Tokyo, 20 April, /AJMEDIA/
Italy’s Sofia Raffaeli turned the all-around individual contest around from day one and triumphed at the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) Rhythmic Gymnastics World Cup in Baku
Taisiia Onofriichuk raced to silver with a strong second day showing, while Stiliana Nikolova dropped from the intermediate lead and got the bronze medal. Olympic title holder Darja Varfolomeev had a much better second day than first, and upped her ranking to 4th.
Meanwhile, strong showing by Alina Harnasko and Anastasiia Salos, both Belarusian top gymnasts (competing as AIN) reached the top six.
Raffaeli’s gold means that the Italian star won her first major (World Cup level or above) all-around title since 2023 – last year she had a good haul of AA silver and bronze medals, but no gold at this level. This is her 8th World Cup/World Challenge Cup all-around win in her career.
The group AA contest also turned around: China dropped from the intermediate lead to second, and Bulgaria took the gold with their superior showing on day two. Only the Bulgarian group was able to surpass the 27 point mark (they ended up with 28.250) with 3+2.
