Sloan, Bross Go 1-2 at Worlds!

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Americans Bridget Sloan and Rebecca Bross delivered a 1-2 punch at the 2009 Gymnastics World Championships today, earning gold and silver, respectively. Koko Tsumuri of Japan claimed bronze.

Sloan began the day with a nice Yurchenko double on vault and continued with a good set on bars that included a toe-on piked Tkatchev and a full-twisting double layout dismount. On beam she showed nice form, but had a number of balance checks throughout the set. In her final rotation on floor, she absolutely nailed a brilliant routine that included a 1 ½ through to triple, a piked full-in and a double pike dismount, sticking each pass with authority. Bross, in the lead after three, was later in the rotation so all Sloan could do was sit back and wait to see what Bross would deliver. With a falter from Bross on her final pass, the title belonged to Sloan.

“I didn’t even look at the scores or notice them,” Sloan, who was a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team that won the silver medal, said after the competition. “At the very end of the meet, Marvin (Sharp, her coach) came up and said, ‘Look,’ and I went, ‘Oh my gosh, did this just happen?’ Looking at how close it (the competition) was, that is about as close as you can get.”

“Rock solid” best describes Bross’ performance through the entire day up until her final skill of the day, where she had to count a fall on her 2 ½ to Barani pass on floor. Once again entering the arena with a focused, determined game face, Bross was aggressive in her attack of each event. She started with a solid Yurchenko double on vault and moved to bars where her releases moves soared high above the bar, perhaps the highest releases seen in women’s competition in years. Her full-twisting double back dismount was also sky-high. On beam, she planted each landing on the beam without a single wobble and dismounted with a nice Arabian double. On floor, all she had to do was hit her set cleanly and the title was hers (she only needed a 12.925 to win). She was sailing through her set and had one pass to go to complete the day, a 2 ½ to Barani… the 2 ½ was a little off and she didn’t get the punch she needed to complete the Barani after, forcing her to put her hands down and then count a fall. Her 12.875 would leave her in second, less than a tenth of a point from the title.

“I’m very happy with what I did tonight,” Bross said. “I had a mishap on floor on my last pass, but that happens and there is nothing I can do about it. I wasn’t really thinking about medals or scores. I was just trying to work on what I had to do and do it to the best of my abilities.”

Tsurumi was lovely and elegant throughout the day and showed unique sets with clean lines and a focus on execution to earn bronze.

Prelims crowd favorite Deng Linlin of China suffered a fall on beam (sheep jump), taking her out of contention for title. Other top finishers from the prelims round who were knocked out of the running for a podium position with falls today included Yang Yin (fall on full twisting double back bars dismount) and Russia’s Ekaterina Kurbatova (fall on bhs to layout pass on beam) and Ksenia Semenova (fall after Pak salto on bars) as well as 15-year-old Romanian Ana Porgras (fall on two foot layout on beam).

Sloan’s victory continues a streak of success for the U.S. women on the world scene, now owning three of the last four All-around titles (Chellsie Memmel in 2005, Shawn Johnson in 2007, Sloan in 2009) as well as the last two Olympic All-around titles (Carly Patterson in 2004, Nastia Liukin in 2008).

Up Next: Individual Apparatus Finals

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