USA Women earn 5 medals At the 2009 World ChAmpionShipS

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1 A Photos by John Cheng record-breaking 73 countries and more than 1,200 gymnasts, coaches and officials participated in the 2009 World Gymnastics Championships, which featured competition in the all-around and individual events, in the O2 arena in London, England, Oct The U.S. women earned five medals including two gold, a silver and two bronze. In the women s all-around competition, Bridget Sloan of Sharp s Gymnastics and Rebecca Bross of WOGA finished one-two in the standings with scores of to , just a small margin of.050 separated the two. I didn t even look at the scores or notice them, said Sloan, who was a member of the 2008 Olympic Team that won the silver medal. At the very end of the meet, Marvin (Sharp, her coach) came up and said, Look, and I went, Oh my gosh, did this just happen? Looking at how close it (the competition) was, that is about as close as you can get. The USA won the top two world spots only one other time, four years ago in Melbourne, Australia, when Chellsie Memmel and Nastia Liukin went 1-2 by just 0.001, respectively. The USA s Shawn Johnson also won the world allaround title in 2007, giving the USA the coveted all-around crown in three of the last four World Championships. This is a tremendous moment for Bridget, Rebecca, and all of the coaches and athletes connected with women s program, said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. Both athletes have worked hard to achieve this result and they are a testament to the continuing legacy of success being developed within our country. Bridget SloAn USA Women earn 5 medals At the 2009 World ChAmpionShipS The battle for the title went down to the last event, the floor exercise. Bross had a comfortable lead over Sloan by and just needed to hit her floor routine to win the title. However, Bross went last, and fell on her final tumbling pass (two and a half twist punch brani) which gave her a , and moved Sloan into the top spot. Bross and Sloan started the competition on vault. Both gymnasts performed a Yurchenko double full and both had small steps on their landings, earning a and a , respectively. Bross nailed her difficulty-packed bar routine, including a full twisting double back dismount, and posted a Sloan earned a for her routine, where she stuck her full twisting double layout dismount. On beam, Bross was first up in her group and had a strong routine, including a standing Arabian and a double Arabian dismount. She scored a , which moved her into first in the standings at Sloan had a few wobbles on beam, which resulted in a and put her into second place in the all-around with Sloan did an impressive floor routine that included a one and a half to triple full, a Randi, a pike full-in, and a double pike dismount. She tallied a , giving her a Bross, who was up last on the event, has a strong floor routine that included a front layout to double front. The routine was going well until she put her hands down while landing her last tumbling pass, which earned her RESULTS ON P USA GymnASticS NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

2 Top: Rebecca Bross and Bridget Sloan. Above L to R: Beam medalists Lauren Mitchell, Deng Linlin, Ivana Hong. Vault medalists Ariella Kaeslin, Kayla Williams and Yourna Dufournet. Bar medalists Koko Tsurami, He Kexin, Ana Porgras and Rebecca Bross.

3 a and a total score of It was a little bit of a shock (when I won), said Sloan. Going into floor, I knew that second place was a very good possibility. At same time, I was just hoping for the best for both of us. Bross, who trains at the same gym with 2008 Olympic allaround champion Liukin, competed in her first World Championships, as well as her first senior level international meet. I m very happy with what I did, said Bross. I had a mishap on floor on my last pass, but that happens and there is nothing I can do about it. I wasn t really thinking about medals or scores. I was just trying to work on what I had to do and do it to the best of my abilities. During event finals, Newcomer Kayla Williams of Huntington, W. Va., won the vault world gold medal. Although she was competing in both her first World Championships and international event, Williams looked like a veteran when rebecca BroSS CONTINUED ON P. 50 ivana hong RESULTS ON P USA GymnASticS NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009 KAylA WilliAmS

