Do gymnastics
Nina Derwael performed a beam exercise of 13.030 during her comeback in Cairo. Good for a provisional sixth place, but less good than Erika Pinxten from Hasselt with 13.230. The two Limburg girls threaten to become competitors in the battle for the same Olympic ticket.
Nina Derwael (23) has made her comeback in Egypt, 472 days after the 2022 World Cup in Liverpool, where she won bronze. After her shoulder operation, De Truiense is not yet fit enough for a bridge exercise and is trying to qualify for the Olympic Games on beam.
At the first of four World Cups she performed 13.030, which is less good than the 13.850 she achieved in Liverpool in 2020. A fall during the take-off was not unusual. Derwael finished sixth and also had to let Hasselt’s Erika Pinxten go first. Derwael’s 16-year-old clubmate scored 13.230, the second score after the British Ondine Achampong.
Olympic tickets
In the battle for the two Olympic tickets you have to eliminate all gymnasts who have already qualified, such as Achampong. That puts Pinxten in the lead on that purified list, ahead of Derwael. But because they are both in the final, that order could change on Sunday. In any case, the two Limburg girls are now in danger of becoming competitors of each other, because two tickets for Paris can be earned on beam, but only one is handed out per country.
Derwael and Pinxten will meet each other on Sunday in the final in Cairo, and then perhaps again in Cottbus, Baku and Doha. The best of those four World Cups can go to Paris. Pinxten is also the first reserve after the World Cup in Antwerp; If a girl who qualified at that time were to drop out, she would be allowed to take that route to Paris.
Pinxten not only scored strongly on the beam, but also on the floor exercise. There she finished fourth and second on the refined ‘Olympic’ list. The final will also be contested on that device on Sunday.
