07/03/2010

* Complete Team Results

TOKYO, Japan, July 3, 2010 – The U.S. men won the team bronze medal at the 2010 Japan Cup at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, site of the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships, in Tokyo, Japan, today. Competition continues tomorrow, July 4, at 3:20 p.m. JST with the men’s all-around finals.

With a score of 265.400, the U.S. men’s team took the bronze medal in the team competition, earning the second highest score on parallel bars (44.550), still rings (44.400) and high bar (45.100). Japan won the team gold medal with a score of 276.100, scoring the top marks on pommel horse (44.500), still rings (45.000), vault (48.250), parallel bars (45.550) and high bar (47.750). Germany took the silver at 266.900, posting the top score on floor exercise.

The U.S. team was comprised of five members: Chris Brooks of Houston/University of Oklahoma; Chris Cameron of Winter Haven, Fla./University of Michigan; Jonathan Horton of Houston/Cypress Academy; Alex Naddour of Mesa, Ariz./University of Oklahoma; and Paul Ruggeri of Manlius, N.Y./University of Illinois. Tom Meadows and Yuan Xiao are coaching the U.S. team. John Orozco of Bronx, N.Y./World Cup Gymnastics, was the alternate.

The men’s all-around is scheduled to begin at 3:20 p.m. on July 4. The top 12 gymnasts based on performances during the team competition, with a maximum of two per country, advanced to the all-around finals. All times are Japan standard time, which is 11 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

The Japan Cup featured an eight-team field that included France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Korea, Romania, Russia, and the United States. In the team competition, three gymnasts competed on each apparatus and all three scores count toward the team score, just like in the finals of the World Championships and Olympic Games.

Beth Tweddle, three French gymnasts lead after day one at French International
France’s Samir Ait Said and Cyril Tomassone thrilled the French fans in the stands by qualifying first on still rings and pommel horse, respectively. Ait Said scored 15.45 (6.8, 8.65), ahead of Kazakhstan’s Timur Kurbanbayev (6.5, 8.7) and Uzbekistan’s Anton Fokin (6.3, 8.8). World champion Kohei Uchimura was fourth (15.05, 6.4, 8.65), followed by Jonathan Horton of the U.S., who stuck his double twisting double tuck dismount (15.05, 6.7, 8.35).
Complete article

Tweddle, Host Nation Shine at Paris World Cup
World all-around champion Kohei Uchimura was the top qualifier in an outstanding high bar field. Other qualifiers include Olympic silver medalist Jonathan Horton (U.S.), former world champion Aljaz Pegan (Slovenia), reigning European champion Yann Cucherat and world silver medalist Epke Zonderland (Netherlands).
Complete Article

Official American Cup 2010 Results:
Men’s All Around Results

Watch the Webcast!
American Cup 2010 Photos:
2010 American Cup Photos at USA-Gymnastics.org

Articles from various press sites:
Russia’s Devyatovskiy slips past Horton to win American Cup

High bar rivalry

The latest news from the USOC—March 9
The gymnastics week in review

All from USA-Gymnastics Youtube Channel:

and:
Jonathan Horton interview—Competing at the 2010 Tyson American Cup

“At this year’s meet, 136 gymnasts will be on hand to display their power, strength and sheer will. Three of those 136 will be 2008 Olympians Alexander Artemev, Jonathan Horton and Kevin Tan. And of those 136, only 14 will be considered good enough to make the elite squad. It all comes down to two days of competition — just 12 routines, little more than 12 minutes per gymnast.”

Full article here

“The Winter Cup Challenge, which begins today in Las Vegas, Nev. is the Groundhog Day of gymnastics meets. It’s a a time when members of the U.S. men’s team and those who would like to be members of the U.S. men’s team emerge from their gyms after a couple months hibernation from competition to see if they can still stay on the apparatus in a meet.”

Full article here

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -Olympic silver medalist Jonathan Horton and world silver medalist Rebecca Bross will headline the field for next year’s American Cup.

Tim McNeill, who was seventh at his first world championships, also will compete at the international gymnastics meet, which will be held March 6 in Worcester, Mass. The rest of the field, including gymnasts from Britain, Germany, Japan, Romania and Russia, will be announced later.

Horton was part of the U.S. team that won the bronze medal in Beijing, and later added a silver on high bar. He is the reigning U.S. champion. Bross was second to teammate Bridget Sloan in the all-around at the world championships.

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/gymnastics/wires/12/11/2080.ap.gym.american.cup.0197/#ixzz0c3FUzGMa
Get a free NFL Team Jacket and Tee with SI Subscription

Ukraine’s Nikolai (Mykola) Kuksenkov, ninth all-around at the 2009 World Championships, won the Valeri Liukin Invitational last weekend in Frisco, Texas.

Kuksenkov posted the highest scores of the meet on floor (14.8) and high bar (15.4) to finish ahead of runner-up Jonathan Horton of Houston and Takuto Tatikani of Japan. Horton had the highest score of the entire meet on rings (16.1) and tabbed second place finishes on floor (14.7) and parallel bars (15.45) but was as usual outdone on pommel horse (13.0). He finished with an 89.45 all-around total to Kuksenkov’s 90.1.

Russia’s Dmitriy Stolyrov, fifth all-around, posted the best pommel score (15.0), while Josh Jefferis of Australia won parallel bars (15.55) and Japan’s Shota Hisanaga won vault (16.0).

Oklahoma’s Chris Brooks, in the top five on four events, had a disastrous 12.45 on pommel horse and finished sixth-tenths out of the medals. The other top-10 U.S. finisher was Danell Leyva (tied for eighth), another victim of pommel horse (12.35).

The meet, held at WOGA Gymnastics’s Frisco branch, honors 1988 Olympic team and high bar gold medalist Valeri Liukin, coach and father of current women’s Olympic all-around champion Nastia Liukin.

Related: Results from the 2009 Valeri Liukin Invitational

Follow Gymnastics Examiner Blythe Lawrence on Twitter at www.twitter.com/GymExaminer.