The International Olympic Committee on Monday (February 28) called for athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus to be banned from international sports events following the invasion of Ukraine.

While this did include a provision that they should compete as neutrals where exclusion "is not possible on short notice for organisational or legal reasons", FIG's last update came on Saturday (February 26), when Russian and Belarusian national flags and anthems were banned from its events.

Listunova, a women's team gold medallist at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, top scored with 14.700 in the uneven bars qualification stage at the Aspire Dome.

Ukraine's Daniela Batrona, who triumphed in the balance beam at the last FIG World Cup in Cottbus, was second with 12.833, with the RGF's Mariia Minaeva notching 12.533.

Listunova also excelled with 13.466 in women's vault qualification, a score which beat the 13.033 posted by Hungary's Csenge Bácskay.

Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina was the third best qualifier on her return to artistic gymnastics after a brief retirement, with the Barcelona 1992 Olympic gold medallist scoring 12.949.

In the men's floor exercise, Olympic champion Artem Dolgopyat of Israel impressed on the first day of the World Cup with a 14.666 score.

Britain's Luke Whitehouse, Sunghyun Ryu of South Korea and Croatia's Aurel Benović all scored 14.000 or higher.

Dolgopyat was the fifth best qualifier with 14.166 in the men's pommel horse.

Harutyun Merdinyan of Armenia was the top performer with 14.600, followed by Kazakhstan's Nariman Kurbanov on 14.566 and Ukrainian Illia Kovtun with 14.466.

There was an Armenian one-two in men's rings qualification as Vahagn Davtyan notched 14.700 and Artur Avetisyan managed 14.633.

Dzmitry Hurynovich, who cannot compete under his Belarusian national flag, earned 14.333.

The World Cup is set to continue tomorrow with qualifications in the men's vault, parallel bar and horizontal bar, and the women's beam and floor events.