Varna: Taiwanese gymnast Tseng Wei-sheng achieved a remarkable victory by securing a gold medal in the men’s vault at the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) World Challenge Cup held in Bulgaria. In a captivating performance, Tseng excelled in the finals, as highlighted by the FIG on Instagram, which shared a video of his somersaults with the caption, “delivers big in Varna to claim gold on vault.”
According to Focus Taiwan, the 26-year-old gymnast achieved an average score of 14.183 points in the men’s vault, with a difficulty score of 5.2 for his routines and execution scores of 9.033 and 8.933. This victory marks Tseng’s second gold medal at a World Challenge Cup competition, following his previous triumph in Hungary in 2022.
Tseng’s coach, Lin Yu-hsin, praised his performance, noting the impressive consistency and execution of his routines. Lin explained that this was Tseng’s first competition of the year, where he performed new routines under the updated code of points for the new Olympic cy
cle. Despite the reduction in difficulty rating from 5.6 to 5.2, Tseng demonstrated his skill by performing two vaults with world-class difficulty, barely moving upon landing.
Reflecting on Tseng’s journey, Lin mentioned that, in the past, the gymnast often made significant mistakes every two vaults. However, since his silver-medal performance at the 2023 Summer World University Games in Chengdu, China, Tseng has shown significant improvement. Lin emphasized that minimizing mistakes increases Tseng’s chances of winning medals.
Following his recent gold medal achievement, Tseng plans to concentrate on upcoming events such as world championships, setting his sights on the 2026 Asian Games in Japan. The FIG’s new Code of Points for the 2025-2028 cycle, which took effect on January 1, underscores the significance of technical presentation and consistent performance, as emphasized in their statement on January 3. The FIG stated that while obtaining difficulty is easier, ensuring precise execution is crucial.