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Where EAST meets the Northwest

GRACE UNDER PRESSURE. China’s Yao Jinnan performs on the horizontal bar during the women’s team final at the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships held in Tokyo, Japan. China won the bronze medal with 172.820 points. The United States won the women’s title with 179.411 points, finishing four points ahead of Russia, last year’s champion. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

From The Asian Reporter, V21, #20 (October 17, 2011), pages 1 & 10.

By Nancy Armour

AP National Writer

TOKYO — The United States won the women’s title at the world gymnastics championships in a commanding performance ahead of next year’s London Olympics.

The Americans scored 179.411 points, finishing four points ahead of Russia, last year’s champion. It is the first title for the U.S. since 2007. China won the bronze medal with 172.820 points.

A lackluster performance by China in the qualifying round was enough to give it an early lead, but wasn’t enough to retain the top spot. The Chinese scored well despite major errors on the uneven bars, which is normally their best event.

China has lacked spark since winning the gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, finishing third at last year’s world championships. But even so, the recent showing, particularly the meltdown on the uneven bars, was stunning.

Bars is China’s trademark, with one routine more difficult than the next. The Chinese are as precise as they are elegant, and mistakes are few and far between. Not on October 8, however. The Chinese had to count two scores below 14 after big mistakes by three gymnasts, including Olympic champion He Kexin.

Tan Sixin got in trouble first, losing her rhythm on the low bar and taking a couple of extra swings to regroup. Her 13.866 didn’t seem so bad, because teams get to drop their lowest score and China still had four more gymnasts to go. But Jiang Yuyuan stalled three times, including twice on pirouettes.

He’s errors were the most costly. Her routines are filled with difficult, intricate skills, and she normally completes them with ease. But after throwing herself off the bar and doing a somersault behind it, she reached out to regrip the bar and was only able to brush it with her fingertips. She dropped to the ground as the crowd gasped.

The Americans were dealt a blow recently when Beijing Olympic team captain Alicia Sacramone tore her Achilles tendon, leaving them with Aly Raisman as the only one who’d competed at a world championship before. But the young competitors oozed confidence from the moment they stepped on the floor.

"Team USA is really strong," Raisman said, "and we’re just going to keep getting stronger."

"I was hoping for it, but I could not be 100 percent sure because there were so many newcomers," said national team coordinator Martha Karolyi, beaming. "These girls were standing up very confident, very powerful out there."

Alexander Alexandrov, Russia’s coach, insisted he was more than "satisfied" with the second-place finish. The Russians were without defending world champion Aliya Mustafina, who injured her knee in April, and Alexandrov said Anna Dementyeva had been running a fever in recent days.

The Americans cruised through qualifying without a single missed routine. Team finals offer a different type of pressure. Scoring starts from scratch and the format changes, with three gymnasts competing on each event and all three scores counting.

"I just told them, ‘We’re going to remember this night for the rest of our lives, so let’s make it count,"’ Raisman said.

"There’s only one better way to follow a 20-for-20 performance (in qualifying), and that’s 12-for-12 in team finals," U.S. coach John Geddert said. "I think they’re oblivious. I didn’t see one ounce of nerves out there. It was ‘Let’s have fun and go do gymnastics."’

In addition to He Kexin and Tan Sixin, the Chinese team was represented by Huang Qiushuang, Jiang Yuyuan, Sui Lu, and Yao Jinnan.

Team Japan, which featured Yu Minobe, Kyoko Oshima, Yuko Shintake, Rie Tanaka, Asuka Teramoto, and Koko Tsurumi, placed seventh with a score of 167.122 points.