With just five days at posting until competition kicks off at the 2017 World Championships, the best gymnasts in the world this year including British team Claudia Fragapane, Alice Kinsella, Georgia-Mae Fenton, and Amy Tinkler have gathered together in Montreal. Training is underway, the men begin their competition on Monday 2nd of October, and the Women Tuesday 3rd.

Here in the UK we are five hours ahead of Montreal, the British WAG team will compete in the first round of qualification on Tuesday 3rd at 21:00 UK time alongside Spain, Venezuela, Israel, Denmark, Croatia, Latvia, Argentina, and Australia.

There will be five rounds of qualification in total, two on Tuesday 3rd, three on Wednesday 4th, with the final round due to finish at 02:00 am UK time on Wednesday 5th. Only then will we know whether places in AA and/or Apparatus Finals have been secured.

As an individual World Championships, up to four gymnasts may represent each nation, only three may compete on each apparatus. When qualifications are complete, the top 24 AA gymnasts will progress to the AA final, and the top eight to Apparatus Finals.  As with all major championships, only two gymnasts per nation may progress to AA and Apparatus finals.

In the event that Great Britain qualify more than two gymnasts to a final, the coaching delegation will decide which gymnasts progress to the final based on who is most likely to achieve the target results.

We know that Georgia-Mae is there to compete on bars, which tells us that only two of Alice, Amy, and Claudia will compete AA. All are training bars in Montreal, whether given the nod yet or not, all three will be ready to compete AA should they be called to. Amy is the highest AA scorer of the year so far from this group of gymnasts, with a 55.350, Claudia is yet to compete AA, but her recently adding bars to her competition again when at the  Paris World Cup, and that she has been vaulting her DTY again suggests she is ready. Alice recently debuted her DTY in competition, which tells us she has been pushing for the AA too.

The target set is two AA final spots, 2-3 apparatus final spots, and one to two medals. For me this is a tough target which will require the team to be at their very best, but it’s not beyond them by any means.

I will of course post detailed results from all stages of competition as we go along, as well as videos, photos, and reports.

Full Competition Schedule 

All Times UK Time 

Monday 2nd October :

MAG Qualification Subdivision 1 14:00 UK Time: TPE-GER-BUL-UZB-ARM-GRE-SWE-ECU-JAM-VEN-ISL-UKR-ISL-ALG-VIE-QAT-CUB

MAG Qualification Subdivision 2 19:00 UK Time: BLR-EGY-CYP-NOR-HKG-GUA-DEN-MEX-THA-USA-ARG-BEL-SUI-GBR-IND-CRO-TTO

MAG Qualification Subdivision 3 23:00 UK Time: CHN-CAN-MGL-RUS-HUN-LAT-AUS-JPN-KAZ-AGE-GEO-POR-FRA-SLO-ESP-ROU-DOM

Tuesday 3rd October: 

MAG Qualification Subdivision 4 14:30 UK Time: NZL-BRA-NED-SRI-IRL-TUR-ITA-CHI-AUT-COL-SVK-KOR-LTU-JOR-FIN-PER-CZE

WAG Qualification Subdivision 1 21:00 UK Time: ESP-VEN-ISL-DEN-JAM-CRO-LAT-ARG-GBR-AUS

WAG Qualification Subdivision 2 24:00 UK Time: RSA-VIE-IND-BEL-CAN-HKG-ISR-RUS-EGY-POR

Wednesday 4th October

WAG Qualification Subdivision 3 18:00 UK Time: AZE-MEX-CZE-NOR-SVK-NED-PUR-AUT-ROU-SUI-LTU

WAG Qualification Subdivision 4 21:00 UK Time: NZL-GER-FRA-BUL-KAZ-HUN-ITA-SWE-TPE-TUR-GRE

WAG Qualification Subdivision 5 24:00 UK Time: FIN-USA-CUB-UKR-BRA-SLO-JPM-KOR-UZB-COL-CHN-PAN

Thursday 5th October 

MAG AA Final 24:00 UK Time 

Friday 6th October 

WAG AA Final 24:00 UK Time

Saturday 7th October 

18:00 UK Time 

MAG FX, PH, SR Apparatus Finals 

WAG VT, UB Apparatus Finals 

Sunday 8th October 

18:00 UK Time 

MAG VT, PB, HB Apparatus Final 

WAG BB, FX Apparatus Final

 

TV Coverage 

As you may have guessed looking at the schedule, for those determined to follow the championships live, night owls among you will love it, for early risers, it’ll either be a question of catch up on the highlights, or more coffee and concealer than you’d normally use over a whole month to get you through the week.

There will be no coverage of qualifications that I know of, the Olympic Channel for which you need a US VPN is covering the US session, but not the earlier sessions. If another feed does pop up, be sure to be following me on social media as I will post the link to it there.

Finals are all covered by the BBC, and the brilliant job they continue to do promoting elite gymnastics in the UK. Schedule is as follows:

Thursday 5th October:

BBC2 24:15 – 03:00 MAG AA Final (yes I know this is technically the 6th!) 

Friday 6th October 

BBC2 13:45 – 15:15 Highlights MAG AA final

BBC2 24:05 – 03:00 WAG AA Final

Saturday 7th October 

BBC1 13:15 – 14:45 Highlights WAG AA Final 

Red Button Online 18:30 21:00 Apparatus Finals Day 1

Sunday 8th October

BBC2 15:00 – 17:00 Highlights Apparatus Finals Day 1

Red Button and Online 18:00 – 21:00 Apparatus Finals Day 2

Monday 9th October 

BBC2 13:45 – 15:15 Highlights Apparatus Finals Day 2

 

Here’s to a great Championships!