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Todd Thornton Wins All-Around at Visa Championships
It had been a strange build up to the Men’s All Around Finals. As usual after an Olympic Games established names retire and others are injured or taking a break to pursue other options. On the eve of the Championships, 5 times former Visa Champion and three time Olympian Blaine Wilson announced his retirement, and earlier All Around Champion for the last 3 years Paul Hamm joined twin brother Morgan in returning to their studies.
With 2004 Olympic Team members Jason Gatson and Brett McClure plus Raj Bhavsar withdrawing before the Championships due to injuries, Steve Penney President of USA Gymnastics said “I know that each of these fine athletes is disappointed, but they need to be fully recovered in order to compete at their highest level. The USA has a lot of talented young, male gymnasts, and Indianapolis is the perfect stage for them to start their campaign for Beijing.”
In the event these talented young men did a good job seizing their opportunity to stake their claim for the build up to Beijing, and for some, earning a spot in the USA Senior Men’s Team. The final scores were combined with Wednesday’s preliminary scores, and Todd Thornton of Team Chevron, won his first national all-around title, after finishing 4th in the AA last year. Todd has competed for the US Senior Team for the last 4 years and led after the first day of competition. In the Finals he again earned the highest all-around score of 54.000, and a combined all-around total of 106.900 points to win Gold and the US Title. The highlight was his great performance on High Bar which is his favourite piece earning a 9.300. Todd was the 2001 world team alternate, and took part in the Olympic Trials, and his Gold medal at Visa’s earned an automatic 2005 World Championships Team berth. "This is the pinnacle of my career right now," said Thornton, "It’s the best thing I’ve done yet."
David Sender of Stanford University won the Silver medal with a good performance, staying consistent through the entire event. Last year he finished 14th in the All Around and won the National Vault Title. After one year on the US Senior Team, David’s highest score of 9.625, came in the third rotation on vault, with clean routines on parallel bars and high bar before scoring 9.075 on floor in the final rotation to earn second place with 105.500. "I’m still in a little bit of disbelief," Sender said. "It was pretty exciting to go out there and do as well as I did."
David Durante, of Team Chevron, won the bronze medal with 105.200 points. David recently won the All Around Title at the Winter Cup Challenge and scored 9.400 on Vault in Prelims and 9.375 in the Finals at the Visa Championships. He also scored 9.175 on Rings. He said "I have always come in as more of the underdog, and this time was my chance to show that I belong up top. Finishing in the top three is nice, but it is not what I wanted. This makes me want to work even harder. I am going to get back into the gym and prove myself at the world camp.
Although preparations for Beijing are at a very early stage, Thornton’s overall score was almost 10 points lower than Paul Hamm’s winning score last year, with a top score of 9.300 and scoring in the 8’s in 5 out of his 12 events. "We showed we need a lot of work," Durante said. "I know we have the talent and the coaches to do it." Ron Brant, the men’s national team co-ordinator, said "They're gaining some valuable experience, I think we're going to have a stronger team than we had in 2004”.
Individual Apparatus champions included Guillermo Alvarez of Team Chevron on floor, Sean Golden of Houston Gymnastics Academy on rings and vault, D.J. Bucher of The Ohio State University on parallel bars, and Justin Spring of University of Illinois on high bar. Yewki Tomita win Gold on pommels and was second on high bar after a 5 year break from competition and four shoulder surgeries. A shoulder injury had hindered him at the 2000 Olympic Trials and he just missed qualifying for the Sydney Games. Subsequent surgeries also kept him from training for the 2004 Games in Athens so Yewki deserves special congratulations on a terrific comeback.
In addition to Thornton and Sender, six athletes were named to the 2005 U.S. National Team: Sean Golden, Justin Spring, David Durante, Guillermo Alvarez, Yewki Tomita and Joseph Hagerty of USOTC. Six additional athletes will be added to the national team later.
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