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TEN WINNERS IN TOYOTA CITY
A week after the Good Luck Beijing test event,
Japan hosted some of the world’s best gymnast
at the first Toyota International Invitational, a
World Cup meet held Dec. 8-9, 2007, in Toyota
City. No gymnast won more than one title, but
Romania’s Steliana Nistor and Japan’s Hisashi Mizutori earned three medals each.
Six-event competitor Jorge Giraldo of
Colombia is heading toward his second Olympic
Games, having earned a berth to this summer’s
Beijing Games based on his performance at the
2007 World Championships. Born Sept. 5,
1979, in Medellin, Giraldo placed 32nd all-around in prelims at the ’04 Athens Olympics.
• Nistor, Mizutoriearnhattricksin Toyota City
• Romanialoses Catalina Ponortoretirement
• Klimenkopassesawayon65thbirthday
BY JOHN CRUMLISH
HB:1. Mizutori 15.70; 2. Robert Weber GER 15. 45; 3.
Brian Gladow GER 15.05.
U.S. DOMINATES JR. PAN AMS
American gymnasts swept the women’s and
men’s all-around and won the team titles at the
Junior Pan American Championships, held Nov.
23-26 in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Mattie Larson of the U.S. bested teammates
Jordyn Wieber and Chelsea Davis for the
women’s all-around gold medal. At the 2007
U.S. junior championships, Larson, Wieber and
Davis finished sixth, third and fourth all-around,
respectively. Based on her performance in
Guatemala City, Larson was named the U.S.
Olympic Committee’s Female Athlete of the
Month for November.
The top non-American finishers were Canadians Christine (Peng-Peng) Lee and Dominique Pegg, who placed fourth and sixth all-around. During 2007, each gymnast performed
well in both junior and senior events. Lee was
second all-around at the Canadian junior championships, fifth all-around at the Pan American
Games, and second all-around at Elite Canada.
Pegg was fifth all-around at the Canadian junior
championships, and fourth all-around and first
on vault at the Romanian International.
THOMAS SCHRE YER
In the men’s all-around, U.S. gymnast Steven
Legendre placed first over teammates Glen
Ishino and Alexy Bilozertchev. Legendre was
19th all-around and third on vault at the 2007
U.S. championships. Ishino and Bilozertchev
were second and first, respectively, in the 16-
18 age group at the ’07 U.S. championships.
Women’s VT: 1. Oksana Chusovitina GER 15. 15; 2.
Keiko Mukumoto JPN 14. 10; 2. Alina Kozich UKR
14. 10.
UB: 1. Irina Krasnyanskaya UKR 15.65; 2. Steliana
Nistor ROM 15.55; 3. Bridget Sloan USA 15. 30.
BB:1. Nistor 15.90; 2. Chellsie Memmel USA 15.65;
3. Koko Tsurumi JPN15.45.
FX: 1. Memmel 15.55; 2. Nistor 15. 20; 3. Sloan
15.05.
Men’s FX: 1. Kim Dae Eun KOR 15. 30; 2. Hisashi
Mizutori JPN 15. 25; 3. Marcel Nguyen GER 15.05.
PH:1. Krisztian Berki HUN 16.00; 2. Louis Smith GBR
15.80; 3. Daniel Popescu ROM.
SR: 1. Yuri van Gelder NED 16. 35; 2. Dimosthenis
Tambakos GRE 16. 10; 3(t). Takyua Nakase JPN,
Mizutori 15.75.
VT: 1. Popescu 15.80; 2. Jeffrey Wammes NED
15.775; 3. Nakase 15.675.
PB: 1. Shun Kuwahara JPN 15.65; 2. Kim 15.60; 3.
Hiroyuki Tomita JPN 15.55.
FX:1. Larson 14.925; 2. Lee 14. 45; 3. Wieber 14. 30.
Team: 1. USA 262.933; 2. BRA 252.566; 3. ARG
240.832.
AA: 1. Steven Legendre USA 87.032; 2. Glen Ishino
USA 86.967; 3. Alexy Bilozertchev USA 86.534; 4.
