© John Cheng

ZIBO CITY, China, April 7, 2012 – 2011 World team bronze-medalist Steven Legendre of Port Jefferson, N.Y./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Oklahoma), and 2011 World parallel bars champion Danell Leyva of Miami/Team Hilton HHonors (Universal Gymnastics), advanced to the final rounds in the China World Cup in Zibo City, China.

Legendre will compete in the finals for both floor exercise and vault, and Leyva qualified for the horizontal bar finals. The final round is Sunday, April 8, and scores from the prelims do not carry forward.

In the floor exercise, Legendre’s 15.150 landed him in second place in the preliminary round, finishing behind Israel’s Alexander Shatilov at 15.300. Greece’s Eleftherios Kosmidis rounded out the top three at 15.025. Alex Naddour of Gilbert, Ariz./Team Hilton HHonors (USA Youth Fitness Center), posted a 14.100.

On vault, Legendre scored a 15.825 and a 14.925 for his vaults and a two-score average of 15.375 to earn a spot in the finals. Romania’s Flavius Koczi had the top average in the prelims at 15.812, followed by Poland’s Marcik Lyszczarz at 15.712 and the Ukraine’s Igor Radivilov at 15.625.

Leyva earned the highest prelim score on the horizontal bar at 15.425. Rounding out the top three are China’s Zhang Chenglong at 15.300 and Canada’s Jackson Payne at 14.800.

Naddour just missed advancing to the pommel horse finals, placing fifth at 14.500. Britain’s Louis Smith had the event’s highest prelim score at 15.825. Naddour also competed on the still rings and earned a 14.425; Greece’s Eleftherios Petrounias had the top score at 15.650. Both Legendre (14.375) and Leyva (14.050) competed in the parallel bars prelim but did not make the finals; China’s Feng Zhe had the event’s highest prelim score at 15.500.