By Karen Braun
PARIS (Reuters) – Fans in the Bercy Arena on Sunday will once again be treated to the stunning asymmetric bar work of Kaylia Nemour during the second day of apparatus finals when the young Algerian breakout will be seeking her country’s first Olympic gymnastics medal.
That feat will not come easy as the bar line-up boasts the gold and bronze medallists from Tokyo, Belgian Nina Derwael and American Sunisa Lee, but they are expected to fall short of the 17-year-old Nemour.
The young bar specialist’s programme has the highest potential score among the field because she performs several superbly difficult elements together in combination, and even the defending Olympic champion bows to her talent.
“If (Nemour) hits, there’s no way I’m getting close,” Derwael told reporters during training in Paris.
French-born Nemour qualified in first place on asymmetric bars with a huge total of 15.600, more than half a point above the second qualifier and reigning world champion, Qiu Qiyuan of China.
Lee, who qualified in third and took bronze in the all-around final, will know exactly the mark she needs to earn her sixth Olympic medal as she will be the last of the eight gymnasts to perform.
The women’s bar final is the only medal event that will not feature Simone Biles, who qualified in ninth. Bars is the only apparatus on which the American lacks the difficulty to compete with the top contenders.
Biles is the first reserve athlete, meaning she will step in should any of the bar finalists pull out at the last minute. If that happened, she might perform her original skill, a clear hip circle forward with 1.5 turns to handstand, which she has not yet displayed in Paris.
The men on Sunday will contest vault and rings, the latter of which will feature Samir Ait Said, France’s sole representative in the artistic gymnastics finals, who qualified in third after a pair of Chinese gymnasts, Zou Jingyuan and Liu Yang.
Ait Said was the only male gymnast in Paris to have submitted a new element to the code of points, which will bear his name if he successfully performs it in the rings final.
The men’s vault final may come down to stuck landings, as the top eight gymnasts were separated by just 0.25 points in qualifying. Ukraine’s Nazar Chepurnyi led the field in preliminaries and will be joined in the final by teammate and four-time Olympian Igor Radivilov.
(Editing by Clare Fallon)
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