Flávia Saraiva came very close to reaching the podium at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championship in Jakarta. This Saturday, the 26-year-old Brazilian opened the beam competition with a firm performance, without any major scares.
She remained among the medal candidates until the last breath of the final, when Zhang Qingying, from China, confirmed her technical superiority and won gold. Algerian Kaylia Nemour and Japanese Aiko Sugihara were also impeccable and completed the podium with silver and bronze. The Brazilian came in fourth.
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What did Flávia Saraiva say?
After the race, Flávia celebrated her performance at the World Cup.
– I was very happy. It was a very difficult beam final. It’s been years since we’ve had a beam final this difficult. My last beam final was in 2019. It was the first time I hit a beam final at the World Cup. I’m happy that my work is working out. I’m managing to improve a little more on beam every year. Competition is competition. Very happy with my test, happy that I got it right, because it gives me more confidence for the coming years – he said.
The Olympic team medalist achieved, in Indonesia, her best result on the beam in major competitions since silver at the Youth Olympic Games in 2014. Among adults, she had never completed a final on the beam with such confidence. Until then, her best performance on beam was fifth place at the Rio 2016 Games. Even so, her resume already includes a bronze on floor exercise at the 2023 World Championships.
With 13.833 points in the qualifier and a difficulty of 5.5, Flávia was a little more daring in the final and added a connection of movements that raised her difficulty rating by two tenths. The execution remained excellent: 8,200 points, second highest in the decision, behind only the Chinese champion, who received 8,266. The total of 13,900 points kept the Brazilian in the fight, but rivals with riskier series ended up ahead. Zhang achieved an impressive 15.166 (difficulty 6.9), Nemour achieved 14.300 (6.2) and Sugihara took 14.166 (6.0).
What are Flávia Saraiva’s next competitions?
Now, Flávia ends her 2025 season and will have a well-deserved rest before starting preparation for the 2026 World Cup in Rotterdam, which will mark the beginning of the Olympic race towards Los Angeles 2028. The expectation is that Rebeca Andrade, current Olympic champion and away from competitions in search of physical and mental recovery after Paris, will return to the international scene next year.
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