© John Cheng
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., July 1, 2010 – 2008 Olympic horizontal bar silver-medalist and reigning U.S. all-around champion Jonathan Horton of Houston leads a six-man U.S. squad that will compete in the 2010 Japan Cup at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, site of the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships in Tokyo, Japan, this holiday weekend.
Joining Horton, who trains at Cypress Gymnastics, in Tokyo are: Chris Brooks of Houston/University of Oklahoma, the 2010 Winter Cup champion; Chris Cameron of Winter Haven, Fla./University of Michigan, 2010 NCAA all-around champion; Alex Naddour of Mesa, Ariz./University of Oklahoma, 2010 NCAA and Moscow Stars pommel horse champion; John Orozco of Bronx, N.Y./World Cup Gymnastics, 2010 Pacific Rim Championships all-around champion; and Paul Ruggeri of Manlius, N.Y./University of Illinois, 2010 Moscow Stars high bar bronze medalist. The five members of the team who will compete for the USA will be determined after podium training on Friday, July 2.
Tom Meadows and Yuan Xiao will coach the U.S. team.
The Japan Cup features an eight-team field that includes France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Korea, Romania, Russia, and the United States. The men’s team competition begins at noon on July 3, and the USA will be in the same rotation with Japan. In the team competition, three gymnasts compete on each apparatus and all three scores count toward the team score, just like in the finals of the World Championships and Olympic Games. 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, advance to the all-around finals. All times are Japan standard time, which is 11 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.