Barbora Mokosova | |
| SLOVENIA | |
| Saso Bertoncelj Luka Bojanc Nikolaj Bozic Luka Kisek Rok Klavora | Lucija Hribar Tjasa Kysselef |
| TURKEY | |
| Mustafa Arca Hasan Bulut Onur Celik Sercan Demir Yunus Gündogdu Sevket Yildiz | Ceren Biner Hilal Mutluoglu Sevgi Kayisoglu Ece Yagmur Yavuz |
| UKRAINE | |
| Volodymyr Kostiuk Illia Kovtun Roman Vashchenko | Anastasiia Bachynska Anastasiia Motak Diana Varinska |
| UZBEKISTAN | |
| Rasuljon Abdurakhimov Abdulla Azimov Abdulaziz Mirvaliev Khabibullo Ergashev | Dildora Aripova Oksana Chusovitina Ominakhon Khalilova Anastasiya Miroshnichenko |
Article by Lauren Hopkins
