PARIS, March 16, 2013 – Led by recently crowned AT&T American Cup champion Jake Dalton of Reno, Nev./University of Oklahoma, three U.S. men have advanced to the finals of the 2013 French International, part of the International Gymnastics Federation’s individual event World Cup series. Joining Dalton in tomorrow’s finals are 2012 Olympic all-around bronze-medalist Danell Leyva of Miami/Universal Gymnastics, and Steven Legendre of Port Jefferson, N.Y./University of Oklahoma.
Dalton will compete on floor exercise and horizontal bar, Legendre on the vault and Leyva joins Dalton in the high bar finals. The top four finishers on each event from today’s qualification round advanced to the finals.
On the floor exercise, Dalton was the top qualifier, posting a 15.500, ahead of Romania’s Flavius Koczi (15.166) and Great Britain’s Sam Oldham (15.066). Legendre finished 12th (14.066).
Legendre qualified to the vault final in fourth place with an two-vault average score of 13.999. Olympic champion Yang Hek Seon posted the top score on the event, 14.599. Dalton narrowly missed qualifying to the vault final in fifth with a score of 13.932.
Dalton and Leyva advanced to the high bar final, taking third and fourth place, respectively, with scores of 14.533 and 14.400. Russia’s Emin Garibov was the top qualifier (15.366).
Alexander Naddour of Gilbert, Ariz./USA Youth Fitness, also competed in today’s qualification rounds, posting 14.600 on pommel horse, finishing in a tie for eighth with Leyva.
In the still rings competition, Dalton posted a 14.866 (eighth), while Naddour earned a 14.733 for 10th place.
Leyva finished sixth on the parallel bars, scoring 15.400.