Men’s Floor Exercise

1. Kenzo Shirai (JPN) won the qualifying round by such a margin that the gold medal was his to lose. The best was saved for last, and Shirai performed 18.25 twists with fantastic landings before nailing his QUADRUPLE twist at the end of the routine. He looked elated at the end, and even King Kohei was on his feet for this one. Score: 16.000.

2. Jake Dalton (USA) won the silver medal with great form and some high-flying tumbling including a layout Arabian double front and a whip immediate piked Arabian double front. Video from prelims.

3. Kohei Uchimura (JPN) earned the bronze medal thanks in large part to his exemplary technique and his extraordinary landings. Interestingly, he had the lowest D score and the highest E score (9.100) in the 8-man field. I was wondering if he would pull out the triple twisting double tuck in the finals, but that tricky skill turned out to be a gamble not worth taking.

Rounding out the Top 8: Daniel Purvis (GBR), Digeo Hypolito (BRA), Steven Legendre (USA), Fabian Hambüchen (GER) and Scott Morgan (CAN). Poor Legendre had to compete with a butterfly fluttering around the floor mat!

Women’s Vault

1. McKayla Maroney (USA) was on a mission after her Olympic disappointment. It’s such a cliché to say she makes it look easy…but she does! Maroney threw down two excellent vaults (Amanar, Mustafina) to edge out her teammate.

2. Simone Biles (USA) came really close to Maroney’s vaulting average (15.724 to 15.595) and she too performed a superb Amanar as a first vault. Biles’s layout Podkopayeva second vault earned a 9.658 E score, but the D score just wasn’t high enough to beat the defending World Champion.

3. Hong Un Jong (PRK) performed a fantastic Amanar with a large step forward on the landing, and a RO-half-on layout Rudi with a large step back. Her high start values were enough to capture the bronze medal.

Rounding out the Top 8: Giulia Steingruber (SUI), Oksana Chusovitina (UZB), Phan Thi Ha Thanh (VIE), Yamilet Pena Abreu (DOM) and Chantysha Netteb (NED). Pena fell on both of her vaults, and poor Netteb hurt her knee on her first vault, a Yurchenko double twist.

Pommel Horse

1. Kohei Kameyama (JPN) proved there’s more than one Kohei on the block, and now they both have the same number of World apparatus gold medals: one! Kameyama displayed some really nice scissor to handstand combinations and one-pommel work at the beginning of his routine.

2. Daniel Corral Barron (MEX) and Max Whitlock (GBR) tied for the silver medal on this event. Corral Barron is the first male gymnast from his country to qualify to a World final (he also placed 5th on parallel bars at last year’s Olympic Games), and therefore the first to win a medal for Mexico. He swung high above the horse. Whitlock, who won pommel horse bronze medals at the Olympics and at the Europeans earlier this year, lost rhythm as he came down from a handstand, but managed to stay on and finish up well. His D score of 7.200 certainly helped him stay in the medals.

Rounding out the Top 8: 2009 champion Zhang Hongtao (CHN), Alberto Busnari (ITA), Robert Seligman (CRO) with the highest E score, Matvei Petrov (RUS) and Prashanth Sellathurai (AUS).

Uneven Bars

1. Huang Huidan (CHN) displayed gorgeous pirouettes, difficult transitions and a nice piked Jaeger topped off with a stuck full-twisting double back. It would have been a Chinese 1-2 with Huang in the silver medal position if Yao Jinnan had caught her Mo salto.

2. Kyla Ross (USA) had the highest E score of the competition despite some loose leg form in the first half of the routine. Nevertheless, she showed lovely lines and solid handstand positions and a stuck double layout dismount. Video from qualifications.

3. Aliya Mustafina (RUS) has added a Stalder-full toe-on full-twisting Shaposhnikova (Seitz) combinations to her routine since the Olympic Games and she nailed it here. She did the same 1.5-twisting double back dismount that helped her win Olympic Gold, but unfortunately this time she had to shuffle her feet upon landing.

Rounding out the Top 8: Simone Biles (USA), Sophie Scheder (GER), Yao Jinnan (CHN), Ruby Harrold (GBR), Beckie Downie (GBR).

Rings

1. Arthur Nabarrete Zanetti (BRA) showed some tremendous strength holds and he did a fabulous full-twisting double layout, but it seemed the rings were swaying back and forth ever so slightly throughout much of his routine.

2. Aleksandr Balandin (RUS) made a press to planche from a still hang look easy! He used his long lines to his advantage in his swing elements, and took a slight hop back after the same dismount as Zanetti.

3. Brandon Wynn (USA) made the most of his 6.700 D score, the lowest of the 8 finalists, and clinched the bronze with a good effort and a stuck full-twisting double layout of his own.

