Russian Anna Dementyeva was the most successful athlete at the just-wrapped Moscow World Stars, solidifying her status as one of the world's best on three events.
Dementyeva won balance beam and floor exercise and finished with silver on bars in a women's competition that turned into something of a Russian intrasquad due to the absence of the Romanian team and the new four-person finals format.
Her Russian teammate Ksenia Afanasyeva, making her first competition appearance of 2011, picked up silvers on balance beam and floor exercise, while 2010 European vault champion Ekaterina Kurbatova placed second there as well.
Venezuela's Jessica Lopez won her first World Cup gold medal of the year on uneven bars as well as the bronze on floor. Germany's Oksana Chusovitina won her upteenth career gold on vault, largely based on her difficulty (Chusovitina's D-score point total was 11.4 compared to Kurbatova's 10.5).
A smattering of gymnasts from less powerful countries won bronze: Brazil's Jade Barbosa watered back sharply on vault, scoring only 7.25 in execution for her layout Podkopayeva, but still won bronze ahead of Colombia's Makarena Pinto, who only performed one vault.
The Czech Republic's Jana Sikulova was third on bars. The tall Sikulova, who has to go last in lineups because officials literally raise the high bar for her, performed a routine with a 5.9 D-score, the same as Dementyeva's. Germany's Elisabeth Seitz, who had the highest start score in the field (6.3) fell and finished fourth,
Ukraine's Jana Demyanchuk was third on beam after a fall from Vasiliki Millousi.
On the men's side, Frenchman Thomas Bouhail was the best in Russia, winning vault and floor, his two specialties. Bouhail's two highly impressive vaults, a Dragulescu and a Tsuk double pike, received matching 16.35s from the judges. South Korea's Yang Hak Seon had the highest score of the meet for his first vault (16.425) but wound up second after slightly a lesser second effort.
On floor, Bouhail beat reigning World champion Eleftherios Kosmidis of Greece, the Netherlands's Jeffrey Wammes and Steven Legendre of the U.S., who finished 2-3-4. Bouhail's routine earned him a 9.1 E-score, nine tenths higher than his nearest challenger, which indicates the men's floor final was a fallfest.
Russia's Anton Golotsutskov, who confessed after the European Championships that he was getting "a little sick of bronze," had to settle for third place again on vault.
Fortunately for Russia, newly crowned European rings champion Konstantin Pluzhnikov and second place finisher Alexander Balandin went 1-2 on their best event.
World champion Krisztian Berki was the top gymnast on pommel horse, despite trailing second place finisher Prashanth Sellathurai of Australia by 0.5 in difficulty.
On pommel horse, Poland's Adam Kierzkowski upset former World champion Mitja Petkovsek to take gold. Former European p-bars champion Yann Cucherat finished third, ahead of the Netherlands's Epke Zonderland.
Zonderland did, however, win high bar, watering back some of his difficulty but letting a 7.2 D-score carry him to the gold medal. Marijo Moznik was second, and Mykola Kuksenkov, who might have competed for Russia but won't now, third.
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