Sam Mikulak (USA) |
Sam Mikulak won his fourth straight P&G Championships all-around title and took another step toward his second Olympic team on Sunday, June 05.
Mikulak totaled 181.500 points in the cuty of Hartford, Connecticut's capital, winning by 1.65 points over Chris Brooks, a 2012 Olympic alternate making his last push for a first Olympics. So Mikulak is the first man to win four straight U.S. all-around titles since Blaine Wilson in 2000 and the fifth overall. Jacob Dalton, another 2012 Olympian, was third, 2.5 points back. Mikulak, coming back from a partially torn Achilles that kept him out of 2015 Worlds, overtook first-day leader Donnell Whittenburg and Brooks, who led after four of six rotations Sunday.
John Orozco, who won the 2012 title, was happy just to be back in the mix after re-tearing an Achilles tendon last year. "I honestly don't feel any pressure, really," he said after placing tenth and winning bronze on high bar. "I'm just lucky and glad I'm here to keep pursuing this dream of mine."
Danell Leyva, who won the all-around bronze in London, pronounced himself satisfied with a 16th-place showing that came in the wake of hand and leg injuries sustained last month when he tried to break up a fight between his two bulldogs. "I felt pretty good, and today, I'm pretty happy with how I did coming from Friday," he said. "Friday was a little rough. I wasn't trying to be perfect here."
* Source: usa gymnastics
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Aly Raisman (USA) |
♦ Women's Secret Classics 2016 (Saturday, June 04)
Hartford was also host the Secret U.S. Classic women's gymnastics competition on Saturday, June 04, already, with the juniors competing and the elite.
This event was the last opportunity for US women to qualify for the national championships in St. Louis June 24-26 and served as a tuneup for those who have already qualified:
The 22-year-old Aly RAISMAN from Massachusetts, who took gold in London in the floor exercise, won the all-around title Saturday at the Secret U.S. Classic. She scored 59.25 points to finish just under a point ahead of 18-year-old Rachel Gowey (58.300), followed by Alyssa Baumann (WOGA; 58.00)
Raisman and Olympic all-around champion Gabby Douglas are looking to become the first women to make back-to-back Olympic teams since Dominique Dawes competed in her third games in 2000. Douglas and three-time all-around world champion Simone Biles competed in just two events, Saturday in what amounts to a tuneup tournament for the national championships later this month in St. Louis and the Olympic trials next month in San Jose, California.
Biles won the beam and finished fifth on the uneven bars. Douglas finished third on the uneven bars and tied for sixth on the balance beam. Only 14 of the 23 gymnasts in Hartford competed in all four events.
► Detailed results