American Donnell Whittenburg goes from reserve to top-10 in all-around

GLASGOW, Scotland – Donnell Whittenburg had less than three hours to get ready. It didn’t rattle him.

When another gymnast pulled out of the all-around competition at the world championships, Whittenburg came in as a reserve. For much of the competition Friday at The SSE Hydro, he looked to be in a position to medal before finishing eighth.

“I still didn’t have a perfect day,” Whittenburg said. “There’s always more room for improvement. Just to see where I stand today definitely gives me more confidence to work on, getting more consistent with my skills and a little bit of upgrades. It’s good.”

The American had qualified in 31st, which is outside of the 24-man field. But countries are allowed only two competitors, eliminating five who qualified higher than Whittenburg. When a German athlete dropped out Friday morning, Whittenburg knew he was next in line.

He was in the training gym when he was told Belarus’ Dzmitry Barkalau pulled out, paving his way to compete.

“I had nothing to lose ‘cause I wasn’t even supposed to compete in this competition anyway,” he said. “Just go out there, do some gymnastics, see where I end up.”

Once in the competition, he took advantage of another training opportunity. He started on still rings, where he posted the highest score of the night.

After the third rotation, he was in second thanks to a parallel bars score (15.633) that was his best of the night. Despite posting the third-best score on floor, he fell down the standings thanks to a shaky high bar routine and a middle-of-the-pack pommel horse routine.

“I just had fun today, to be honest,” he said. “Just had no worries. Just completely stress free.”

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