© John Cheng

IZMIR, Turkey, Sept. 24, 2014 — Jazzy Kerber of Highland Park, Ill./North Shore Rhythmic Gymnastics Center, continues to lead the way for the United States at the 2014 World Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Izmir, Turkey. Rebecca Sereda of Staten Island, N.Y./Isadora, also performed her ribbon routine in today’s competition, which was the third of four days of qualification.

The United States completes its qualification competition tomorrow and will perform their clubs routines at 10 a.m. local time/3 a.m. ET.

Sereda was first to perform for the USA, showing great connection to her music, Leona Lewis’ “Happy.” She earned a 15.516. Kerber followed with a routine set to “Hijo de la Luna.” She maintained her composure throughout her routine, despite having to pause momentarily to fix a knot in her ribbon, to score a 15.550.

After three events, Kerber is in 23rd place in the all-around with Sereda in 36th. The top 24 advance to Friday’s all-around final, based on their top three event scores with no more than two per country advancing.

USA Gymnastics will carry more than 15 hours of live web coverage of the finals at the World Rhythmic Championships. In addition to live coverage of the medal rounds, USA Gymnastics will provide archived coverage of Team USA’s routines during the individual qualification rounds. 

The complete live coverage schedule for this year’s Worlds is below and all times are Eastern. As the U.S. rights holder, USA Gymnastics’ coverage will only be available to viewers in the USA.

Thursday, Sept. 25
1 p.m. – Individual event finals (clubs and ribbon)

Friday, Sept. 26
9:30 a.m. – Individual all-around final (Group B, Rank 13-24)
1 p.m. – Individual all-around final (Group A, Rank 1-12)

Saturday, Sept. 27
8 a.m. – Groups General Competition (Part 1)
10:45 a.m. – Groups General Competition (Part 2)

Sunday, Sept. 28
8 a.m. – Group event finals (5 clubs and 3 balls/2 ribbons)

Fans can also find live scoring, start lists and results at fig-gymnastics.com, as well as extensive U.S. coverage at usagym.org and on the USA Gymnastics Facebook page and twitter feed (@usagym). The FIG’s Twitter handle is @officialFIG, and additional videos will be posted to the FIG’s YouTube Channel.

Rhythmic gymnastics is characterized by grace, beauty and elegance combined with dance and acrobatic elements, while working with ribbons, balls, hoops, ropes and clubs in a choreographed routine to music. The choreography must cover the entire floor and contain a balance of jumps, leaps, pivots and balances. Only four of the apparatus are competed each quad, and the four for 2016 are hoop, ball, clubs and ribbon. Each movement involves a high degree of athletic skill. Physical abilities needed by a rhythmic gymnast include strength, power, flexibility, agility, dexterity, endurance and hand-eye coordination.