© Ricardo Bufolin

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Oct. 10, 2018 – Brandon Briones of Gilbert, Ariz./Aspire Kids Sports Center, qualified for the horizontal bar final on the last day of qualifications at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Briones was also a member of Team Oksana Chusovitina, which won the multi-disciplinary event’s bronze medal. Briones competes tomorrow in the men’s all-around final. Live scoring and results are available through the official website, and the Olympic Channel will carry a live stream of the men’s all-around final, beginning at 5 p.m. Argentina time.

Briones will compete in five men’s finals – all-around, floor exercise, still rings, vault and horizontal bar – and is the first reserve athlete for pommel horse and second reserve for the parallel bars. Alyssa Oh of Rocklin, Calif./World Elite Gymnastics, qualified for the women’s trampoline final. Rhythmic gymnast Elizabeth Kapitonova of Staten Island, N.Y./Isadora, is the third reserve athlete for the all-around final.

In the multi-discipline event, Team Simone Biles easily won the gold medal with 293 points, with Team Max Whitlock edging out Team Chusovitina for the silver medal, 349 to 352. All of the gymnasts were divided into multi-national teams, which were named after well-known gymnasts, that included one mixed pair, acrobatic gymnastics; three men and three women, artistic gymnastics; three rhythmic gymnasts; and one man and one woman trampoline gymnasts on each team. Multi-discipline event scoring added the rank achieved by each gymnast/mixed pair in their respective disciplines, and the team with the lowest score won. Kapitonova was on Team Alina Kabaeva, which finished sixth, and Oh was on Team Yevgeny Marchenko in 10th place.

On the final day of rhythmic’s all-around qualification, Kapitonova earned a 13.150 for clubs and a 14.100 for ribbon, giving her a four-event total of 56.200 and 11th place in the all-around and third reserve athlete for the finals. The top three in the all-around qualification ranking were: Russia’s Daria Trubnikova (68.575); Italy’s Talisa Torretti (64.750); and Ukraine’s Khrystyna Pohranychna (62.050).

In the high bar qualification round, Briones claimed a 13.000 (4.600, difficulty; 8.400, execution) for sixth in the preliminary ranking. Japan’s Takeru Kitazono had the best horizontal bar score of 13.600, with Hungary’s Krisztian Balazs in second (13.366) and Brazil’s Diogo Soares in third (13.300).

In the all-around qualification rankings, Briones tallied an 80.498 for fourth. Kitazono sits atop the rankings with an 83.299. Russia’s Sergei Naidin notched an 81.448, and China’s Yin Dehang landed in third with his 80.831.

For the balance beam qualification, China’s Tang Xijing earned a 13.800 for the top score. Anastasiia Bachynska of Ukraine, was right behind her at 13.400, and Russia’s Kseniia Klimenko was third at 13.100. In the women’s all-around, Bachynska posted the highest qualification score at 54.066. Giorgia Villa of Italy was second (53.966) and Tang was third (53.274).

The Games will be broadcast on the Olympic Channel every night, and OlympicChannel.com and the Olympic Channel app will offer a 24/7 channel with live streams, replays and highlights.

In addition to the traditional disciplines of men’s and women’s gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, acrobatic gymnastics and trampoline, the Youth Olympic Games has a multi-discipline

The formats for each discipline are identified below.

  • In the multi-discipline event, gymnasts will compete on multi-national teams. Each team includes one mixed pair, acrobatic gymnastics; three men and three women, artistic gymnastics; three rhythmic gymnasts; and one man and one woman trampoline gymnasts. Multi-discipline event scoring adds the rank achieved by each gymnast/mixed pair in their respective disciplines. The team with the lowest score wins.
  • Artistic gymnastics includes all of the men’s and women’s events: men – all-around, floor exercise, pommel horse, still rings, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar; and women – all-around, vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. The top 18 in the all-around rankings advance to the finals, and the top eight on each event qualify to the event finals.
  • Acrobatic gymnastics features the mixed pair. In the qualification round, all 12 mixed pairs perform dynamic, balanced and combined routines. The top eight advance to the finals, where each performs one combined routine.
  • For rhythmic gymnastics, athletes perform all four events –hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon – in the qualification round, and the top eight in the qualification rankings advance to the all-around final.
  • Trampoline has competition in both men’s and women’s trampoline. In the qualification round, each gymnast performs a voluntary routine with 10 skills, including set requirements, and a second voluntary routine of 10 skills with no limitations. The top eight advance and perform one voluntary routine with 10 skills.

The competition schedule is listed with local Argentina time, which is one hour ahead of Eastern; when it is 12 noon in New York City, it is 1 p.m. in Buenos Aires. The multi-discipline team event serves as the qualification round for each discipline’s finals.

Oct. 11

  • 5 p.m. – Men’s gymnastics all-around final

Oct. 12

  • 5 p.m. – Women’s gymnastics all-around final

Oct. 13

  • 5 p.m. – Finals for men’s floor exercise, pommel horse; women’s vault and uneven bars

Oct. 14

  • 5 p.m. – Finals for men’s still rings and vault; men’s and women’s trampoline

Oct. 15

  • 5 p.m. – Finals for women’s balance beam and floor exercise; men’s parallel bars and horizontal bar; acrobatic gymnastics, mixed pair

Oct. 16

  • 5 p.m. – Rhythmic gymnastics all-around final

In addition to hosting competition in 12 sports, the Youth Olympic Park also has a variety of cultural activities, including artistic workshops, collaborative murals, massive games and music shows.

For more information, go to buenosaires2018.com.