RI Female Artistic Gymnasts Advance to finals

Jakarta, MINA – Indonesia advanced to the finals in three categories in women’s artistic gymnastics after passing the preliminary rounds at Hall D in Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo), Kemayoran, Jakarta, on Tuesday.

Indonesia secured its place in the women’s team finals after ranking eighth out of 11 countries in the preliminary rounds. The host country scored 140.85 in four apparatuses in contention, namely vault, uneven bars, floor exercise and balance beam, asiangames2018.id reported.

In the team category, China emerged on top with a score of 166.1, followed by DPR Korea (158.5), South Korea (155.3), Japan (153.95), Chinese Taipei (146), Malaysia (145.5) and India (144.3).

Indonesia’s artistic gymnastics team comprises Rifda Irfanaluthfi, Amalia Fauziah, Nur Cahya, Armartiani and Tasza Devira. The host country obtained a score of 38.45 in vault, 32.9 in uneven bars, 35 in floor exercise and 34.5 in balance beam.

Indonesia is also advancing to the finals in two categories of women’s individuals after Rifda ranked fifth in two apparatuses, namely vault, and floor exercise.

In vault, Rifda obtained a score of 13.5. South Korea’s Yeo Seo-jeong is at the top of standings with a score of 14.45, followed by DPR Korea’s Pyon Rye-yong with 14.275, Uzbekistan’s Oksana Chusovtina with 14.2 and DPR Korea’s Kim Su-jong with 13.85.

Rifda also ranked fifth in floor exercise with a score of 12.56. China’s Yile Chen and Japan’s Shiho Nakaji shared the first position with 13.15. South Korea’s Yeo Seo-jeong is third with 12.9, and DPR Korea’s Kim Su-jong is fourth with 12.7.

Finals for the team category is scheduled for Wednesday and finals for the individual categories will take place on Thursday.

After the qualifying matches, Rifda expressed the confidence in her vault performance.

“The vault competition involved movements similar to those in the [Southeast Asian] Games. I was more confident as I had performed [similar moves] before,” said the 18-year-old athlete.

In the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia, Rifda contributed one gold, one silver and three bronzes for Indonesia.

The Asian Games artistic gymnastics competitions run from Aug. 20 to 24, with 139 athletes from 23 countries competing to win 12 gold medals in contention.

Countries participating in artistic gymnastics in the 2018 Asian Games are Cambodia, China, Hong Kong China, Indonesia, India, IR Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Pakistan, the Philippines, DPR Korea, Qatar, Singapore, Thailand, Chinese Taipei, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.(L/R04/RS5)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)