ABOVE: Defending champ Fabian Hambüchen
(Germany) was not in top form and placed fourth.
ABOVE RIGHT: Chris Brooks (USA) placed third AA
and won floor, p-bars and high bar.
RIGHT: Daniel Keatings (Great Britain) won pommels and finished fifth AA.
FAR RIGHT: Japan’s Koji Yamamuro was the top
vaulter and sixth overall.
on an apparatus. His high bar featured a
Yamawaki-Gienger combo, layout Tkatchev, a one-
arm giant, and double-twisting double (small hop)
for a 15.80 and third all-around. Brooks, whose
dad died tragically last year, said, “I know he was
looking at me and watching over me today.”
With Horton done for the day, Devyatovsky
knew what he had to do to maintain his lead. “I
tried not to think about my previous mistake [in
2007],” he said. “When you are leading and when
you really want to win, there’s high pressure and
tons of thoughts in your head.”
Although his high bar routine didn’t feature many
crowd-pleasing moves—he admitted later that he
had watered down to have a better chance of suc-
cess—the audience broke into loud cheers when he
stuck his full-twisting double layout dismount. And
he broke into a huge smile.
Germany’s Fabian Hambüchen (defending Cup
champion, 2009 European victor, Beijing high bar
Brooks Draws Inspiration
From Late Father
CHRIS Brooks (right) lost his father in a car accident in
2008, but used a piece of
parental advice to help him
overcome that tragedy. As a
high schooler, Brooks broke his
arm badly on high bar and
endured multiple surgeries.
Eventually, a hand-and-arm
specialist told Brooks and his
father that it would not be safe
for the boy to continue gymnastics.
Recalls Brooks, “My dad
looked at me and said, ‘All
right, you got dealt a bad hand
of cards. Do you want to cry
about it, or do you want to do
something about it?’ Of course,
I said, ‘Let’s do something
about it.’
“So that’s kind of the way I
took [my father’s death]. It’s
just one of those things, and
it’s horrible, but I took it and
used it as motivation. Some-
times in the gym, when I don’t
want to do anything, I’ll talk to
him.” —D.P.
