said she was satisfied with her performance. “I’m
very proud of myself,” she said. “I wanted to go out
there and do my best and make all my routines. I
did that and I’m happy with the result.” This was
only the beginning for her, though. “Seeing how
good I did now shows me how much I can push
myself and do better later.”
MEN’S COMPETITION
WITH a field that included two previ- ous American Cup winners, two Beijing Olympic high bar medalists,
a pair of European all-around champions, and a
couple of world all-around silver medalists, the
men’s competition promised to be considerably
more exciting than the women’s. And it was.
The men were divided into two groups for the
first two events, floor and pommel horse, and two-time American Cup champion Jonathan Horton
started on pommels, his worst event. He made it
through without a fall or major break, however, to
land in fifth on that apparatus. On floor, he began
his charge toward another title with a 11⁄
2 twist to
punch front-double twist; layout Thomas; and
tucked full-in. His 15.20 tied for the second-highest
score on that event.
Horton’s main challenger was 2007 European
champ Devyatovsky, who had finished third at the
’07 American Cup and was hoping to have a bet-
ABOVE: Alexandra Raisman
(USA) showed poise in her
first senior meet by winning vault and placing second AA.
ABOVE LEFT: Former U. of
Denver gymnast Jessica
Lopez (Venezuela) placed
second on bars and third
AA.
LEFT: A low score on bars
left Ariella Käslin (
Switzerland) in fourth place, but
she tied for second on
vault, the event on which
she is the 2009 world silver medalist.
