Flash Quotes: Men’s Qualification Subdivisions 5&6
Subdivision 5
Adem Asil (TUR)
On Turkey missing out on the team final:
“It wasn’t the best day for us, but we are absolutely happy we made it here. It was a tough year for us, we had so much competitions and this is the last one.
“We didn’t do our best but we’re absolutely happy with our performance. We have like three finals, but we didn’t make it to the team finals. That’s a bit disappointing because we had a very good year as a team this year.
“That’s gymnastics, this is sport; today is good, tomorrow is bad, it doesn’t matter.”
On his own performance, with three possible finals ahead of him in all-around, rings and vault:
“I don’t feel like it was my day. I feel a little bit sleepy today.
“But I’m happy I did my rings routine, I did my vault, I was aiming for these two apparatus and I’m in the final now. I hope after the next subdivision I stay in the final and do my best.”
On the rise of Turkish gymnastics:
“We work together, we are one team, we always support each other. We’re always aiming for big things, we always set a big goal. This is what makes us prove (ourselves) every time and make new achievements.”
On being in the same subdivision as his birth country, Egypt:
“They are all my teammates, I know all of them. It’s life, it’s sport. I was competing for Egypt in 2017, and now I’m with Turkey.
“I don’t have any problem with them, they’re all my best friends. It was absolutely good to compete with them.”
Lukas Dauser (GER)
On the German team’s performance:
“It was not my best performance. I had a fall on parallel bars and on pommel horse, which was bad for the team so now we are in ninth place. We were not the favourites for the top eight but I felt we could make it. There’s not much difference between us and the top eight so that gives us a positive feeling for future competitions.
“We had some problems prior to the World Championships. Two guys in our team had Covid, so we had to change our team the week before coming to Liverpool.”
On his performance:
“It was not easy because there were many changes within the team and the rotations, whether you’re in third or second position.
“I’m not sure of my place now on p-bars and all-around but I hope I can compete on Friday and Sunday.
“The competition was very fast, it was only one hour and forty minutes to do six apparatus. Maybe a little bit too fast for me so there was a fall on pommel horse.
“On high bar it’s a little bit technical and depends on technique. I hope I can better on Friday.”
On why he likes the parallel bars:
“There are many elements between the bars, over the bars and under the bars. I think for the audience and for the gymnasts it’s good because you have fast elements, and then you a little pause to breathe in the routine.”
On aiming for a parallel bars medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games:
“I don’t talk about medals because I think about my routine, and I need to add one more element which I’m training on. It’s not ready yet.
“But I think next year I can add this to my routine so my scores are three-tenths higher. We will see what happens. It would be my third Olympic Games and for me it would be nice to compete there.”
Omar Mohamed (EGY)
On Egypt lying 13th in the team competition with one subdivision to go:
“I’m very happy with what we did. We planned to do something different. It’s not happened for Egypt before, or for Africa. I’m so happy for this. We are coming next year to qualify a team for the Olympics.”
On the improvement in Egyptian gymnastics:
“We are still a country unknown in gymnastics. Egypt has no perfect player, we need to change this. We need to be the best gymnasts.”
On whether this the start of the growth of African gymnastics:
“I think it’s just the beginning. We need to change the way it looks for African gymnasts.”
On what changes have been made to the Egyptian gymnastics programme:
“We all live and train together in the same place, at the Olympic Centre in Cairo. We planned this in 2018. The team works like a family.
“We are happy because we all do our best. We don’t look at each other and go ‘Oh, he’s better than me.’ We are family.”
Sofus Heggemsnes (NOR)
On his performance:
“I’m really pleased with my performance. It wasn't the best build-up to the competition because I had some shoulder problems. I wasn’t in the shape I wanted to be in, but I’m really happy with what I’ve put out today.”
On scoring 14.433 in the vault:
“It was a good way to finish. I really loved the rotation we had because rings and vault are kind of easy, especially when the competition is as fast as this one has been.”
On lying 18th in the all-around standings with one subdivision to go:
“I’m really happy. I have my fingers crossed now.”
On his interaction with the crowd:
I’m a bit of a showman, I love attention, and I really love performing in front of an audience. It’s almost better than training.
“When it’s competition season, training is pretty sluggish and boring, but the competitions are really fun. That’s the golden nugget in the middle of it all. I mostly like to train in the off season, that’s when I have the most fun.”
On his next competitive event:
“It’s the off season after this, then the next goal is to build up the routine for next year’s Europeans (European championships), because that’s the Olympic qualifier.”
Yeh Cheng (TPE)
On why he did not compete on rings and dropped out of the all-around contest:
“It was planned before the competition started. I was set to compete on four or five apparatus only. Because my teammate Lee Chih Kai pulled out, I had to compete on pommel horse.
