After a marathon of three qualifying sessions in London, Japan’s Kohei Uchimura was the leading qualifier going into Thursday’s all-around finals at the 2009 World Men’s Gymnastics Championships.  Uchimura was at the top of his game tallying the day’s highest score of 90.925.  Hitting on all six events, Uchimura had scores of at least 15.00 on every event except for pommel horse (14.75).  His floor and high bar routines were outstanding, and his 15.775 was the highest score of the day on floor.  Uchimura undoubtedly remains the prohibitive favorite to win the all-around title.

Tim McNeill and Jonathan Horton finished in the top five in the all-around to advance to Thursday’s finals.  The consistent McNeill picked up where he left off at VISAs, and he had the day’s third highest all-around score (88.775).  He also qualified for the event finals on pommel horse with a solid 15.35.  Horton, despite falling on pommel horse, easily advanced to the finals by placing fifth (88.00).  His 15.325 on high bar also clinched a spot for him in the event finals.

Danell Leyva hit it big on high bar (15.45) to compete again in Sunday’s finals, while Steven Legendre held on to advance to Saturday’s floor finale (15.475).  This was fantastic news that two of our youngest gymnasts made it to the finals in their first world championships.  A week-long illness probably cost Jake Dalton a spot in the vault finals.  Dalton hit his first vault (15.85), but fell short on his second attempt.  Wes Haagensen, in his Worlds debut, came up short on pommel horse (13.875) and on rings (14.875).

There were some incredible scores turned in on pommel horse.  China’s Zhang Hongtao nailed an incredible 16.275, and Hungary’s Krisztian Berki immediately followed with a 16.10.  The Chinese dominated on the individual apparatus by having the highest scores on pommel horse, rings, parallel bars and high bar.

The top five all-around positions were nailed down in the first two sessions, but the third session proved to be a free-for-all for the remaining event finals positions.  Some notable gymnasts who failed to make event finals were Brazil’s Diego Hypolito on floor and China’s Chen Yibing on rings.  The top 24 all-arounders advanced to Thursday’s finals, and the top eight finishers on each apparatus advanced to Saturday and Sunday’s event finals.

Six gymnasts advanced to the finals on two events.  Uchimura qualified on floor and high bar (15.25), giving him three legitimate chances to medal.  Epke Zonderland (NED) will compete again on parallel bars (15.175) and high bar (15.30).  China’s Zou Kai had the highest score on high bar (15.60), and he also qualified on floor (15.675).  Romania’s Flavius Koczi qualified on pommel horse (15.625) and vault (16.362, and Germany’s Matthias Fahrig also advanced on vault (16.012) and floor (15.525).  Finally, aren’t we lucky Romania’s Marian Dragulescu chose not to retire?  Drag came up big on floor (15.725) and vault (16.362) to easily qualify for the finals.

Here are the top all-around qualifiers:

1. Kohei Uchimura (JPN) – 90.925
2. Maxim Devyatovskiy (RUS) – 89.35
3. Tim McNeill (USA) – 88.775
4. Daniel Keatings (GBR) – 88.40
5. Jonathan Horton (USA) – 88.00
6. Mykola Kuksenkov (UKR) – 87.75
7. Alexander Shatilov (ISR) – 87.425
8. Yury Ryazanov (RUS) – 86.95
9. Kristian Thomas (GBR) – 86.80
10. Kazuhito Tanaka (JPN) – 86.65

Here are the event finalists:

FX

1. Kohei Uchimura (JPN) – 15.775
2. Marian Dragulescu (ROU) – 15.725
3. Zou Kai (CHN) – 15.675
4. Gonzalez Sepulveda (CHI) – 15.575
5. Matthias Fahrig (GER) – 15.525
6. Alexander Shatilov (ISR) – 15.475
7. Steven Legendre (USA) – 15.475
8. Makoto Okiguchi (JPN) – 15.425

PH

1. Zhang Hongtao (CHN) – 16.275
2. Krisztian Berki (HUN) – 16.10
3. Louis Smith (GBR) – 15.90
4. Flavius Koczi (ROU) – 15.625
5. P. Sellathurai (AUS) – 15.575
6. Cyril Tommasone (FRA) – 15.45
7. Robert Seligman (CRO) – 15.35
8. Tim McNeill (USA) – 15.35

SR

1. Yan Mingyong (CHN) – 15.90
2. Pinheiro Rodrigues (FRA) – 15.625
3. Iordan Iovtchev (BUL) – 15.60
4. Oleksandr Borobiov (UKR) – 15.55
5. Matteo Morandi (ITA) – 15.45
6. G. Stanescu (ROU) – 15.45
7. Samir Ait (FRA) – 15.35
8. Zanetti Nabarrete (BRA) 15.2 5

VT

1. Anton Golotsutskov (RUS) – 16.412
2. Marian Dragulescu (ROU) – 16.362
3. Flavius Koczi (ROU) – 16.337
4. Thomas Bouhail (FRA) – 16.312
5. Ri Se Gwang (PRK) – 16.262
6. Isaac Botella Perez (ESP) – 16.112
7. Matthias Fahrig (GER) – 16.012
8. Jeffrey Wammes (NED) – 15.982

PB

1. Feng Zhe (CHN) – 15.95
2. Wang Guanyin (CHN) – 15.80
3. Kazuhito Tanaka (JPN) – 15.60
4. Adam Kierzkowski (POL) – 15.375
5. Vasileios Tsolakidis (GRE) – 15.375
6. Yann Cucherat (FRA) – 15.375
7. Yoo Won Chul (KOR) – 15.30
8. Epke Zonderland (NED) – 15.175

HB

1. Zou Kai (CHN) – 15.60
2. Igor Cassina (ITA) – 15.50
3. Aljaz Pegan (SLO) – 15.475
4. Danell Leyva (USA) – 15.45
5. Jonathan Horton (USA) – 15.325
6. Epke Zonderland (NED) – 15.30
7. Kohei Uchimura (JPN) – 15.25
8. Aliaksandr Tsarevich (BLR) – 15.10

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