International Gymnast

VT
UB
BB
FX
AA

MEN

6. 5 6. 3 6.0 6.0

9.333 7.600 9.266 9.000

15.833 13.900 15.266 14.900

6. 5 6. 9 6. 3 5. 8

9.066 8.866 8.633 7.866

15.566 15.766 * 14.833 13.666

5. 8 5. 4 6. 4 6.1

9.066 8.500 8.533 8.766

14.866 13.900 14.933 14.866

5. 8 6. 7 6.1 5. 7

8.933 8.433 6.733 8.833

14.733 15.133 12.833 14.533

6. 3 5. 4 5. 5 5. 5

8.500 8.266 8.466 8.166

14.800 13.666 13.966 13.666

5.0 5. 5 6. 5 5. 8

8.800 7.366 7.833 8.233

13.800 12.866 14.333 13.933

5.0 5.0 5. 7 5. 5

7.566 7.500 9.133 8.733

12.566 12.500 14.733 14.233

5.0 5. 8 5. 7 5. 8

8.633 6.866 7.533 7.300

13.633 12.666 13.233 * 13.000

*Reflects neutral deduction; event champions in red

1. Jordyn Wieber (United States)

1. Jonathan Horton (United States)

59.899

2. Aliya Mustafina (Russia)

2. Nikolai Kuksenkov (Ukraine)

59.831

3. Alexandra Raisman (United States)

3. Jake Dalton (USA)

58.565

4. Huang Qiushuang (China)

4. Koji Uematsu (Japan)

57.232

5. Ariella Käslin (Switzerland)

5. Cyril Tommasone (France)

56.098

6. Lauren Mitchell (Australia)

6. Philipp Boy (Germany)

54.932

7. Jessica Lopez (Venezuela)

7. Samuel Hunter (Great Britain)

54.032

8. Hannah Whelan (Great Britain)

8. Daniel Purvis (Great Britain)

52.532

(tucked, piked, and laid out) and a stuck layout full-out. His 14. 7 moved him up to fourth. Dalton showed excellent form on his Tkatchev-half and Yamawaki, and a 14.766 put him in third.

Tommasone needed to hit in order to pass Dalton, but he ended up in fifth after putting his hands down on a layout double-double dismount.

Kuksenkov knew he would have a hard time beating Horton but didn’t give up, throwing a high Tkatchev half, Kovacs, and a layout full-out (small hop). His 15.033 at least gave him a chance.

Horton responded with a killer routine of his own (Cassina, layout Kovacs). He equaled the Ukrainian’s score, and his 90.198 gave him his third American Cup.

Horton, who said he was only at 80 percent in Jacksonville, admitted that he gets nervous before high bar. “When you’re standing on the ground, you’re thinking of all the things that can go wrong on those release moves,” he said. “Sometimes it gets to you, and sometimes it helps you.” It certainly helped him here.

Having said he should have outscored Horton at
the 2010 world championships, Kuksenkov was
actually quite pleased with his finish here. “Second
place means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s very impor-
tant, because it’s difficult to beat Horton.”
Kuksenkov knows what he has to do to surpass the
U.S. champion, though: “To make more difficulty,
to make my exercises cleaner, and just to work
more.”
Horton and Kuksenkov are fierce competitors, as
are Wieber and Mustafina. And their battles in
Jacksonville could well have been a preview of what
we can expect at the Tokyo world championships
in October. That’s when we’ll see who has the win-
ning way. IG
Debbie Poe is a freelance photojournalist from New York.