Colombia’s Angel Barajas (left) and Japan’s Aiko Sugihara (right). (© Amy Sanderson/Gymnastics Now)

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands – Competition at the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships continued Sunday with the conclusion of men’s qualifying and the beginning of women’s qualifying. Here are the top five things to know after Day 2.

Live updates: Women’s qualifying at the 2026 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships

1. Olympic champion bumped from pommel horse final

Reigning Olympic pommel horse champion Rhys McClenaghan (IRL) was bumped from the final in Rotterdam as men’s qualifying concluded on Sunday. The 27-year-old’s 14.400 wasn’t enough to stay in the top eight. Instead, he’s the second reserve.

Shortly after he was pushed out – and before qualifying had even concluded – McClenaghan took to social media to share his thoughts, saying, “At the mercy of subjectivity. Need to get to a place where there’s no question that I’m the best. I thought I did enough at this Worlds, but clearly there’s still improvements to be made. Be Undeniable is still the mantra.”

2. Rough waters for Sabrina and Aiko

Romania’s Sabrina Maneca-Voinea and Japan’s Aiko Sugihara struggled during qualifying Sunday evening inside Rotterdam Ahoy.

Maneca-Voinea competed in the first subdivision with her team. She fell on beam before the split jump out of her double layout on floor went awry. After making both world finals in 2025, Maneca-Voinea will miss both in Rotterdam.

Sugihara’s day wasn’t as fruitless, but mistakes definitely cost her more finals. After starting with an excellent double-twisting Yurchenko on vault (14.200), the Japanese star had a fluke fall on bars when trying to catch her Pak. In the moment, it was a bit scary, with her crumpling to the ground, but she quickly recovered and finished the routine (11.966). She didn’t fall on beam, but major errors will keep her out of the final (13.000). The 2025 world floor champion’s title defense has also likely come to an end after four-tenths in neutral deductions notched her a 13.100 – good for fourth right now, but there are seven more subdivisions to go. She will be in the all-around final after earning a 52.266, and of course, Japan is expected to make the team final.

3. History for Colombia

The Colombian men are heading to the world team final for the first time ever. The team qualified eighth with a 242.727, edging out Italy by 0.232.

Angel Barajas – the first Colombian gymnast to win an Olympic medal (high bar silver in 2024) – and Camilo Vera qualified ninth (82.831) and tenth (82.764) to the all-around final, respectively. They’re also both in the high bar final.

Gymnastics Worlds 2026: Complete results, medalists, and scores

4. Five new women’s skills submitted, World Gymnastics accepts three

World Gymnastics announced Sunday that five new women’s skills were submitted for naming/adding to the Code of Points, but only three were accepted for consideration:

  • Charleigh Bullock (USA): Clear pike circle backward with 1½ turn (E)
  • Naomi Visser (NED): Triple pirouette with leg at horizontal (E)
  • Reese Esponda (USA): Free roundoff from two feet (A – so wouldn’t be officially named after her)

The WTC said two other skills were submitted – Ellie Black’s new toe-on tuck 1.5 presumably being one – but they will not name those skills since they already “correspond to elements that already exist in the Code of Points.”

5. Quote of the day: ‘AI doesn’t lie.’

Patrick Kiens, coach of Reese Esponda and Dulcy Caylor, was asked about the Fujitsu scoring system being used at Worlds this year, specifically if there were any surprises with the “Judging Support System” that uses AI and camera technology to assist judges.

“They did not judge the AI on floor dance elements, so we got the start values,” Kiens said. “I think vault we got everything. Bars we got everything. I think beam we did not get everything with the beam routine from Claire.

“But with the naked eye, you could also see that some connections were not through, and that was also with Dulcy the case. That you think, ‘Oh, that’s a question mark. Oh, that ring is a question mark.’ So yea, and then if they look back on AI. Yea, I think AI doesn’t lie. AI doesn’t lie.,” Kiens repeated the phrase in a rhyme singsong way.