GYMNASTICS: Australia's Prashanth Sellathurai has finished eighth in the final of the men's pommel horse at the 44th FIG Artistic Gymnastics World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

In qualification, Sellathurai completed a very strong routine scoring 15.416 and a difficulty score of 6.600 with his fast circling style and triple Russian between the Pommels impressing the crowd. This qualified him in sixth place for the final.

Sellathurai could not lift to a medal in the final, acheiving the same difficulty score of 6.600 but dropping in execution to 7.433 for a final score of 14.033.

The Sydney athlete took home the silver medal at the 2006 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships along with the bronze medal at the 2009 and 2010 Artistic Gymnastics World Championships.

2004 Olympic Team Champion for Japan Naoya Tsukahara, who now competes for Australia, narrowly missed making the final of the men's all-around, placing 26th with the top 24 going through to the final.

The veteran champion’s individual results were 38th on horizontal bar, 71st on the floor, 44th on pommel, 66th on rings, 53rd on vault and 71st on parallel bars.

The third Australian in competition was Luke Wiwatowski who was 41st on horizontal bar, 103rd floor, 108th on parallel bars.

The Championships were dominated by the strong Japanese athletes, winning a total of four gold, one silver and two bronze medals to top the medal tally. The USA came second with three gold, six silver and three bronze; followed by China with two gold medals.

The winners of the women’s and men’s All-around, Simone Biles (USA) and Kohei Uchimura (JPN), also became the most decorated gymnasts of the championships. Uchimura collected two gold and two bronze medals, while Biles’ medal set was complete with two gold, a silver and a bronze medal.