U.S. gymnasts Simone Biles, Kyla Ross are one-two in world qualifying

Recently crowned U.S. all-around champion Simone Biles was in first place after the completion of qualifying Wednesday at the 2013 World Gymnastics Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

U.S. teammate and 2012 Olympic gold medalist Kyla Ross was second. Biles also advanced to all four apparatus finals: uneven bars, balance beam, vault and floor exercise.

McKayla Maroney of Long Beach qualified sixth overall, but only two gymnasts per country are eligible for the all-around competition.

Competition continues Thursday with the men’s all-around final, where Newport Coast’s Sam Mikulak, 20, qualified with the second-highest score.

At the conclusion of qualification, the U.S. women’s rankings by event are: vault – Maroney first, and Biles second; uneven bars – Ross second, and Biles sixth; balance beam – Ross third, and Biles fifth; floor exercise – Biles first, and Ross sixth (tied with Maroney but Ross gets sixth via tiebreaker); and all-around – Biles first, Ross second, and Maroney sixth.

Twenty-four gymnasts qualified 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 individual competition begins Thursday with the all-around finals, followed by the women’s all-around final Friday. The individual event finals are slated for Saturday and Sunday, and five U.S. men advanced to event finals: Brandon Wynn of Voorhees, N.J./Team Hilton HHonors (Ohio State University), still rings and parallel bars; Steven Legendre of Port Jefferson, N.Y./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Oklahoma), floor exercise and vault; Jake Dalton of Reno, Nev./Team Hilton HHonors (University of Oklahoma), floor exercise; John Orozco of the Bronx, N.Y./Team Hilton HHonors (U.S. Olympic Training Center), parallel bars; and Mikulak, horizontal bar.

Here’s a quick overview of the various ways to watch and follow the championships. For more information, go to usagymworlds.com.

• Live webcast. UniversalSports.com will have a live webcast of the all-around and individual event finals from Antwerp, which will also be available at usagymworlds.com. For U.S. Pacific Daylight Saving Time, the live webcasts are scheduled for: Wednesday – men’s all-around final, 11 a.m.; Thursday – women’s all-around final, 11 a.m.; Friday and Saturday – individual event finals, 5:30 a.m.
• Cable TV. Universal Sports will network. To find Universal Sports Network in your area, go to https://universalsports.com/tv-listings/channel-finder/.
• NBC. NBC will broadcast coverage of the World Championships from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. PDT on Oct. 12-13. The commentators are Al Trautwig, 1984 Olympic gold-medalist Tim Daggett and 2008 Olympic gold-medalist Nastia Liukin.
• usagymworlds.com. USA Gymnastics will provide enhanced coverage from Belgium that will include results and photos from the competition, as well as interviews and the webcast.
• Live scoring. The International Gymnastics Federation provides live scoring from its World Championships. For more information and access, go to antwerp2013.fig-gymnastics.com.

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