Guillermo Alvarez

TOYOTA CITY, Japan, Nov. 14, 2009 – Guillermo Alvarez of Denver/Team Chevron won a bronze medal and Steve Legendre of Flower Mound, Texas/University of Oklahoma, finished fifth in the floor exercise on the first day of finals at the Toyota Cup in Toyota City, Japan.

On the second day, Alvarez will compete on parallel bars, and Legendre will compete on vault, parallel bars and horizontal bar.

Alvarez posted a 15.550 to finish behind gold-medalist Makoto Okiguchi of Japan, who scored 15.750, and silver-medalist Kohei Uchimura at 15.70. Alvarez’s routine included an Arabian double-front mount, a front layout to randi, a front double-full, front full and a strong double layout dismount. Legendre was doing very well in his routine until he came up short on his fifth tumbling pass. His 14.800 put him in a tie with Romania’s Daniel Popescu.

On pommel horse, Hungary’s Krisztian Berki was first with a 15.500, followed by Popescu at 15.400 in second and China’s Weiyang Guo in third at 15.250. Alvarez had a good routine but had a misplaced hand on his loop, loop, Russian 180 and a pause on his handstand dismount to score a 14.300 for eighth place.

Toyota Cup results

Floor exercise
1. Makoto Okiguchi, Japan, 15.750
2. Kohei Uchimura, Japan, 15.700
3. Guillermo Alvarez, USA/Denver/Team Chevron, 15.550
Other U.S. finish
5. Steven Legendre, Flower Mound, Texas/University of Oklahoma, 14.800 (tie)

Pommel horse
1. Drisztian Berki, Hungary, 15.500
2. Daniel Popescu, Romania, 15.400
3. Weiyang Guo, China, 15.250
U.S. finish
8. Guillermo Alvarez, Denver/Team Chevron, 14.300

Still rings
1. Takuya Nakase, Japan, 15.90
2. Won Chul Yoo, Korea, 15.750
3. Koki Sakamoto, Japan, 15.700