THE Gymnastics Association of the Philippines is eyeing to field Cambodia Southeast Asian Games gold men’s vault gold medalist Juancho Miguel Besana in the FIG Apparatus World Cup series in 2024 so he could gain enough ranking points and qualify for the Paris Olympic Games in July.
“Based on his current standing, Juancho has a good chance of gaining enough points in the vault event of the FIG Apparatus World Cup competitions to punch a ticket to the Paris Olympics,” said GAP deputy secretary general Rowena Eusuya.
“Majority of the athletes above him in the rankings have already qualified for Paris and if he does well in all four (apparatuses) of them, we might have a third representatives in artistic gymnastics after Carlos Edriel Yulo and Aleah Finnegan,” Eusuya added.
The opening leg of the FIG Apparatus World Cup competitions is set on Feb. 15 to 18 in Cairo, Egypt, followed by the second stop on Feb. 22-25 in Cottbus, Germany. The third leg is set in Baku, Azerbaijan (Marc 7 to 10), before winding up in Doha, Qatar (April 17 to 20).
Eusuya expressed hope that the Philippine Sports Commission would be able to support Besana’s Olympic qualifying bid “because this would be another great boost for Philippine gymnastics.”
She said that Yulo, who has already qualified in the men’s floor exercise event for Paris, is hoping to add more events by competing and earning ranking points in the last two legs of the FIG Apparatus World Cup organized by the International Gymnastics Federation, known by its French acronym FIG.
Finnegan, a mainstay of the Louisiana State University varsity squad, nailed her Olympic slot by finishing 32nd overall in the women’s individual all-around qualifiers with a score of 51.366 points.
Finnegan, whose mother Linabelle was born in Manila, merited the fifth spot among the 14 qualified individual entries to make it to the glitzy French capital, and will finally get to display her prowess in the global meet after missing the cut in the US Olympic trials for the Tokyo Olympics.
The comely athlete will be the first Filipina gymnast to compete in the quadrennial sports spectacle.
Assuming Besana makes it, this will be another feather in the cap of GAP president Cynthia Carrion, whose stewardship of the development of the dynamic and eye-pleasing sport for over a decade has led to unprecedented gymnastics success with Yulo and Finnegan leading the way.
