The Japanese men won five out of the six inidvidual gold medals up for grabs at Wednesday's event finals at the Junior Japan International meet in Yokohama.
All-around champion Chihiro Yoshioka won parallel bars, was third on floor and fourth on pommel horse, rings and vault.
His teammate Shou Yokoyama, the all-around silver medalist, won pommel horse and high bar and was second on parallel bars, while countryman Ryuzo Sejima captured the floor and rings titles and finished second on vault. Overall, the Japanese men won eight medals (out of 18) in this event final.
Russia's David Belyavskiy was the only non-Japanese to place first on an event. Belyavskiy won the vault title over Sejima and Canada's Kevin Lytwyn. Belayavskiy, a strong young gymnast, has established himself as an up and comer on the Russian team. Here's his floor exercise from the 2009 European Youth Olympic Festival (1st):
Nice supercalm half in half out second pass there.
U.S. Junior Champion (ages 14-15) John Orozco, third in the all-around here, won silver on rings and tied Belyavskiy for fourth on parallel bars. 2009 World Team member Jake Dalton finished fifth on vault, sixth on high bar and eighth on parallel bars.
John Orozco, 2009 J.O. Nationals Event Finals, Rings:
Meanwhile, U.S. Junior National Team member Sophina DeJesus claimed her first major international victory, winning gold on floor. DeJesus, who was ninth in the all-around at the 2009 U.S. Junior Championships, finished fourth in the all-around behind U.S. teammate Briley Casanova.Has anyone found any videos from this meet? I'd love to embed a few, but so far a Youtube search has not yielded anything.
Komova and Sasada also went 1-2 on balance beam, where Casanova and DeJesus placed fourth and fifth, respectively. Germany's Desiree Baumert finished third.
Vault was won by Japan's Seira Suzuki, capping off a huge meet for the Japanese women. Komova was second, and Brazil's Janaina Braz Silva took home the bronze. DeJesus was fifth on vault, Casanova eighth.
Japan's Mei Murkami finished second to DeJesus on floor, while Komova was third and Casanova eighth.
Comments
Minor correction but I noticed it in both articles about this meet - It's Sophina DeJesus, not Sophia. :)
That first video is from the European Youth Olympic Festival (EYOF) not the Australian Youth Olympic Festival (AYOF).
Thanks for all the info, though :)
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