Simone Biles Wins Worlds
Simone Biles and Kyla Ross teamed up for an American 1-2 in much the same fashion as Kohei Uchimura and Ryohei Kato did for Japan. Ross lead after the third rotation by the slimmest of margins, but Biles proved unbeatable with her amazing floaty tumbling: tucked double-double, double layout half-out (the Biles!), 2.5-twist punch layout front, tucked full-in. Ross demonstrated her trademark consistency and good form on her way to silver.
Simone Biles (USA), AA, 2013 World Championships
Kyla Ross (USA), AA, 2013 World Championships
Aliya Mustafina (RUS) managed to pull herself together for the bronze medal after a dismal qualifying round. She has an uncanny ability to capture a crowd’s attention, and her gymnastics really looks fabulous with the exception of her form on the triple twist on floor. Iordache would have been in a tight race for bronze if not for the unfortunate fall from beam, arguably her best event. I’m sure she’ll be seeking revenge in beam finals on the weekend.
Aliya Mustafina (RUS), AA, 2013 World Championships
It’s a pity Jessica Lopez (VEN) withdrew from the All Around, allowing Vasiliki Millousi (GRE) in, because she qualified in 11th spot and would have been even higher if not for a fall from one of her best events, the uneven bars. Here’s her routine from preliminaries.
Jessica Lopez (VEN), Qualifying Round Uneven Bars, 2013 World Championships
Victoria Moors (CAN) will have her layout double-double named after her, having successfully completed it in the All Around. The 14.633 awarded for her stylish floor routine was the third highest of all gymnasts today, behind Biles and Larisa Iordache (ROU). She did well to finish in 10th place, but could have placed much higher if it weren’t for the 12.300 beam score. Teammate Ellie Black (CAN) had a great beam routine for 14.133 (5th highest score) but just couldn’t put it together on her signature events, vault and floor, for 13th place all around.
Victoria Moors (CAN), AA Floor Exercise, 2013 World Championships
Larisa Iordache (ROU), AA Floor Exercise, 2013 World Championships
And the 2013 Longines Prizes for Elegance are awarded to…drum roll, please…Kohei Uchimura and Kyla Ross!
Longines Prizes for Elegance, 2013 World Championships
October 6th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
Great to see Biles pull through from trailing Ross after three rotations. But will we see her in Rio?? Sure she’s young enough … but so were Sloan and Bross who went one-two in 2009 and neither made the team in 2012.