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<< Previous   of   Next >> AP  (click to enlarge) Kohei Uchimura of Japan won the men’s all-around final Thursday at the World Gymnastics Championships in London.   ADVERTISEMENT   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Thursday, October 15, 2009 Uchimura wins gold medal at world gymnastics championships By NANCY ARMOUR AP National Writer LONDON — Kohei Uchimura of Japan has a gold medal. It might be the first of many. Uchimura ran away with the men’s title at the world gymnastics championships Thursday night, adding it to his silver medal from the Beijing Olympics. He scored 91.500 points, more than 2½ ahead of Daniel Keatings, who delighted the O2 Arena by giving Britain its first all-around medal. Russia’s Yury Ryazanov was third. American Tim McNeill finished seventh at his first major international competition. U.S. champion Jonathan Horton was 17th after falls on three events. McNeill was actually in position for a medal after four rotations, in third place going into parallel bars — one of his best events. But instead of his usual confident technique, he looked tight, as if he were trying to hang on to that spot on the podium. Few people had even heard of Uchimura when he arrived at the Beijing Olympics. The Japanese had a veteran — and much decorated — team, and he was just a kid. But he showed he more than belonged, winning the silver medal in the all-around. Now, with Olympic gold medalist and two-time defending world champion Yang Wei retired, Uchimura is the one everyone is chasing. And from the looks of it, no one’s anywhere close. Uchimura is a completely different gymnast from Yang, who dominated the sport the last Olympic cycle. Yang wasn’t blessed with great execution (his high bar routine was best watched with one eye covered), but he was so technically superior it didn’t matter. Uchimura has the tough tricks, but it’s easy to overlook his skill because his elegance and grace make everything look effortless. Only two execution scores were below 9.0 — and one of those was an 8.9. His tumbling passes are landed with certainty, no wobbles or hops, as if he’s got sticky tape on his feet. On still rings, he hung upside down for several seconds, holding so still the cables barely swayed. Most people would barely be able to see after having the blood rush to their head like that, but he calmly flipped and twisted. At one point, he did three somersaults — suspended 8-plus feet in the air, mind you — and came to a dead stop. His only rough spot was on parallel bars, where he took an extra swing midway through his routine. Considering he led by almost 2½ points, it wasn’t a big error. He finished off the night with a high bar routine that had the crowd oohing and aahing, even if it did knock hometown hero Keatings out of the top spot. Not that Keatings minded too much. A silver is almost as good as gold for him. Britain hasn’t exactly been a gymnastics powerhouse. It didn’t win its first world medal until Beth Tweddle’s bronze on uneven bars in 2003, and Louis Smith’s bronze on pommel horse last summer in Beijing was Britain’s first Olympic medal in nearly a century. But Keatings, along with Smith and Tweddle, have led a resurgence that makes Britain an emerging force — just in time for the 2012 Olympics, right here at the O2 arena. Horton came to London as a favorite to contend for the all-around title. And did he pick the wrong time to have a bad day. Things went ugly in a hurry, his feet slipping out from under him on his first tumbling run on floor, his first event, and dumping him on his backside. Next up was his old nemesis, pommel horse, and sure enough, he found trouble again. He appeared to get caught as he worked between the pommels and he had to take a seat, a look of dismay crossing his face. He also banged into the horse as he readied for his dismount, but managed to muscle through it. It was little consolation, though, with a score of 11.1 dropping him into last place. Horton had climbed back up to 17th going into high bar, his last and best event. But after flipping and twisting himself high above the bar on one of his three release moves, Horton grabbed for the bar and came away empty, splatting onto the mat.

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