Diorges Escobar would be the only Cuban involved in the series of artistic gymnastics world cups that will offer individual places for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
The national commissioner of that discipline, Pedro Pablo Barrios, confirmed this to JIT before reminding that these tickets will be awarded for devices, since the distribution for teams has already closed.
Taking this detail into account, the all-around champion at the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023 focuses his preparation on freehands, parallel bars and fixed bar.
We believe that in these specialties it has more options, based on the analysis of the possible rivals who will also be opting, commented the manager before announcing that the final stretch of preparation is based on the elevation of the starting grades in each program.
We are focused on the effectiveness of the difficulties, as well as on polishing the executions to achieve the greatest possible cleanliness, he assured, convinced of the demanding challenge ahead.
The first possibility for the Sancti Spiritus native will come in the Cairo Cup, scheduled for February 15 to 18. From the 22nd to the 25th of the same month he would be in Cottbus, in Germany; and he would exhaust his opportunities in Doha from April 17 to 20.
In these three stops of the series of four planned, points will be awarded for a ranking that will determine the Olympic classifications. As planned, figures will be assigned in descending order to the eight best placed in each device. Those with the highest scores will ensure presence in the Olympic Games in the French capital.
The ideal would be for him to be included among the medalists in any of the devices on which his preparation is focused. We value that if it equals or exceeds the scores achieved in the competitions it assumed in 2023, it may be within the range of what we aspire to, explained Barrios.
Diorges, 21 years old, attended the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp 2023 last season. Although the results there were not up to expectations, that first contact with the elite allowed him to gain more experience and confidence.
Returning to that context will now have a different nuance. Thanks to the journey of the recently concluded year, he will have the skills to overcome more complex challenges and dream of what his debut under the five rings could be.
In the City of Light, 96 men and the same number of women will compete. The first three team tickets of each sex were defined at the world championship in Liverpool in 2022. The remaining nines were distributed in the Antwerp edition.
In the Belgian city, individual quotas were also assigned, to which those defined in the world cup circuit by device will be added. The qualifying process for Paris 2024 will close with the championships of each continent.
The Olympic artistic gymnastics competition will take place from July 27 to August 5 at the Bercy Arena, where today’s biggest stars are expected, including the American Simone Biles, who surprised with her voluntary withdrawal from the Tokyo 2020 event.