“But of course, it would have been nice if I could finish all six apparatus to see where I ranked and help my team.”
On what he has learned from his first appearance at a world championships:
“I have learned quite a lot, including how to deal with pressure in such a big competition.
“I saw some of the athletes who were also participating at the Youth Olympics with me back in 2018. They have improved so much especially in difficulties. I really think I have to work harder.”
On suffering from a rare Covid vaccination side-effect:
“My form and condition has been very good before the Tokyo Olympics (in 2021). I was selected as a member of the team for the Asian Games. I had my Covid vaccine injection but after my second injection I felt really tired from training and my gymnastics moves felt very heavy.
“In the end, I could not do a single move. I knew how to do the moves in my mind, but physically I just could not make it. It was very weird. It took me almost two years to get all my moves and difficulties back.
“The feeling was like learning gymnastics from zero again. Now, I would say I have fully recovered. I think I have been improving my physical ability, but I'm still trying to get back the feel of different moves.”
Subdivision 6
Carlos Edriel Yulo (PHI)
On his performance:
“It’s a really good result but it’s just the qualifying. I’m not being boastful, it’s not the final yet so if I can do it in the final maybe I will say I’m satisfied.
“Right now I’m really glad but not satisfied because there are a lot of areas where I can improve, especially pommel horse, but also high bar.
“Rings tonight was not bad, for me it’s decent. Vault was really scarey, that’s my first time doing the Ri Se Gwang (a vault named after North Korea’s Rio 2016 Olympic vault champion), so that’s really big for me. It gave me confidence right now to compete in the finals.
“In parallel bars I’m really glad I made it to the finals and of course I did my best and I’m really grateful and happy.”
On preparing for the floor routine by lying flat on his back with his jacket over his face:
“This is my routine, to zone into my focus. When I’m doing gymnastics I’m not really that active, I’m just silent and I’m thinking about my routines before I go on the podium.”
On lying third in the all-around rankings behind Japanese gymnasts Tanigawa Wataru and Hashimoto Daiki:
"Of course, I would like to beat them. This is the first time I’m going to be in the first group and it is a big, big achievement for me.”
On recovering from a disappointing performance on pommel horse, his first routine:
“I am not making excuses but my wrist is painful and I cannot really put 100 per cent into it, but it happens. I didn’t think anything negative about that, I just moved on. I switched my focus to the things that I still could do.”
On how he will prepare for the finals:
“I’m going to try to beat what I did today, to be more aggressive.”
Dominick Cunningham (IRL)
On his performance tonight:
“It was incredible being back out there at the world championships after so many ups and downs. As much as it’s scary, especially competing at nine at night I do enjoy doing this sport.”
On his best apparatus:
“The way I do gymnastics is completely different to the way it used to be, I only used to do floor and vault. Now I’m doing all six apparatus. I’m 27 years old, I’m getting older, I should be doing less work but it’s actually the opposite.
“My task now is to be an all-arounder, I think that’s my way to go to Paris 2024 (Olympic Games). I’m not getting birthday scores, I’m getting proper scores from the world judges. It’s just incredible to be at my fourth world championships and I’m not stopping now."
On the support from the crowd:
“I can’t believe how many people were out there and how many Irish flags were out there. That’s why I got on the mic at the end there to thank everyone for coming and supporting us. I tip my hat off to everyone.
“My mum and family were out there, and it was nice to see. Next time it’s going to be in somewhere like Japan or America and they can’t get there so it’s nice to have people here.”
On the evening start of his competition and late finish:
“I’ve been trying to stay up until about two in the morning to flip my body clock and waking up about ten, half ten. I feel so lazy because at home I’m normally up at seven.
“I kept looking at scores (throughout the day) but I don’t want to look at them because you start playing mind games. You’ve got so many hours to wait. You don’t want to eat yourself up and burn your nervous energy, so I play XBOX to kill time.”
Tyson Bull (AUS)
On reaching the horizontal bar final by pushing out his teammate Mitchell Morgans:
“On the one hand, it’s an absolutely amazing feeling to make the final, but on the other hand, it’s absolutely crushing that I just edged my teammate out.
“He did an absolutely phenomenal job. He deserved to be in a final. I honestly feel a bit heartbroken.”
On crashing off the horizontal bar in podium training two days ago:
“It was a skill I’ve done a hundred times before. The bar was a bit slippery, I had some new grips I was getting ready for the competition, but I peeled off and went straight into the ground. My back is not in a good way.
“Fortunately we have a sports doctor with us, and my physio has been absolutely amazing. They checked everything out and they were happy there was no structural damage. It just came down to pain management.
“For the first time ever I was really having doubts after that crash. I was very shaken. It felt like a car crash.”
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