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| The Filipina gymnasts put up a gallant stand in the preliminaries. USA Today Sports |
MANILA--The first set of Filipina gymnasts to grace the Summer Olympic stage in six decades just fell short of making the finals in any artistic gymnastics event following the end of the preliminary phase early Monday (Philippine Time) at the Accor Arena in Paris.
Levi Ruivivar and Emma Malabuyo were tied for 40th overall in the all-around with a total of 51.099 points.
Aleah Finnegan, on the other hand, finished 47th with 50.498.
They were also all outside the Top 8 cutoff in each apparatus final.
All three gymnasts did their routines during the third subdivision out of five, and following their performances, both Ruvivar and Malabuyo were still in the running to make the all-around finals.
However, as the last two subdivisions joined the fray, Ruvivar and Malabuyo's ranks went down as time passed.
A total of 34 gymnasts led by American sensation Simone Biles got callbacks in the all-around either as one of the 24 official finalists or a reserve.
As expected, Biles topped the preliminaries with 59.566 points highlighted by first-place finishes in the vault and floor exercise.
She also made the balance beam finals as the second seed behind China's Zhou Yaqin but missed the cut in the uneven bars as she was ninth.
With three Americans, Biles, Jade Carey, and Jordan Chiles, inside the Top 8 in the vault after the preliminaries, Finnegan was in line to take the place of Chiles after Subdivision 3 due to a limit that only two gymnasts per country can make a final round.
However, the last finals berth in the vault eventually went to Bulgaria's Valentina Georgieva.
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