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Belgium tops Acro Worlds medal table
March 16, 2022News
With a grand total of 10 medals, including 7 World titles, the Acrobatic Gymnasts representing Team Belgium were crowned the stars of the 2022 World Championships, held in the Azerbaijani capital Baku last week.
With new rules in place since the beginning of the year, gold medals were awarded for Balance, Dynamic, and Combined, giving pairs and groups an avenue to earn multiple World titles, in addition to the overall team ranking.
Belgian Mixed Pair Helena Heijens and Bram Roettger and Portuguese Women’s Pair Rita Ferreira and Ana Rita Teixeira each completed clean sweeps of the gold medals. For Ferreira and Teixeira, it’s the confirmation of an exceptional career that saw them crowned European and World Champions before. For Heijens and Roettger, it promises greatness as the pair has been working together only for 3 months:
It’s unbelievable. Today was a big relief, because we had to keep focused for a long time in this competition, because of the three finals now, so we’re really happy we were able to do it.
Belgium’s groups were on top of the world as well. Lise de Meyst, Kim Bergmans and Bo Hollebosch won the Combined and Dynamic finals, while taking silver in Balance. And Men’s Group Wanner Vlaeminck, Jonas Raus, Viktor Vermeire and Simon de Wever returned home with a full set of medals: gold in Balance, silver in Combined and bronze in Dynamic.
Like Belgium, Portugal surpassed its expectations with seven medals overall, including team silver.
21-year-old Rita Ferreira, a medical student from Porto, said:
The teamwork in Portugal is great. We believe in that. Our hard work at the gym has paid off in these three gold medals, and we are very happy.
The team from Great Britain finished third in the overall team ranking, and produced brilliant results with their men’s group featuring Archie Goonesekera, Andrew Morris-Hunt, Finlay Gray and Bradley Gold winning the Combined and Dynamic final, plus earning silver in Balance:
We’re over the moon. We really didn’t expect this, and just to come out with two golds, silver, and even the team bronze just means the world to us. It’s what you train for at the end of the day, so we couldn’t have asked for more.
Mixed Pair Natasha Hutchison and Dylan Howells earned 2 silver and 1 bronze medal.
History was written for Austria when Larissa Hoefler, Paula Pfurtscheller and Hanna Paic earned the bronze medal for their Balance routine!
Results (top 3)
Team
1. Belgium
2. Portugal
3. Great Britain
Mixed Pairs
Combined
1. Bram Roettger & Helena Heijens (BEL) 29.110
2. Natasha Hutchison & Dylan Howells (GBR) 29.030
3. Daniel Blintsov & Pia Schuetze (GER) 28.890
Balance
1. Bram Roettger & Helena Heijens (BEL) 29.360
2. Natasha Hutchison & Dylan Howells (GBR) 28.940
3. Daniel Blintsov & Pia Schuetze (GER) 28.940
Dynamic
1. Bram Roettger & Helena Heijens (BEL) 29.280
2. Aghasif Rahimov & Raziya Seyidli (AZE) 28.640
3. Natasha Hutchison & Dylan Howells (GBR) 28.440
Men’s Pairs
Combined
1. Braiden McDougall & Felix Angel (USA) 28.400
2. Vadim Shulyar & Daniyel Dil (KAZ) 28.330
3. Daniel Abbasov & Murad Rafiyev (AZE) 28.270
Balance
1. Vadim Shulyar & Daniyel Dil (KAZ) 28.530
2. Fabio Beco & Bruno Ramalho (POR) 28.020
3. Braiden McDougall & Felix Angel (USA) 27.900
Dynamic
1. Braiden McDougall & Felix Angel (USA) 28.180
2. Vadim Shulyar & Daniyel Dil (KAZ) 28.030
3. Daniel Abbasov & Murad Rafiyev (AZE) 27.500
Women’s Pairs
Combined
1. Rita Ferreira & Ana Teixeira (POR) 28.780
2. Dorina Bernath & Noemi Stattner (HUN) 26.950
3. Alexandra Rudakova & Damira Talgat (KAZ) 26.790
Balance
1. Rita Ferreira & Ana Teixeira (POR) 28.850
2. Katherina Borcherding & Cierra Mc Kown (USA) 27.350
3. Alexandra Rudakova & Damira Talgat (KAZ) 27.050
Dynamic
1. Rita Ferreira & Ana Teixeira (POR) 28.000
2. Alexandra Rudakova & Damira Talgat (KAZ) 27.430
3. Dorina Bernath & Noemi Stattner (HUN) 26.800
Men’s Groups
Combined
1. Archie Goonesekera, Andrew Morris-Hunt, Finlay Gray & Bradley Gold (GBR) 29.410
2. Wanner Vlaeminck, Jonas Raus, Viktor Vermeire & Simon de Wever (BEL) 29.160
3. Hen Banuz, Lior Borodin, Amir Daus & Tomer Offir (ISR) 28.430
Balance
1. Wanner Vlaeminck, Jonas Raus, Viktor Vermeire & Simon de Wever (BEL) 29.290
2. Archie Goonesekera, Andrew Morris-Hunt, Finlay Gray & Bradley Gold (GBR) 29.080
3. Hen Banuz, Lior Borodin, Amir Daus & Tomer Offir (ISR) 28.060
Dynamic
1. Archie Goonesekera, Andrew Morris-Hunt, Finlay Gray & Bradley Gold (GBR) 28.690
2. Hen Banuz, Lior Borodin, Amir Daus & Tomer Offir (ISR) 27.900
3. Wanner Vlaeminck, Jonas Raus, Viktor Vermeire & Simon de Wever (BEL) 27.890
Women’s Groups
Combined
1. Lise de Meyst, Kim Bergmans & Bo Hollebosch (BEL) 29.820
2. Barbara Sequeira, Beatriz Carneiro & Francisca Maia (POR) 28.780
3. Eily Corbett, Victoria Blante & Cassidy Cu (USA) 28.140
Balance
1. Eily Corbett, Victoria Blante & Cassidy Cu (USA) 28.100
2. Lise de Meyst, Kim Bergmans & Bo Hollebosch (BEL) 27.710
3. Larissa Hoefler, Paula Pfurtscheller & Hanna Paic (AUT) 26.910
Dynamic
1. Lise de Meyst, Kim Bergmans & Bo Hollebosch (BEL) 29.130
2. Barbara Sequeira, Beatriz Carneiro & Francisca Maia (POR) 28.210
3. Yarin Ovadia, Meshi Hurvitz & Inbal Zeitounei (ISR) 28.140
Find the full results on the FIG website: https://www.gymnastics.sport/site/events/searchresults.php
While these World Championships are the most important competition of the year, the competition season continues with two World Cups, in Maia (POR) in May and in Rzeszow (POL) in June, followed by The World Games this July in Birmingham (USA).
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