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Japan's Kohei Uchimura and Russia's Aliya Mustafina won the all-around titles Friday at the 2010 World Gymnastics Championships in Rotterdam.  Ksenia Semyonova picks up world champion Aliya Mustafina after she clinched victory Friday. Both gymnasts were the top qualifiers in preliminaries, and each delivered champion performances in the final. Silver medalists were Jiang Yuyuan (China) for the women and Philipp Boy (Germany) for the men. Americans Rebecca Bross and Jonathan Horton both won bronzes. The 16-year-old Mustafina gave Russia its second gold medal in Rotterdam, two days after leading the team to its first world title. She is the second world all-around champion under the guidance of Alexander Alexandrov, who 23 years ago coached Dmitry Bilozerchev to his second title at the very same arena. With a solid Yurchenko 2 1/2 in the first rotation of the all-around final, Mustafina took a commanding lead over her rivals and never looked back. Her biggest mistake of the night was not connecting her Tkatchev immediately after her inside Stalder-full, which cost her connection bonus. She needed a score of 14.000 on her final event, floor exercise, to pass Jiang, and delivered a brilliant routine for 15.033. Mustafina's all-around total of 61.032 is even higher than it was in the team final and qualification, and is the second-best score posted by a female gymnast under the new Code of Points. (Russia's Viktoria Komova, not eligible for Rotterdam, won the Youth Olympics in August with a record 61.250). Jiang hit four routines cleanly to give the Chinese women their best-ever all-around finish following three previous bronzes: Zhang Nan at the 2003 Worlds and 2004 Olympics, and Yang Yilin at the 2008 Olympics. Jiang nailed the beam routine of her life (15.066) and followed with a clutch performance on floor exercise (14.566) to seal an all-around medal. Second in 2009, Bross was third after falling on beam on her standing Arabian, but she rebounded with the top floor routine of the night, 15.233. Despite suffering from a leg injury, Bross nailed all her tumbling for her second world all-around medal. On Friday afternoon, Uchimura sailed to his second world all-around title, posting an untouchable 92.331 with six hit sets. Uchimura's combination of difficulty, artistry and consistency is unmatched, leaving the race for second place whenever he takes the floor. Needing only a 12.784 on his final event to win, he clinched the title with a 15.066. Uchimura is the fifth man to win two world titles, and the second to win them consecutively, following Yuri Korolyov (1981 and 1985), Bilozerchev (1983 and 1987), Ivan Ivankov (1994 and 1997) and Yang Wei (2006 and 2007). Next year Uchimura could take an unprecedented third all-around title at the 2011 World Championships, which will be held in Tokyo no less. Boy proved his second place in qualification was no fluke, matching Fabian Hambüchen's 2007 silver medal as Germany's best-ever world finish. Boy, who competed six events to lead Germany to the bronze in Thursday's team final, appeared slightly worn Friday, sacrificing some execution points with tired mistakes on vault and high bar. But the joyful Boy, who has no weak events, competed with even style across all six apparatus. Horton just edged Ukraine's Nikolai Kuksenkov for the bronze medal, 89.864-89.831. It is the first world medal for Horton, who fought his way back up the rankings after a low of 13.833 on pommel horse in the second rotation. Kuksenkov, nursing an injured knee, performed simpler routines on floor exercise and vault, but nevertheless gave Ukraine its best all-around finish since the late Alexander Beresch took bronze at the 2000 Olympics. The biggest flop of the men's all-around final was Russia's Maxim Devyatovsky, who was solidly second after five rotations. Needing a 14.233 on pommel horse to win a medal, he fell twice for 11.166 to take 19th place. Boy and Japan's Rie Tanaka won the Longines Prize for Elegance, and along with it a Longines watch and $5,000 each. Competition continues Saturday with the first day of apparatus finals. Read complete coverage of the 2010 Worlds in the December issue of International Gymnast Magazine. Click here to subscribe today at our special world championships discount! 2010 World Gymnastics Championships
Comments (4)
Vicki
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... Love to see the best gymnast win (men and women). Bross fell only from silver to bronze (which again says much about the depth of the all-around competition). FIG's strange rules and reduction in the number of participants created just the opposite effect of what they wanted -- you actually have fewer gymnasts able to capture an all-around medal and they do so even with big mistakes. Great that Horton finally won his well-deserved all-around medal. |
Kristin
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Back in business Great to see that Russia is back in business with Mustafina's gold as well as the team gold! I was a little bit surprised thhough, that it was actually Mustafina who brought home the gold medal.  |
