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Victor Bolorunduro
Doha
Ferhat Arf1'fdcan, who became the first Turkish male gymnast to compete in the Olympics after 108 years at the Rio Games last year, continued to make history in Doha after qualifying for the finals of four of the six menf0's event at the 10th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup being held at the Aspire Dome.
On Thursday, the 23-year-old gymnast, who featured in all three apparatus of the day in the male category, emerged third in the parallel bars, fifth in the vault and was on the reserve list for the horizontal bar.
Arican, a silver medalist at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore, had on Wednesday qualified for the finals of the floor exercise and pommel horse events on the opening day of the four-day competition.
The young Turk's 14.933 score in the parallel bars was only third to China's Jingyuan Zou's 16.166 while second-placed Pablo Braegger of Switzerland was second with 15.033.
One of the pre-tournaments hopefuls Artur Davtyan of Armenia, however, appears to be reserving his best performance for the final as he could only muster an eight-place finish with his 13.866 score.
Davtyan, a silver medalist in vault at the 2012 event in Doha, qualified by the skin of his teeth in the apparatus as he had the same score as Turkey's Ibrahim Colak. His better score in the execution (9.366) gave him the edge over the Turk's 8.166.
"I'm very happy to have done well today and qualify for the finals in two of the three events of the day. I would have loved to make it three-in-three but I guess that's how the day was to be," said Arican.
"I'm looking forward to Friday where I will be involved in the floor and the pommel horse and I hope to be among the medalists in the two events and hopefully repeat the same feat on Saturday. I am happy to be in Doha and I'm happy that I'm chasing my dreams," he added.
Eight gymnasts qualify for the finals in each of the apparatus.
Meanwhile, China's Ruoteng Xiao led the field in the horizontal bar with 14.433 while Mitchell Morgan of Australia and Croatia's Tin Srbic tied for second with a score of 14.100 each.
In the vault, Thung le Thanh of Vietnam bested the field after earning a total score of 14,750 while Armenia's Davtyan was second with 14.716 and Christopher Remkes of Australia third with 14.416.
In the women's category, China's Tingtin Liu was the star of the day as she dominated in the two apparatus, balance beam and floor exercise, competed in.
The 27-year-old Chinese produced an impressive performance in the balance beam as she led with 13.933 to condemn Romania's Catalina Ponor (13.766), a five-time Olympic medalist, to the second position while Australia's Emily Little was third with 13.233.
Turkey's Goksu Sanli Uctas was also among the eight qualifiers has she emerged sixth a 12.900 score.
The floor exercise was also led by Liu with 13.566 while Little finished in second place with 12.866 and Uctas's 12.566 placed her in the third position.
Qatar's representative Jana el Keky, who is making her senior debut at the event, was however unlucky as she could only manage an 18th position out of the 19 women who competed.
Friday is the first of the two-day finals and competitions will be held in vault and uneven bars for women while the men will be in action in the floor exercise, pommel horse and rings.
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24/03/2017
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