Final four Olympic team berths attributed in Men's Gymnastics

Germany, Ukraine, the Netherlands and France secured the last team berths to the Olympic Games in Men's Artistic Gymnastics on the first day of the Rio Test Event Saturday in the Olympic arena.

Along with the four team berths, which allow qualified nations to send five gymnasts of their choosing to the Games, more than 30 Olympic tickets were attributed to individuals. A total of 98 men will compete for Olympic hardware in Men's Artistic Gymnastics this August.

With the end of this second and final 2016 Olympic qualification, only one ticket to the Games remains to be delivered. It will go to a gymnast invited to compete by the Olympic Tripartite Commission, in the name of Olympic solidarity.

Germany sets the record straight

Shut out of direct qualification at the World Championships in Glasgow last October, the German men's team quickly showed that they hadn't come to Brazil to tan on the beach. Two-time London silver medallist Marcel Nguyen and his teammates opened the day by setting the qualification bar high, tallying 350.609 points, five points higher than at Worlds. Nobody would be able to do better.

Verniaiev leads Ukraine back to the Games

As the World silver medallist on Parallel Bars, Oleg Verniaiev was already certain of returning to Rio this summer. He'll be able to share his second Olympic adventure with his teammates, including Igor Radivilov, the 2012 Olympic bronze medallist on Vault. Verniaiev himself contributed 92.107 of Ukraine's 350.160 point total, confirming -- though he hardly needed to -- that he is a force to be reckoned with in the All-around competition, as well as on Parallel Bars.

The Netherlands makes history

London High Bar king Epke Zonderland and his teammates wrote a new page in Dutch Gymnastics history in Brazil: After a difficult beginning on Pommel Horse, the Orangemen finished with fireworks on High Bar and Floor Exercise to slide into third place. The Netherlands has never before qualified a full men's team to the Games, giving the Dutch at home something to samba about.

France takes its mark

Just as they did four years ago in London, France seized their second opportunity to qualify a team to the Games, counting notably on 2013 European Rings champion Samir Aït Saïd, who performed steadily on Vault to open the French campaign and closed out the day with an equally unshakable performance on Rings. France, which has always sent a men's team to the Games, thereby keeps its tradition alive.

France and Romania contested a hard-fought battle for fourth place, while Spain, Belgium and Canada, the three other nations in the running, quickly lost their footing.

Romanian Marian Dragulescu, the eight-time World champion and triple Olympic medallist, was already guaranteed his Olympic ticket as he stood on the Vault podium at the Glasgow Worlds. The 35-year-old initially came out of retirement to help his team qualify for the Games. In the end, he will have only one teammate with him in Rio this summer.

Also bound for the Games

Other gymnasts were able to clinch their places at the Games Saturday based on their ranking in the individual All-around. This was the case for 2008 Olympic Pommel Horse silver medallist Filip Ude of Croatia, while 2013 World medallist Daniel Corral of Mexico and Colombia's Jossimar Calvo, who earned the second highest All-around total of the day behind Verniaiev, have strong chances of making a return trip to Rio this August as well.

The complete list of gymnasts and nations qualified is available here on the FIG website.

For more information, contact:

FIG Media & Communications Department

mediafig@fig-gymnastics.org

+41 21 321 55 10

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