© Alexander Filipov – Sprint magazine

VARNA, Bulgaria (May 29, 2022) – In his senior international debut, U.S. Senior Development Team member Taylor Burkhart (Morrison, Colo./Stanford Boy’s Gymnastics) secured silver on floor exercise and vault over the weekend at the Varna World Challenge Cup. The 19 year old also qualified to the horizontal bar final where he finished fifth.

On the first day of competition, Burkhart advanced to the floor final in the top spot with a 14.100 but was ultimately nosed out of first place by France’s Benjamin Osberger who outpaced him Saturday 14.100-14.050. On vault, Burkhart delivered matching scores of 14.350 in Friday’s qualifications and Sunday’s apparatus final but settled for his second silver medal of the weekend after Romania’s Gabriel Burtanete delivered a 14.400 to claim gold. Burkhart’s 13.500 in the horizontal bar final gave him a trio of top-five finishes to close out the four-day event. Cypress’ Marios Georgiou topped the high bar field with a 14.350.

Fellow Senior Development Team member Jeremy Bischoff (Santa Clarita, Calif./Stanford University) was also in action in Bulgaria. On Thursday, the rising junior was 16th on floor exercise with a 12.600, 12th on pommel horse with a 12.450 and 18th on still rings with a 13.050. His highest finish came Friday on parallel bars where he finished 11th with a 13.350. Bischoff (12.650) was 24th on horizontal bar.

Burkhart was 10th on pommel horse with a 13.250 and 11th on rings with a 13.550. He finished 15th on parallel bars with a 13.150.