Ray Zapata shines and reaches the final on the third note.
“The level of the team is very high. We hope to reach the final for the first time in history and I think it is an achievable goal. We are fighting hard for it,” Joel Plata told AS before leaving for Paris. The gymnast, who suffered the most physical damage (a fractured right femur) in a road accident with the national team in Portugal 16 months ago, demonstrated his enormous talent in the fixed bar routine in the team qualification for the Games. He scored 13.666, the best result of the four Spaniards in the first rotation.
Ray Zapata, Nestor Abad, Nicolau Mir and Thierno Diallo, in addition to the aforementioned Plata, on the first day of their sporting performances at the Bercy Arena (almost full stands) had several individual goals, but above all a common one: to reach the team final of the Games (Monday, 29th, 17:30), which they never managed to achieve. To do this, the routines on the six machines had to be close to perfection. Behind the fixed stand was ground turn. And out came the amazing Ray Zapata. The Tokyo silver on the carpet shone thanks to a spectacular and very precise routine, which allowed him to earn a very high score: 14.600. Plata and Abad also reached 14th place. Spain was closing in on the target. And Zapata secured his passage to the Individual Parking final (Saturday, August 3, 15:30) with the third-best time among all participants.
The “terrible” horse arrived. And it showed in the low scores, with the exception of the Silver (13,566). We had to go back up in the general classification. The rings lifted Spain to 10th place, thanks above all to the inspired Zapata, the consistency of Plata and a very good performance by Abad. Italy failed, and Turkey closed the long-awaited eighth place. It was the turn of the jump, and Abad (14,500) came out … but his teammates could not succeed. The chorus target was removed. Only the final rotation was missing, in the case of Spain on the bars. A mistake by Nicolau dispelled the distant possibilities. Spain finished 12th. Joel Plata is close to reaching the tournament final and is the first reserve for the all-around on Monday.