Rounding out the Top 8: Liu Yang (CHN) was fantastic on the apparatus but landed a bit too low to grab a medal, Lambertus “Yuri” van Gelder (NED), Samir Aït Saïd (FRA), Koji Yamamuro (JPN) and Danny Pinheiro Rodrigues (FRA). Pinheiro Rodrigues had a great routine going, complete with two of his signature Victorians, but unfortunately got caught up in the air on his full-twisting double layout and ended up falling. I felt so sad for Yamamuro, last to go, watching him pray for a medal while waiting for his score to come up. He did an amazing job, complete with a decent landing on a very difficult double-twisting double layout dismount, only to end up in 7th. This just goes to show the quality of the field.

“Shusuke Kikuchi!”…”Jad Mazahreh!”…the announcer put on some great accents as he presented the gymnasts at the second annual Montreal World Cup. Although the field was a bit sparse, there was some great gymnastics on display.

The class of the field on floor exercise was Japanese Shusuke Kikuchi, who won by 0.65 over teammate Kyoichi Watanabe and Canadian Kevin Lytwyn. His routine included three double layouts: layout Arabian double front, layout half-in half-out to punch front-1 1/4, and a double layout dismount. Throw in three more twisting passes, and there’s your winner!

Shusuke Kikuchi (JPN), Floor Exercise, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Jordanian Ali Al Asi showed some interesting skills as well, starting with a double-twisting double layout, showing off a really low planche hold, and ending with a double layout (hands down).

Ali Al Asi (JOR), Floor Exercise, 2010 Montreal World Cup

The Finns had two young gymnasts in the floor final, Sakari Vekki (who qualified in second place behind Kikuchi) and Tomi Tuuha. The Austrians also had two gymnasts at the Montreal World Cup: Marco Mayr, who qualified to most of the event finals, and Julian Egermann, who ended up only competing on vault. He was set to perform in the floor final as well, but he suffered a scary fall to his back during the general warm up and appeared to have the wind knocked out of him.

The crowd was treated to one of the international stars on pommel horse. Krisztian Berki of Hungary displayed superb extension and a lengthy routine on his way to the gold medal, 1.15 points over silver medallist Canadian Ken Ikeda.

Krisztian Berki (HUN), Pommel Horse, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Kevin Lytwyn gave the home crowd something to cheer for with his rings routine. He defeated Ali Al Asi, who led the field in qualifications, with steady iron crosses and a stick on his layout full-out dismount.

Kevin Lytwyn (CAN), Rings, 2010 Montreal World Cup (and Maria Karpova’s beam!)

Nathan Gafuik provided the other gold medal for the Canadian team on vault with his Yurchenko-2.5 (stuck!) and his tucked double front (just about stuck!). Kikuchi and Tomi Tuuha (FIN) were both close on Gafuik’s heels, each with a Kasamatsu-2.5 and a layout Rudi.

Nathan Gafuik (CAN), Vault 2, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Tomi Tuuha (FIN), Vault 1, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Kyoichi Watanabe showed a lightness in his clean work on parallel bars to win the title on this event. The two Canadians placed second and third, and they were the only gymnasts to perform double backs between the bars (a Belle for Ikeda and a Morisue for Lytwyn). Tomi Tuuha dismounted with a not-often-seen layout front full.

Kyoichi Watanabe (JPN), Parallel Bars, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Ken Ikeda (CAN), Parallel Bars, 2010 Montreal World Cup

High bar was as exciting as always, with a field that included Slovenian Aljaz Pegan performing his signature release skill. It’s funny to see Pegan in training with his legs everywhere, but then in competition he showed the Montreal crowd the routine and the excellent form that has won him so many medals. This time he lost the title by just 0.1 despite putting his hands down on his triple back dismount.

Topping the field was Kohei Kameyama, bringing home the third gold of this competition to his native Japan. The highlight of his routine for me was not so much his super Kolman or the layout full-out dismount, but his exquisite toepoint! It’s hard to see with his competition socks on, but I have never seen a male gymnast with such a great toepoint before. It was reminiscent of Lilia Podkopayeva and the Fraguas sisters! Canadian Jackson Payne grabbed the bronze medal despite a fall after an Endo-full to layout Jaeger. He ended with a stuck double twisting double layout.

Kohei Kameyama (JPN), High Bar, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Aljaz Pegan (SLO), High Bar, 2010 Montreal World Cup

Jackson Payne (CAN), High Bar, 2010 Montreal World Cup

And there you have it…. This is only the second time this city has hosted the Montreal World Cup event, and I’m looking forward to attending in years to come. Last year the women’s side had a very small field and it was cancelled altogether this time around, but hopefully in the years to come this meet will develop into a competition as great as the DTB Cup and the Glasgow Grand Prix.