4 On the men s side, the U.S. team included veteran Jonathan Horton and five other gymnasts all competing in their first World Championships -- Jake Dalton, Wesley Haagensen, Steven Legendre, Danell Leyva, and Tim McNeill. After preliminaries, the USA s McNeill of Falls Church, Va., scored an for third place, behind current leader Kohei Uchimura of Japan, who scored Olympic silver-medalist Horton of Cypress Gymnastics was in fifth place with a score of In addition, four of the six USA gymnasts qualified to finals including Legendre of Flower Mound, Texas, on floor; Leyva of Universal Gymnastics in Miami, on high bar, McNeill in the all-around and on pommel horse and Horton in the all-around and on high bar. I think it has been more than 20 years since we had four of our six guys make finals at the World Championships, said Ron Brant, the men s national team coordinator. We have one of the youngest teams here three who are 23 and one each at 17, 18 and 20. I m impressed because this shows that our training plans are working, that our athletes have taken it to heart and that we have continued leadership within the team even though we have reloaded after the last two Olympics. During finals, McNeill finished seventh in the all-around, hitting all six of his routines and finishing with an His top scores of the competition were on vault where he scored a for his Yurchenko double full and pommel horse where he scored a for his routine which included full Kehr. He also scored a on floor, a on RESULTS ON P. 47 Photos by John Cheng rings, a on parallel bars and a on high bar. I m pretty excited (about finishing in the top 10), said McNeill, who trains at the University of California - Berkeley. Parallel bars gave me a chance (to move up in the rankings), and if I could change one thing, it would be to go back and redo that routine. Overall, I gave it my best, and I put everything out there Olympic silver-medalist Horton had a disappointing evening, finishing 17th in the all-around. He got off to a rough start on the first two events, floor and pommel horse, which unfortunately dropped him in the standings. His rings routine was solid and earned a and hit his handspring double front vault to score a He continued to build momentum with a well-done parallel bars routine that received a A missed release move on high bar dropped his score to a and 14 USA GYMNASTICS NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

5 Left to Right: Steven Legendre, Danell Leyva, Wesley Haagensen, and Jake Dalton RESULTS ON P. 47 he ended with an all-around total of It s gymnastics, said Horton. It s a tough sport. Things happen and they happen for a reason, I believe. It s the world championships, and some things you just can t explain. I am going to continue to train my hardest when I get back. My heart is always in this game. I feel I belong on that medal podium, if not at the top, and I am going to train harder than I ever have so I can come back next year. Kohei Uchimura of Japan easily won the all-around with a total score of Hometown favorite Daniel Keatings of Great Britain was second at , with Russia s Yury Ryazanov in third at Leyva thrilled the crowd on high bar with his series of release moves and a jam hop to earn a and a ticket to the finals with his fourth place ranking. On the parallel bars, he scored a Legendre scored a for his floor routine, which landed him in seventh place and a spot in the event finals. Also making his World debut, Haagensen of Colorado Springs, Colo./U.S. Olympic Training Center, competed on both pommel horse and still rings. He earned a for his pommel horse routine and a on the still rings. Jake Dalton of Sparks, Nev./University of Oklahoma, landed his vault, a Kazamatsu oneand-half, but missed his second vault, a front handspring double full earning a combined average of During event finals, McNeill executed a clean routine and finished fifth on pommel horse, scoring a Legendre finished eighth on floor with a score of I am happy I got as far as I did, said Legendre. I am not completely disappointed in myself, but obviously I would have liked to have done a little better in the finals. It definitely was a learning experience for me. Leyva just missed the medal stand on high bar, finishing in fourth place with a and a routine that thrilled the crowd with a series of release moves, a jam hop, and a layout double-double dismount. Horton attempted a ramped up version of his Olympic high bar routine, but missed a Kolman and landed short on the layout triple double dismount to score a My nerves were really, really high today, said Leyva. This is my first world championships, and I was really excited. I controlled myself before I competed, and it obviously paid off. It s kind of a bittersweet, mixed bag of feelings, said Brant, who will join the U.S. Olympic Committee staff in the near future. If you look at 2005, we had one guy in the finals and didn t medal to start that quad. This time we begin the quad with four guys in the finals, and three of them are at their first Worlds. Obviously we wanted to see a medal come through, but if you are not in the finals, you don t have a chance of making a run at it. The depth of the program has increased, and we need to use this as our motivation, like we did last time. L to r: Men s all-around medalists Daniel Keatings, Kohei Uchimura and Yury Ryazanov. Tragically, Ryazanov died two days after the competition in a car accident. 16 USA GYMNASTICS NOVEMBER DECEMBER 2009