Danell Leyva USA 85.866; 5. Petrix Barbosa BRA
84.334; 6. Sergio Eras BRA 83.165; 7. Nicolas Cordoba ARG 81.866; 8. Fabian Meza COL 81.834; 9. Pericles Silva BRA 81.566; 10. Arthur Zanetti BRA 81.434
FX: 1. Zanetti 14.70; 2. Bilozertchev 14.575; 3. Barbosa 14.55.
PH: 1. Meza 14.875; 2. Bilozertchev 14.375; 3. Eras
13.80.
SR:1. Zanetti 14.725; 2. Ishino 14. 20; 3. Eras 13.75.
VT: 1. Didier Lugo COL 15.125; 2. Zanetti 14.988; 3.
Mauro Martinez ARG 14.80.
PB: 1. Meza 14.70; 2. Bilozertchev 14.575; 3. Lugo
13.95.
HB: 1. Leyva 15.475; 2. Cordoba 14.475; 3. Silva
14.375.
KAZAKHSTAN, IRAN RULE ASIA JRS.
Kazakhstan and Iran won every title at the 10th
Asian junior championships, held Nov. 27-Dec.
1, 2007, in Damascus. Men’s all-around champion Hadi Khannari Nejad of Iran, age 17,
placed 104th in prelims at the 2007 worlds.
Ponor Retires
OLYMPIC champion Catalina Ponor
announced her retirement in
December because of a back injury.
The 20-year-old native of Constanta,
Romania, won three silver medals
at her first world championships,
in 2003 (team, beam, floor),
then claimed golds in the same
three events at the 2004 Olympics. Ponor won one medal at
the 2005 Worlds, the bronze on
beam. After winning the 2006
European beam title in Volos,
Greece, Ponor said she was
through. However, she returned in
2007 and helped Romania win the
bronze at the Stuttgart Worlds,
her final major competition.
Women’s Team:1. USA 177.501; 2. CAN 168.634; 3.
BRA 161.434.
AA:1. Mattie Larson USA 59.217; 2. Jordyn Wieber
USA 59.167; 3. Chelsea Davis USA 58.267; 4.
Peng-Peng (Christine) Lee CAN 58.017; 5. Olivia
Courtney USA 57.10; 6. Dominique Pegg CAN
55.717; 7. Khiunai Dias BRA 55.05; 8. Jessica
Savona CAN 54.40; 9. Ethiene Franco BRA
53.717; 10. Emely Monzon GUA 53.60.
VT: 1. Pegg 13.925; 2. Lee 13.70; 3. Gretta
Scheuch PER 13.60.
UB:1. Wieber 15.00; 2. Larson 14.95; 3. Franco 14. 25.
BB: 1. Wieber 15. 10; 2. Davis 14.825; 3. Monzon
14.425.
Women’s Team: 1. KAZ 136.65; 2. SYR 127.85; 3.
IND 107.10.
Women’s AA: 1. Perizat Akhmetova KAZ 45.95; 2.
Togzan Manasova KAZ 45.50; 3. Aicha Shaheen SYR
45. 35; 4. Dana Al Zahhouri SYR 41.75; 5. Apoorva
Srivastava IND 38.05; 6. Shalu Mishra IND 34.75.
Men’s Team: 1. IRI 241.55; 2. KAZ 235.55; 3. IND
230.90.
Men’s AA: 1. Hadi Khannari Nejad IRI 81.70; 2.
Mohammad Mahdi Gaeenie IRI 80.35; 3. Stanislav
Valiyev KAZ 79.15; 4. Firas Balhawan SYR 78.30; 5.
Ashish Kumar IND 78.20; 6. Vildan Sharafutdinov
KAZ 76.55.
GORYUNOVA, STOLYAROV MASTERS
Kristina Goryunova of Novgorod and Dmitry
Stolyarov of Moscow won the Master of Sport
all-around titles at the Russian junior championships, held Nov. 12-17, 2007, in Vladimir.
Maximum ages were 17 (girls) and 18 (boys).
Winner of the girls’ Candidate for Master of
Sport title was Viktoria Komova, the daughter
of 1986 Goodwill Games all-around champion
