Kenzo Shirai will lead Asian challenge at American Cup
Doha (Qatar), AGU Office: Japan’s vault world champion Kenzo Shirai will be one of the top names at the American Cup in Chicago, USA, in March.
Shirai, who won all-around bronze at the FIG World Championships in Montreal, Canada, last year, won a team’s gold at the Rio Games in 2016.
The American Cup is the first of four Individual All-around World Cup events on the FIG calendar and is followed by events in Stuttgart, Germany (March 17-18), Birmingham, Great Britain (March 21-22) and Tokyo, Japan (April 14-15).
Only those countries who participated at the team final of the Rio Games are invited to participate as a priority.
The field for each event includes eight male and eight female gymnasts including one optional “wildcard” each from the hosting federation.
At each of the events, gymnasts collect points for the World Ranking lists that will determine the winning federations after the Tokyo event. The results of all four events count towards the final ranking.
China’s Sun Wei is the other Asian male gymnast in the competition while compatriot Mao Yi and Japan’s Mai Murakami will represent their nations in the women’s category.
