World Medalists Fraser, Downie Headline Birmingham Field

The last world championships was a pretty sweet one for Great Britain, with a total of four individual medals, including two world titles on the men’s side.
Two of those medalists – parallel bars champion Joe Fraser and vault bronze medalist Ellie Downie – will headline the field on home turf at this year’s Birmingham World Cup, which will also see two of this quad’s biggest up-and-comers Giarnni Regini-Moran and Alice Kinsella, both of whom were key members of their 2019 world championships teams.
The men’s competition is looking to be incredibly strong overall, with most countries sending their top guys in the hopes of securing those Olympic berths. The United States giving the assignment to Yul Moldauer shows that they’re incredibly serious about making sure they have the absolute top guys on hand, with Moldauer also the entrant for Stuttgart, while Sam Mikulak will be the country’s competitor at the American Cup and also likely in Tokyo (Moldauer is also competing at the American Cup, but as the wild card athlete). Oleg Verniaiev, the 2019 world bronze medalist and clearly Ukraine’s top all-arounder, is apparently competing at all four world cups, as is Pablo Brägger of Switzerland, and Germany seems to be splitting the spots between Andreas Toba and Lukas Dauser, with Dauser getting the nod here.
For Japan, we’ll see 2019 world parallel bars bronze medalist Kazuma Kaya, who also finished sixth all-around in Stuttgart, while Sun Wei – fifth all-around at worlds last year – is China’s competitor, and Tang Chia-Hung – 11th all-around at worlds – will represent Chinese Taipei.
Also on the roster are Brazil’s Diogo Soares, a standout at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games and 2019 junior world championships who will make his senior debut at the American Cup, Russia’s Nikita Ignatyev, who was third all-around at nationals last year, Spain’s Joel Plata, and Turkey’s Ahmet Önder, who is already qualified to the Olympic Games as an individual but nabbed a spot here thanks to South Korea not accepting its invitation.
On the women’s side, the big name to watch is Grace McCallum of the United States, a member of the gold medal-winning world championships teams in 2018 and 2019 who should be the heavy favorite for the title. Other top all-arounders to watch include 2018 world medalists Ana Padurariu of Canada and Elisabeth Seitz of Germany, as well as Aleksandra Shchekoldina of Russia and Alice D’Amato of Italy, both of whom earned team medals at world championships in 2019.
Also competing are Zhang Jin of China, Hitomi Hatakeda of Japan, Cintia Rodriguez of Spain, Maellyse Brassart of Belgium, Marine Boyer of France, and Vera van Pol of the Netherlands.
The rankings determined in Birmingham, and by each of the world cups in the four-part series, will be assigned point values, and the three federations with the highest number of combined points at the conclusion of the series will determine the overall series winners, thus earning individual berths for Tokyo. Last year, the United States, Canada, and Japan topped the women’s rankings, while the United States, Russia, and China took the lead for the men.
The Birmingham World Cup will take place on March 28, with the men’s session held in the afternoon and the women’s held in the evening.
Below, please find the full list of competitors, along with any changes that happen in the lead-up to the competition.

Article by Lauren Hopkins

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