GYMNASTICS Preview: World Cup season begins in Melbourne

Ageless gymnast Oksana Chusovitina (UZB)

The first FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Cup is underway at the Hisense Arena in Melbourne (AUS), with 95 gymnasts from 33 countries entered, although none are from the U.S.

This is an apparatus World Cup, so no All-Around competition will be held. Qualification to limit the finals to eight gymnasts is scheduled through Friday, with finals on Saturday and Sunday.

The field includes five 2018 World Championships medal winners and an all-time great from Ukraine, still going strong at 43:

• Carlos Yulo (PHI) ~ 2018 World Champs Floor bronze medalist
• Chih-Kai Lee (TPE) ~ 2018 World Champs Pommel Horse bronze medalist
• Arthur Zanetti (BRA) ~ 2018 World Champs Rings silver medalist
• Epke Zonderland (NED) ~ 2018 World Champs Horizontal Bar gold medalist

• Alexa Moreno (MEX) ~ 2018 World Champs Vault bronze medalist
• Oksana Chusovitina (UKR) ~ two Olympic medals for USSR and Germany, 11 World Champs medals for URS-GER-UZB; 1991 World Floor champ and 2003 World Vault champion

There is prize money of CHF 1,000-750-500-300-250-200-150-100 for the top eight places. Look for results here.