6 World ChAmpionShipS Women S results ALL-AROUND 1. Bridget Sloan USA Rebecca Bross USA Koko Tsurumi JPN Lauren Mitchell AUS Youna Dufournet FRA Yang Yilin CHN Ana Porgras ROU Ariella Kaeslin SUI Anamaria Tamirjan ROU Ekaterina Kurbatova RUS Deng Linlin CHN Elsa Garcia MEX Ksenia Semenova RUS Bruna Kuroiwa BRA Pauline Morel FRA Rebecca Downie GBR Un Hyang Kim PRK Rebecca Wing GBR Brittany Rogers CAN Paola Galante ITA Veronica Wagner SWE Miki Uemura JPN Kim Bui GER Mayra Kroonen NED VAULT 1. Kayla Williams USA Ariella Kaeslin SUI Youna Dufournet FRA E. Kurbatova RUS Un Jong Hong PRK Anna Myzdrikova RUS Brittany Rogers CAN Elsa Garcia MEX UNeVeN BARS 1. He Kexin CHN Koko Tsurumi JPN Rebecca Bross USA Ana Porgras ROU Yong Hwa Cha PRK Bridget Sloan USA Larrissa Miller AUT Serena Licchetta ITA BALANCe BeAM 1. Deng Linlin China Lauren Mitchell AUS Ivana Hong USA Un Hyang Kim PRK Elisabetta Preziosa ITA Koko Tsurumi JPN Ana Porgras ROM Yang Yilin CHN FLOOR exercise 1. Beth Tweddle GBR Lauren Mitchell AUS Sui Lu CHN Anna Myzdrikova RUS Rebecca Bross USA Ana Porgras ROM Deng Linlin CHN Jessica Gil Ortiz COL 2.975

7 PARALLeL BARS 1. Wang Guanyin CHN Feng Zhe CHN Kazuhito Tanaka JPN Vasileios Tsolakidis GRE Yoo Won Chul KOR Epke Zonderland NED Pham Phuoc Hung VIE Adam Kierzkowski POL STILL RINGS 1. Yan Mingyong CHN Jordan Jovtchev BUL O. Vorobiov UKR Zanetti Nabarrete BRA G. R. Stanescu ROU Matteo Morandi ITA Samir Ait Said FRA D. Rodrigues Pinheiro FRA POMMeL HORSe 1. Zhang Hongtao CHN Krisztian Berki HUN P. Sellathurai AUS Cyril Tommasone FRA Tim McNeill USA Flavius Koczi ROU Robert Seligman CRO Louis Smith GBR HORIzONTAL BAR 1. Zou Kai CHN Epke Zonderland NED Igor Cassina ITA Danell Leyva USA Aljaz Pegan SLO Kohei Uchimura JPN A. Tsarevich BLR Jonathan Horton USA VAULT 1. Marian Dragulescu ROU Flavius Koczi ROU A. Golotsutskov RUS Matthias Fahrig GER Thomas Bouhail FRA I. Botella Perez ESP Ri Se Gwang PRK Jeffrey Wammes NED FLOOR exercise 1. Marian Dragulescu ROU Zou Kai CHN Alexander Shatilov ISR Kohei Uchimura JPN Makoto Okiguchi JPN Matthias Fahrig GER Sepulveda Gonzalez CHI Steven Legendre USA World ChAmpionShipS men S results ALL-AROUND 1. Kohei Uchimura JPN Daniel Keatings GBR Yury Ryazanov RUS Kazuhito Tanaka JPN M. Devyatovskiy RUS Kristian Thomas GBR Timothy McNeill USA Benoit Caranobe FRA M. Kuksenkov UKR Enrico Pozzo ITA A. Shatilov ISR Marcel Nguyen GER Lopez Giraldo COL Roman Gisi SUI Campos Almeida POR N. Boeschenstein SUI Jonathan Horton USA Ildar Valeiev KAZ S. Sasaki Junior BRA Sergio Munoz ESP Luis Rivera PUR Artsiom Bykau BLR Velazquez Vargas PUR Federico Molinari ARG