APPARATUS FINALS
KOMOVA won two more gold medals on day one of event finals, while three different gymnasts won the men’s events. As she had been in the
all-around, Komova was unbeatable again on vault
and uneven bars. Her difficulty was far superior on
vault, where she performed a Yurchenko- 21⁄2 ( 6. 5
Difficulty) and a Yurchenko-double ( 5. 8). Silver
medalist Maria Vargas (Spain) and bronze medalist
Ferlito both performed vaults of Yurchenko-full
( 5.0) and Yurchenko-layout ( 4. 4).
On uneven bars, Komova brushed her feet on
the mat after her Pak salto but still floated away
with the title. She did her trademark inside-Stalder
to Shaposhnikova-half, followed by a layout Jaeger;
inside-Stalder, inside-Stalder-full to Tkatchev to
Pak; and full-out dismount with a hop.
All-around runner-up Tan matched Komova’s
6. 5 Difficulty score on uneven bars with a fluid routine that featured plenty of elgrip work and both
piked and straddled Jaegers. Again, the execution
judges penalized Tan heavily ( 7.625), leaving her
and coach He Hua disappointed with second.
Adlerteg performed cleanly for the bars bronze,
throwing elgrip giants into a Jaeger and dismounting with a double layout. Canada’s Madeline
Gardiner, however, hit her face on the bar during a
On men’s floor exercise, Ernesto Vila Sarria won
gold in a rare appearance by a Cuban gymnast. He
edged all-around silver medalist Stepko, whose tumbling was more impressive (full-in dismount compared with the winner’s double twist) but not stuck.
All-around bronze medalist Zhu picked up another
third-place medal here. All-around champion
Kamoto fell on his opening pass of 21⁄2 twist, punch
front layout-full and finished eighth.
After two silver medals, Stepko claimed gold on
the pommel horse with a strong routine. Oldham
was second ahead of Kazachkov, who had the highest Execution score of the final ( 9.05).
Muntean won gold for Romania on still rings, finishing ahead of Kamoto and Spain’s Nestor Abad.
Erdenebold Ganbat of the unknown Mongolian
team had the highest Difficulty score of the rings
final ( 5. 5) to place fifth.
In the wake of mistakes from all-around champion Komova, Tan claimed the final two women’s
titles with near perfect routines. She nailed her
acrobatics on beam, including a high two-foot layout to Korbut; switch Yang Bo; front tuck; and a
front aerial to sheep jump. She took one step to the
side on her dismount (two flip-flops to 21⁄2 twist) to
earn 15.550 ( 6.3/9.25).
