Gymnastics Australia’s Tyson Bull has claimed a place in the Horizontal Bar final and has earnt an Olympic quota spot allocation by qualifying seventh in a field of 199 gymnasts at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Stuttgart, Germany.
Bull excelled on his preferred apparatus, eventually leading a three-way tie on 14.366 due to his superior execution score.
It will be the first World Championships final in three attempts for the athlete who recently moved back from the United States to train full-time at GA’s National Training Centre at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra.
“I hit the high bar as best as I could to make the top eight and make finals is awesome,” said Bull who is also a Victorian Institute of Sport scholarship holder.
“I did as close to my best as I could but will need to step it up in the final. I’ve had a good experience here with the team and to hit a strong routine is a positive way to head into the final.”
It was also an impressive debut World Championships from team-mate James Bacueti who landed two vaults to finish 11th – a mere 0.1 off a place in the eight-man final and an Olympic quota spot.
Fellow newcomer Gabriel Swan McLean performed well, however it was a tougher day for All-Around contenders Mitchell Morgans and Michael Tone who were unable to claim an Olympic quota spot.
Team captain Morgans fell during his High Bar routine and while he recovered from the error on the opening rotation, he was unable to record a high enough score to claim a place for Tokyo directly from the event.
“High Bar first up, it was a bit nerve-wracking, but I put that behind me and focussed on the other apparatus. The goal was to get a score of 80 but I only managed 77.5 so I did the best I could,” Morgans said.
GA High Performance Director, Andrew Logan praised the overall performance of the MAG team.
“The MAG team performed incredibly well today and while we didn’t get the All-Around quota spot we had hoped to, claiming an apparatus finals place with Tyson is a brilliant result for him and the work everyone has put in to create such a great atmosphere in the team,” Logan said.
“James performed exceptionally well on debut, and so did Gabriel. It was a tougher day for Mitch and Mike, but they will get another chance at a Tokyo 2020 Olympics quota spot, so they still have that to focus on.
“Overall the guys did a great job and they can take away a lot of positives from the competition.”
Bull now begins preparation for the Horizontal Bar final which will be shown live on Fox Sports and Kayo on DAY from 10pm AEDT on Sunday October 13.
Georgia Goodwin claimed a Tokyo 2020 quota spot in last week's WAG All-Around qualification event. Catch up on the WAG results HERE.
