Women's all-around preview: Big test for Bross

2009 World all-around contender Rebecca Bross. AP Photo/Alastair Grant

Unlike the men's competition, which was dominated by Japan's Kohei Uchimura from the outset, there is no clear favorite to take the women's all-around title tonight at London's O2 Arena.

Sure, as of right now the U.S.'s Rebecca Bross sits at the top of the preliminary standings, which don't carry over to the final. But Bross had the advantage of competing in the fifth and final subdivision in Wednesday's qualifying competition, an undeniable advantage, especially when Bross has so much difficulty.

Still, the 16-year-old American has certainly proven she's worthy of the world all-around title. Her crisp, aggressive bar routine received the third highest score in preliminaries. Her only large mistake was stumbling forward and putting her hands on the mat on her Patterson (Arabian double front) beam dismount.

Bross led after the preliminary round at the 2009 U.S. Championships in August as well, only to make two major errors on uneven bars during her first routine in finals and take herself out of contention for the U.S. title, which went to Bridget Sloan. We'll see tonight whether she can hit all of her routines. If she's going to win, that's what it's going to take.

Sloan might be having nervous flashbacks of the U.S. Championships as well. Just like in Dallas in August, she from balance beam during the preliminary round here. She finished fifth in qualifying. If she's going to medal, she needs to hit beam tonight, and preferably without the wobbles she showed at the U.S. Championships.

Second place qualifier Ana Porgras of Romania looked cool and collected throughout the preliminaries, much as she did at the Romanian Nationals at the end of September. But Porgras is at a significant disadvantage on vault, where she only competes a full-twisting Yurchenko. When everybody competes together, the judges may be less impressed, especially since Porgras will rotate with the top six. Expect a surge in the standings from her after balance beam.

Australian Lauren Mitchell has set herself up well to become the first woman since Monette Russo in 2005 to capture a World all-around medal. Mitchell, who also competed in the fifth subdivision in qualifying, will have to have an equally good performance in order to wind up on the podium tonight. We know Mitchell is more than capable on beam. But how will she measure up on the other events?

China's Deng Linlin, one of the pre-meet favorites, has the difficulty and the capability to score extremely well on all four events. Deng, who threw a beautiful double twisting Yurchenko on vault during the team competition at the 2008 Olympic Games, only showed a 1.5 Yurchenko in prelims. A few wobbles on beam left her in fourth place after qualifying, but if she hits tonight, she will almost certainly end up on the podium.

What's at stake for Deng (and Olympic all-around bronze medalist Yang Yilin, who finished eighth in qualifying) is the distinction of becoming the first Chinese world all-around champion. No Chinese woman has won a medal in the all-around at the World Championships since Zhang Nan took bronze in 2003.

Russians Ksenia Semyonova and Ekaterina Kurbatova had the misfortune to compete in early subdivisions during prelims. While Kurbatova did well to finish sixth, she lacks the difficulty on floor exericse to really make her a factor in tonight's competition. Semyonova, the 2009 European all-around champion, missed one of her tumbling passes on floor to end up in 10th place after qualifying. With a solid performance in finals, she could move up dramatically in the standings.

Others to look out for are Japan's Koko Tsurumi and Switzerland's Ariella Kaslin, respectively seventh and ninth in qualifying. Both, particularly Tsurumi, are capable of doing better.

Bottom line: Whoever is going to win tonight has to compete all four events cleanly. Especially balance beam.