GYMNASTICS: Favored Nagornyy wins men’s All-Around as Russia goes 1-2

World Champion at last: Russia's Nikita Nagornyy

After a bronze-medal finish in the 2018 All-Around, Russia’s Nikita Nagornyy figured it was about time for him to get to the top of the podium in 2019.

Mission accomplished.

Clearly the top men’s performer through the qualifying and Team events, Nagornyy won the 2019 All-Around title with a consistent performance at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer Halle in Stuttgart (GER) on Friday. His 88.772 points easily surpassed teammate (and defending champion) Artur Dalaloyan’s 87.165 total for the victory.

Nagornyy had the best marks in the field on Rings and Vault and was second on Floor and third on Parallel Bars. He came into the final event, the High Bar, and needed only a score in the 12s to win, but posted a solid 14.166 (fifth) to win the overall title. China’s Ruoteng Xiao, second in 2018, won bronze this time.

It was the second straight All-Around win for Russia and the first-ever Russian 1-2 in the men’s All-Around. The 1991 Worlds had a 1-2-3 finish for Soviets Grigory Misutin, Vitaly Scherbo and Valeri Liukin, but only Liukin was Russian; Misutin was from the Ukraine and Scherbo from Belarus!

American Sam Mikulak started brilliantly and had the highest score of all on the High Bar (14.700) to lead after three rotations. But he scored only 13.00 on the Pommel Horse (19th) and ended up in ninth. However, he was decorated with the 2019 Longines Prize for Elegance as the most elegant and charismatic male gymnast.

The Worlds will conclude with apparatus finals on Saturday and Sunday. American Simone Biles can equal and surpass Scherbo for the most Worlds medals ever (23) with top-three finishes on the Vault and Uneven Bars tomorrow. Summaries so far:

FIG Artistic World Championships
Stuttgart (GER) ~ 4-13 October 2019
(Full results here)

Men

Team: 1. Russia (Ablyazin, Belyavskiy, Dalaloyan, Nagornyy, Stretovich), 261.726; 2. China (Deng, Lin, Sun, Xiao, Zou)), 260.729; 3. Japan (Hashimoto, Kamoto, Kaya, K. Tanigawa, W. Tanigawa)), 258.159; 4. United States (Sam Mikulak, Akash Modi, Yul Moldauer, Trevor Howard, Shane Wiskus), 254.578; 5. Great Britain, 251.611; 6. Chinese Taipei, 248.243; 7. Switzerland, 247.038; 8. Ukraine, 246.593.

All-Around: 1. Nikita Nagornyy (RUS), 88.772; 2. Artur Dalaloyan (RUS), 87.165; 3. Oleg Verniaiev (UKR), 86.973; 4. Ruoteng Xiao (CHN), 86.690; 5. Wei Sun, 86.523; 6. Kazuma, Kaya (JPN), 85.899; 7. Sam Mikulak (USA), 85.692; 8. Joe Fraser (GBR), 85.098. Also: 16. Yul Moldauer (USA), 82.330.

Women

Team: 1. United States (Simone Biles, Jade Carey, Kara Eaker, Sunisa Lee, Grace McCallum), 172.330; 2. Russia (Agafonova, Akhaimova, Melnikova, Shchekoldina, Spiridonova), 166.529; 3. Italy (Carofiglio, Alice D’Amato, Asia D’Amato, Iorio, Villa), 164.796; 4. China, 164.230; 5. France, 163.628; 6. Great Britain, 161.495; 7. Canada, 160.563; 8. Netherlands, 159.427.

All-Around: 1. Simone Biles (USA), 58.999; 2. Xijing Tang (CHN), 56.899; 3. Angelina Melnikova (RUS), 56.399; 4. Ellie Black (CAN), 56.232; 5. Nina Derwael (BEL), 56.033; 6. Elisabeth Seitz (GER), 55.999; 7. Flavia Saraiva (BRA), 55.732; 8. Suni Lee (USA), 55.632.