COTTBUS, Germany, Nov. 22, 2019 – 2019 Winter Cup vault champion Colin Van Wicklen of Magnolia, Texas/University of Oklahoma, qualified for two additional event finals on the final day of qualifications at the 2019 World Cup in Cottbus, Germany. 2019 U.S. pommel horse silver-medalist Stephen Nedoroscik of Worcester, Mass./Pennsylvania State University, and Van Wicklen will both compete on Saturday, Nov. 23, and Van Wicklen will also compete on Sunday, Nov. 24. Held at the Lausitz Arena, the finals begin at 2 p.m. local time, and U.S. fans can watch the action live at 8 a.m. ET at OlympicChannel.com and tape-delayed at 8:30 p.m. ET on the Olympic Channel and NBCSports.com. The event is part of the International Gymnastics Federation’s individual apparatus World Cup Series and the Olympic qualification process.
On Saturday, Van Wicklin will compete in the floor exercise final and Nedoroscik in the pommel horse final. On Sunday, Van Wicklen will perform in the vault and horizontal bar finals. During the floor exercise qualification, 2019 U.S. still rings bronze-medalist Donnell Whittenburg of Baltimore, Md./U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center, injured his plantar fascia and withdrew from the competition.
In the vault qualification, Van Wicklen and Belarus’ Yahor Sharamkou both posted a 14.549 average, but Van Wicklen landed in third after the tiebreak (14.633/14.466). The top spot went to Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov at 14.816 (14.800/14.833). For the horizontal bar, Van Wicklen’s 13.800 punched his ticket to the final with a sixth-place ranking. The top three qualification scores were: Japan’s Hidetaka Miyachi, 14.633; and China’s Hu Xuwei (14.566) and Zhang Chenglong (14.333). Van Wicklen is the second reserve athlete (10th, 13.900) for the parallel bars final. China’s You Hao earned the highest parallel bars mark at 15.166. Ukraine’s Oleg Verniaiev (15.066) and Germany’s Lukas Dauser (15.000) are on his heels.
The remaining competition schedule is: Nov. 23, 2 p.m., finals for men’s floor exercise, pommel horse and still rings and women’s vault and uneven bars; and Nov. 24, 2 p.m., finals for men’s vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar and women’s balance beam and floor exercise. All times are local to Cottbus, which is six hours ahead of U.S. Eastern time. No U.S. women are competing in this event.
U.S. fans can watch the finals both live and tape-delayed on NBC Sports and the Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA. The complete webcast and broadcast schedule is below.
- Saturday, Nov. 23 – 8:00 a.m. ET – LIVE – Apparatus Finals Day 1 – OlympicChannel.com
- Saturday, Nov. 23 – 8:30 p.m. ET – Delayed – Apparatus Finals Day 1 – Olympic Channel and NBCSports.com
- Sunday, Nov. 24 – 8:00 a.m. ET – LIVE – Apparatus Finals Day 2 – OlympicChannel.com
- Sunday, Nov. 24 – 8:30 p.m. ET – Delayed – Apparatus Finals Day 2 – Olympic Channel and NBCSports.com
Fans can catch all the action in spectacular high definition via NBCSports.com/Live or through the NBC Sports app, which is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.
Coverage of the event is available via the event’s website, Facebook page and the German Gymnastics Federation’s Facebook page. The individual apparatus World Cup Series is part of the qualification for individual athletes for the 2020 Olympic Games.