Portugal’s national trampoline team concluded the World Championships in Pamplona, Spain, with a bronze medal but also a string of narrow misses for podium finishes.
The team secured fourth place in the overall ‘all around’ competition on Sunday, just missing the bronze medal. Great Britain edged out Portugal on a tie-breaker.
Both nations accumulated 51 final points. However, Great Britain surpassed Portugal in individual rotation scores, posting 278.13 points compared to Portugal’s 244.18.
A strong performance by rising star Gabriel Albuquerque kept Portugal in contention for bronze until the final exercises. Earlier in the day, a misstep by Sofia Correia in the women’s individual trampoline event had affected their medal prospects.
China clinched the ‘all around’ world title with 57 points. Russia, competing as a neutral team, earned the silver medal with 55 points.
Albuquerque also finished fourth in the individual trampoline event. He scored 61.010 points, narrowly behind Japan’s Hayato Myano, who took bronze with 61.350 points.
The 19-year-old Albuquerque is the youngest Portuguese Olympian for Paris 2024. He achieved the best-ever fifth-place finish for Portuguese gymnastics at an Olympic Games.
China’s Zisai Wang, the reigning Olympic vice-champion, won the individual trampoline men’s title with 63.470 points. The United States’ Ruben Padilla claimed silver with 61.950 points.
In synchronized trampoline, Pedro Ferreira and Diogo Abreu, who were world silver medalists in 2022, placed fifth. Their score of 51.960 points was just shy of the bronze medal, which went to China’s Dong Wang and Yuhan Chen with 52.140 points.
Abreu, 32, is a two-time Olympian.
Belarusian athletes Ivan Litvinovich and Andrei Builou, competing as neutrals, won the synchronized trampoline gold with 54.670 points. Litvinovich is a two-time Olympic individual trampoline champion who surprisingly did not reach the individual final at these championships. Japan’s Hayato Myano and Yusei Matsumoto secured silver.
Portugal’s sole medal came on Saturday in the individual team trampoline event. Diogo Abreu, Gabriel Albuquerque, and Pedro Ferreira secured bronze with 18 points. Lucas Santos was the team’s substitute.
They finished behind two neutral teams, with Belarus taking the world title (21 points) and Russia earning silver (20 points). Albuquerque contributed 10 points to this team medal, while Abreu and Ferreira added four points each.
Other team members contributing points to Portugal’s overall performance included Vasco Peso, who earned 10 points in tumbling, and Matilde Oliveira, who secured 8 points in double mini-trampoline.