2025 Junior World Gymnastics Championships Recap

1. Competition Overview

The 2025 Junior World Gymnastics Championships were conducted from November 20 to November 24 at Newport World Resorts in Manila, Philippines. On the first day of the competition, both the qualifications and the Teams Final occurred concurrently. The MAG All-Around competition was held on the 22nd, while the event finals concluded the championship on the 23rd and 24th.

Number of MAG Medals Per Country

2025 Junior World Gymnastics Championships

Countries with the Highest Numbers of Qualifications for Individual Finals

All data and scoring information based on the documents released by the official Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique‘s website (FIG)

2. Highest Scores

Highest Total Scores per Apparatus – Entire Competition

Highest Difficulty, Execution and Total Scores per Apparatus

3. Teams Final

Teams Final Total Scores

Average Difficulty Score per Apparatus in Teams Final

Average Execution Score per Apparatus in Teams Final

4. All Around

All Around Final Results and Comparison with Qualifications Results

5. Event Finals

6. Stuck Landing Bonus

Number of Stuck Landings per Country in the Entire Competition

Number of Stuck Landings per Apparatus and Competition

Breakdown of Stuck Landings per Apparatus – Entire Competition

Gymnasts with the most Stuck Landings – Entire Competition

7. Neutral Deductions

Neutral deductions can be notably significant in junior competitions: penalties are enforced for routines that are deemed too short or that fail to incorporate the minimum required elements. Consequently, some routines, particularly those executed on Pommel Horse, Rings, and High Bar, faced substantial deductions, reaching as high as 6 or 7 points. This has led to paradoxical scenarios, such as a gymnast achieving the highest execution score on Rings, yet recording a difficulty score of 0.800 alongside penalties totaling 6.300. Ultimately, his final score amounted to 4.033.

Neutral deductions typically rank among the highest on the Floor and Vault due to out of bounds errors. However, in Manila, approximately a dozen routines incurred penalties exceeding five points, which explains the markedly different distribution of neutral deductions per apparatus. However, there were also standard time-related penalties on events such as Parallel Bars and High Bar.

Points Deducted per Apparatus and per Competition

Breakdown of Penalties per Apparatus

8. Manila vs. Jakarta: Comparing Seniors and Juniors

This 2025 Junior World Gymnastics Championships Recap can be completed by a comparison with the Seniors. The Senior and Junior editions of the 2025 World Championships occurred merely one month apart. While the levels of difficulty and overall experiences differ, it is noteworthy to compare the results. Several gymnasts who competed in Manila will soon be vying for selection for the 2026 and 2027 Senior World Championships and, subsequently, the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

The formats of the competitions were comparable; however, the qualification phase functioned as the Teams Finals for Juniors, whereas there was no official teams competition in Jakarta. The number of gymnasts per country was also different: 6 for the Seniors and 3 for the Juniors.

Seniors vs. Juniors: Best Scores per Apparatus – Entire Competition

The gap between Seniors and Juniors ranges from 0.366 to 1.200. The minimal gap is observed in the Floor routine, while the most significant gap occurs in the Parallel Bars, a phenomenon attributed to the “Zou Jingyuan Effect” and his sustained superiority at the elite level. Excluding the Parallel Bars, the average gap is 0.566, which is relatively modest. However, when considering all scores across all events, rather than solely the highest achievements, the gap between Seniors and Juniors becomes more pronounced.

Seniors vs. Juniors: Number of Stuck Landings per Apparatus – Entire Competition

Junior gymnasts stuck their landings 108 times, in contrast to Senior athletes, who accomplished this feat on 99 occasions; however, the ratio decidedly favors the Juniors, considering there were 160 Junior gymnasts and 250 Senior athletes.

9. Conclusion

The 2025 World Championships held in Jakarta introduced promising new Seniors who are poised to play a significant role in forthcoming international competitions: this event marked the inaugural participation of Tsunogai Tomoharu and Oka Shinnosuke in World Championships (Oka’s first main international competition was the 2024 Olympics, no less), and they are expected to take a prominent position in Japan’s MAG team. Similarly, Anthony Mansard from France, Hong Yanming from China, Ángel Barajas from Colombia, and Tommaso Brugnami from Italy have established themselves as strong contenders for the main competitions within this Olympic cycle.

Regarding the Juniors who participated in the competition in Manila and are anticipated to transition to Seniors in the forthcoming 12 to 24 months, the All-Around Champion Arsenii Dukhno from Russia, Ojima Nao from Japan, Yang Lanbin from China, Camilo Vera from Colombia, and Eldrew Yulo, the younger brother of Carlos Yulo, should be regarded as serious competitors in the forthcoming years.

2025 Junior World Gymnastics Championships Recap

More:
2025 MAG World Championships in Jakarta: Scores Review & Key Moments
Longines / FIG Competition’s official scores