Kyla Ross leads subdivision at gymnastics world championships

Kyla Ross, 16, a member of the U.S. women’s gymnastics gold-medal-winning team at the 2012 Olympics, who trains at Gym-Max in Costa Mesa, posted the highest score Tuesday in the first subdivision of women’s qualifying at the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

Recently crowned U.S. all-around champion Simone Biles of Spring, Texas, and 2012 team gold medalist and vault silver medalist and defending world champion vault gold medalist McKayla Maroney of Long Beach will compete later Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively.

Ross, who started on vault, earned an all-around score of 59.198. On vault, Ross performed a clean double-twisting Yurchenko with a small hop for a 15.166. Her uneven bars routine included a piked stalder Shaposhnikova right into a Pak salto. With a nearly stuck double layout dismount, she posted a 15.133. Ross began her balance beam routine with a sky-high switch ring leap. En route to a 14.566, Ross also executed a back handspring to layout step out and double back dismount. Ross opened her floor routine with an Arabian double tuck to stag leap and dismounted with a double tuck to earn a 14.333.

“I think the competition went really well today,” Ross said. “My goal is to make the all-around finals, maybe bars and beam finals for my strongest events. I hit all of my routines, and I hope this is a good start for the Americans.”

The remaining U.S. lineup for the qualification round, by subdivision, is as follows: Wednesday, Subdivision 3, women, 1:30 p.m.: Simone Biles of Spring, Texas/Bannon’s Gymnastix, Inc., all-around (starts on uneven bars); Subdivision 4, women, 4 p.m.: McKayla Maroney of Long Beach, Calif./All Olympia Gymnastics Center, all-around (starts on floor).

The qualification round determines which gymnasts advance to the finals. The top 24-ranked gymnasts qualify for the all-around finals, with the top eight for each event advancing to the event finals. The 2013 World Championships is an individual competition and does not have a team component. The men’s division has four subdivisions, and the women’s competition has five. The qualifiers are determined after the conclusion of the final subdivision.

The five U.S. men competing in the finals are listed below, along with the event and qualification round ranking: Sam Mikulak of Newport Coast, Calif./University of Michigan, all-around (second) and horizontal bar (fourth); Brandon Wynn of Voorhees, N.J./Team Hilton HHonors (Ohio State University), still rings (third) and parallel bars (sixth); Steven Legendre of Port Jefferson, N.Y./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Oklahoma), floor exercise (eighth) and vault (eighth); Jake Dalton of Reno, Nev./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Oklahoma), floor exercise (sixth) and first reserve athlete for vault; and John Orozco of the Bronx, N.Y./Team Hilton HHonors (U.S. Olympic Training Center), parallel bars (seventh).

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