World Gymnastics: Nina Derwael Bronze medallist
The young Belgian achieved a fantastic third place on the uneven bars, her favourite discipline, at the World Gymnastics Championships.
Nina Derwael returned to competition after a long break following her Olympic victory in Tokyo in 2021. She was heading into the unknown by going to these World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Having already won twice, in 2018 and 2019, the gymnast from Sint-Truiden (province of Limburg) reached the final of the uneven bars competition, her favourite piece of apparatus. However, for her return to competition she was beaten on the podium by the Chinese gymnast Wei and the American Jones.
Nina Derwael received the highest performance rating of all the participants with 8.4 out of 10. But she scored only 6.3 out of 10 for the difficulty of the movements, while the new world champion scored 6.6.
The Belgian gymnast was still very satisfied with her performance and told the press, "I am very happy with how I performed my routine. To tell you the truth, I couldn't have hoped for more. For me, this World Cup is a new beginning. Like in 2017, in Montreal, where I won bronze."
Our Olympic champion obviously hopes to regain her title at the next world championships due to be held in Antwerp, Belgium in 2023.