The unusual reason why Spain was left out of the gymnastics finals

They could not find an explanation, but it happened to them: all the muscles of the Spanish gymnasts began to rise on the last apparatus of the qualifying round, the parallel bars, and they said goodbye to their chances of entering the Olympic team final for for the first time , a result they have been chasing for decades and have not yet realized.

The team finished in twelfth position, like four years ago in Tokyo 2020despite a promising start to competition that fueled his hopes of joining the world elite in one of the most weight-specific sports on the Olympic program.

“We have lost the classification in parallel. Our muscles have started to increase and we don’t know why,” he said. Nestor Abad leaving the Bercy pavilion. “When that happens to you, there’s nothing you can do. It’s like an injury.”

with him, Joel Plata, Nicholas Mir, Thierno Diallo and Ray Zapata They are the ones to test it this time, under the command of coach Benjamín Bango in his first Games at the head of the group.

Zapata qualified for the floor final, where she will be eligible for a second medal after silver at Tokyo 2020, and Abad will be the first reserve in the complete competition.

China topped the general classification in the state of Bercy, with 263.028 points, followed by 260.028 from Japan and 256.61 from Great Britain. Ukraine, United States, Italy, Switzerland and Canada will complete the final team.

Espanyol finished with 241,294 points, six and a half points away from the final.

Spain started the competition knowing that China, Japan, Great Britain and Ukraine had already qualified, and almost the United States. But there’s a gap of more than five points between that group and the one made up of Canada, the Netherlands and Germany and that’s where they have to sneak in.

Bango moved his pieces to distribute his men among the six devices. Plata, Abad and Mir are all. Zapata and Diallo alternated as the fourth gymnast. The worst score for each device can be discarded.

For once, the Spaniards got lucky with the draw and, besides competing in the last subdivision, knowing the previous scores, they started with their best device, the bar.

Great workouts by Diallo, Mir, Abad and, above all, Plata (13,666) filled the team with confidence.

On earth all followed. Silver gave a great sensation. Zapata, the current Olympic runner-up in the specialty, also running in the final of this apparatus, closed the rotation.

Ray, the man capable of anything, did what he needed: some diagonal series of extreme difficulty, but without taking unnecessary risks (difficulty 6.3) so as not to harm the team. The judges recognized it with 14,600.

The first mistake came on the pommel horse, a device where Diallo had to stop his exercise to continue the sequence. But his teammates had no problem navigating the colt with ease, once again Silver had the top score (13.566).

Zapata, who included rings in his program specifically for this competition, showed his ability by being the best of the group, with 13,900 crucial points for the general classification, followed by Abad’s 13,600. Plata, less confident than the other exercises, made a perfect start.

But Switzerland, Turkey and Italy, which share a subdivision with Spain, are still ahead with two devices remaining. In the case of Spain, jump and parallels.

Nicolau Mir and Joel Plata didn’t land well on their jumps and ended up sitting on the ground, unlike Abad, who nailed it (14,500). Zapata did two, to qualify for the final as well, the first better than the second. It was his last exercise of the night and he happily said goodbye to the audience.

Spain had to overcome positions on parallels. 40,266 points separated it from Germany, which marked the border of eighth position.

Nicolau Mir was injured in the middle of the exercise and had to leave the team. Others received massages while waiting their turn. Something is happening. Abad remained at 10,766, Diallo at 12,966, Plata at 12,433. The final is lost.

“We had a very good competition. We are a little depressed. We have worked hard, that’s why it didn’t happen,” Abad reiterated.

“It has never happened to us,” said Nicolau Mir. “I wish I could give an explanation. It happened suddenly. We couldn’t even take the parallel bars. It’s the worst device in which that can happen to you. We’ve taken isotonic, yes, we’ve taken gels, we Drink sugar, everybody.”

“Tension, of course, there is tension. But I can spend half an hour talking and not find an explanation,” he insisted. “The final is here.”

Looking ahead to the finals, China appears to have more possibilities than its great rival, Japan, both as a team and in individual competition. Zhang Boheng, world runner-up in 2022, advanced with 88.597 against Japan’s Shinnosuke Oka (86.865), who in turn surpassed Olympic and world champion Daiki Hashimoto (85.064). Behind them, the Chinese Routeng Xiao, silver in Tokyo.