Alicia Sacramone and Rebecca Bross
© John Cheng

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands, Oct. 23, 2010 – Alicia Sacramone of Winchester, Mass., won the world vault title at the 2010 World Championships at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands. In addition, Rebecca Bross of Plano, Texas, won the bronze medal for the uneven bars. The World Championships conclude tomorrow with the last day of individual event finals.

"This week, Alicia demonstrated again how much value, leadership, and talent she brings to our program," said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. "She is very deserving of this fantastic achievement."

Sacramone won the vault gold medal with a 15.200, the average of her two vault scores. She is just the second U.S. woman to win the world vault title, and she now has one gold, one silver and two bronze world vault medals. Sacramone’s career world medal total is now nine (three gold, four silver and two bronze), tying Shannon Miller and Nastia Liukin as the U.S. women with the most world medals.

Sacramone, who trains at Brestyan’s American Gymnastics, first performed a front handspring Rudi, with a hop on the landing, for a 15.400. Her second vault was a Yurchenko double, which earned a 15.000. Sacramone was the first competitor on vault and had to wait through the remaining seven finalists for the outcome. The silver medal went to Russia’s Aliya Mustafina (15.066) and the bronze to Brazil’s Jade Fernandes Barbosa (14.799).

"I am glad to be back representing the U.S.," said Sacramone, who was a member of the 2008 Olympic silver-medal team. "To walk away like I did after the Olympics, with so many injuries and being disheartened after the Olympics, it’s nice to set my mind to something, work hard and come back and get a big reward for all the work that I’ve done. It makes it worthwhile. I’ve got a silver and a couple of bronze (medals) so it’s nice to complete my collection of vault medals."

On the uneven bars, Bross scored a 15.066 for the bronze medal. The USA’s Bridget Sloan of Pittsboro, Ind./Sharp’s Gymnastics, was fourth at 14.666. Great Britain’s Elizabeth Tweddle won the bars title with a 15.733, and Mustafina was second at 15.600.

Bross, who trains at WOGA, was the last competitor to compete on bars. She again hit her routine that includes a toe stalder full, toe hecht, in-bar stalder, in-bar blind to Jaeger, half-toe hect to the high bar, and a stuck double layout dismount.

"It (the finals) wasn’t much different from last year’s because I was last up on bars then too," said Bross, who won the all-around bronze medal earlier in the competition. "I’m very happy with how I did on bars today. I hit a pretty clean routine."

Sloan also had a solid routine that included a toe stalder, solid in-bar work, a toe hecht to the high bar and a stuck double layout dismount.

Photos by John Cheng

 

"I am very happy with fourth," said Sloan. "Coming up (to fourth) from last year – I was sixth –is perfect for me. Finishing right behind my teammate Becca is incredible. I’ve been coming back from a few injuries, and I’m so happy to compete on bars at the world level. Coming here and proving myself, that I was ready to go on bars, is a great feeling."

In the men’s floor exercise, Steven Legendre of Flower Mound, Texas, earned a 13.600 for his routine, which included a two-and-half, twisting double back, piked Arabian double front half out (with a hand down) and stuck his Arabian double front dismount. He missed on the landing of his punch two-and-a-half partway through the routine. Greece’s Eleftherios Kosmidis won the floor title, with China’s Chen Yibing claiming the men’s still rings title.

For individual events, the top eight on each apparatus from the qualification rounds advance to the finals (Oct. 23-24). A maximum of two gymnasts per country advances to the all-around and individual event finals. The U.S. gymnasts competing on the last day of event finals are: balance beam – Bross and Sacramone; floor exercise – Alexandra Raisman of Needham, Mass./Brestyan’s American Gymnastics; and horizontal bar – Chris Brooks of Houston/University of Oklahoma and Danell Leyva of Miami/Universal Gymnastics.

Fans can follow the action on both Universal Sports and NBC Sports. Universal Sports is carrying a live webcast on universalsports.com and providing same-day, tape-delayed primetime broadcasts on its cable network for all of the final rounds, as well as hosting "Around the Gym, presented by AT&T" after each night’s broadcast to recap the day’s performance and preview the upcoming competition. The live webcast for all of the final rounds is only $9.99 with the code USAGYMFAN. NBC Sports will broadcast coverage on Oct. 23 and 24. For the complete web and TV schedules, go to usagym.org/worlds.

On its official website usagym.org/worlds, USA Gymnastics will provide enhanced coverage from Rotterdam that will include results and exclusive photos from the competition as well as daily video interviews. USA Gymnastics will also post event updates on its Facebook and Twitter pages and provide LIVE team scores and rankings from each day of Team USA competition @USA_GymEvents.

In addition to awarding world medals, the 2010 World Championships also determine the 24 countries that advance to the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo. Countries have two opportunities to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games, finishing in the top eight in the team competition at the 2011 World Championships or in the top four at the 2012 Olympic Test Event in London. World champions and medalists will be determined for both men and women in the team, all-around and individual events.

2010 World Championships
Ahoy Arena
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Oct. 23, 2010
First of two days of individual event finals

Men’s floor exercise
1. Eleftherios Kosmidis, Greece, 15.700
2. Kohei Uchimura, Japan, 15.533
3. Daniel Purvis, Great Britain, 15.366
U.S. finish 8. Steven Legendre, Flower Mound, Texas, 13.600

Women’s vault
1. Alicia Sacramone, USA/Winchester, Mass., 15.200
2. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 15.066
3. Jade Fernandes Barbarosa, Brazil, 14.799

Men’s pommel horse
1. Krisztian Berki, Hungary, 15.833
2. Louis Smith, Great Britain, 15.733
3. Prashanth Sellathurai, Australia, 15.566

Women’s uneven bars
1. Elizabeth Tweddle, Great Britain, 15.733
2. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 15.600
3. Rebecca Bross, USA/Plano, Texas, 15.066
Other U.S. finish
4. Bridget Sloan, USA/Pittsboro, Ind., 14.666

Men’s still rings
1. Chen Yibing, China, 15.900
2. Yan Mingyong, China, 15.700
3. Matteo Morandi, Italy, 15.666