All eyes will be on the Philippines as the epicenter of gymnastics when the country rolls out the red carpet for the hosting of the 3rd Artistic Gymnastics Junior World Championships from Nov. 16 to 25 at the magnificent Grand Ballroom of the Manila Marriott Hotel at the Newport World Resorts.
The International Gymnastics Federation, known by its French acronym FIG, awarded the staging of the sports showcase featuring the world best junior artistic gymnasts to the Gymnastics Association led by president Cynthia Carrion during its Congress held last year in Doha, Qatar.
The FIG Executive Committee confirmed GAP’s hosting of prestigious event in its communique last June 20 to both the local gymnastics association as well as to all its member federations worldwide.
“We are grateful to the FIG and the FIG President Morinari Watanabe of Japan for entrusting the GAP of hosting and organizing the 3rd Artistic Gymnastics Junior World Championships. Rest assured that we will go all out in ensuring this will be a memorable event for both participants and fans alike,” said Carrion.
“We assured President Watanabe that we will be able to able to organize a world class championships, and treat our athletes and officials to our famed Filipino hospitality,” she said of the close to 1,000 athletes and officials worldwide who will be coming over to the blue-ribbon meet.
“We would like to thank Megaworld REIT chairman Kevin Tan for allowing us to stage the world competition for outstanding gymnasts for GAP to host it at the Manila Marriott Hoel at the Newport World Resorts in Pasay City,” she added.
false>false>false>false>false>The GAP chief said that hosting the world junior elite tournament would build on the gains achieved by Carlos Edriel Yulo, a former junior gymnastics champion, who bagged two gold medals in an epic performance at the Paris Olympics, highlighting the country’s centennial jubilee at the Summer Games.
It was Carrion who nurtured Yulo at a tender age of eight years old on the way to becoming a two-time world champion and Olympic double gold medalist.
She said that Newport World Resorts welcomed the hosting of another huge international sports competition at the Manila Marriott Hotel.
“Newport World Resorts successfully hosted the 2015 Asian Taekwondo Championships and Asian Taekwondo Olympic Qualifying Tournament to the 2016 Rio Summer Games. So they are prepared more than able to meet the needs of an event of this magnitude,” she stressed. .
She added that the Marriott Manila Hotel Grand Ballroom was being spruced up to meet the rigid FIG requirements for the venue while assuring all of the participants and fans of a safe, secure, comfortable yet lively environment, and the best that Newport World Resorts has to offer.
The third edition of the meet will be two years since the previous one was held in Antalya, Turkey in 2023, featuring 283 gymnasts from 64 countries, and five years since the inaugural tournament was held in 2019 in Gyor, Hungary.
The world juniors have been a breeding ground for the world’s current top gymnasts.
Among its outstanding products are Japanese Paris Olympic Games triple gold medalist Shinnosuke Oka, who was saw action in the first meet together with Russians Viktoria Listunova and Vladislava Urazova.
Listunova and Urazova were members of the Russian squad that captured the women’s team gold in the Tokyo Summer Games in 2021.
