U.S. has best team score in men’s gymnastics qualifying

LONDON -- The U.S. men’s gymnastics team qualified for the finals with the highest score, by far, finishing at 275.342 points Saturday. Russia finished second with 272.595 points and, much to the delight of the crowd at the North Greenwich Arena, Britain finished third with 272.420 points.

Favored Japan was fourth and defending gold medalist China was fifth. The top eight of the 12 teams that competed Saturday will contest for team gold on Monday, when everyone starts out with zero points because qualification scores don’t carry over. Spain was ninth of the 12 teams, the worst spot to be Saturday for teams.

Individual event and all-around finalists were also determined. Danell Leyva of the U.S. was the top scorer in the all-around with 91.265 points while teammate John Orozco qualified fourth.

Sam Mikulak of Newport Coast qualified for the vault event final. Jake Dalton, of Reno, Nev., advanced to the floor exercise final and Leyva and defending Olympic silver medalist Jonathan Horton moved into the high bar finals for the Americans.

The top 24 individual scorers (with no more than two per country) in the all-around and the top eight (also no more than two per country) in individual events advance to the finals.

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