BELGRADE, Serbia, July 12, 2009 – The USA’s Ava Gehringer of Evanston, Ill./North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center, and Rachel Marmer of Los Angeles/Eurogymnastics, were among the 10,000 athletes from around the globe at the World University Summer Games, July 1-13, in Belgrade, Serbia.

Russia’s Evgeniya Kanaeva, the 2008 Olympic all-around gold medalist, won the World University Games all-around title, with the Ukraine’s Anna Bessonova and Kazakhstan’s Aliya Yussupova taking second and third, respectively. The 2007 world all-around champ, Bessonova was third in the all-around at both the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games. Gehringer finished in 17th place in the all-around, with Marmer coming in at the 24th spot. Gehringer’s all-around score was 92.950, and she finished 16th in ball, 18th in both rope and ribbon and 19th in hoop. Marmer’s all-around total was 88.375.

Kanaeva won all four individual event titles, and Russia won the group all-around. The rhythmic gymnastics portion of the competition held in Belgrade Fair Hall 1 wrapped up on July 11.