Donnell Whittenburg, Danell Leyva claim event medals at worlds
GLASGOW, Scotland — Donnell Whittenburg closed his eyes for a moment, collecting himself before raising his arms in relief and joy beside the vault table.
Danell Leyva was composed after landing his high bar routine, but Yin Alvarez, his coach and stepfather, sprinted the length of the vault podium, doing fist pumps the whole way.
After nine days of fits and starts, the U.S. men finally found success on the last day of the world championships at The SSE Hydro.
Whittenburg’s bronze medal on vault and Leyva’s silver on high bar were the team’s only medals of this event, coming on the final day of competition. That the USA qualified its spot for the Rio Olympics was a significant accomplishment for a team missing three top athletes who are injured, but it was the relative veterans of this bunch who kept the Americans from being shut out.
“You never want to come out of here empty-handed,” said Whittenburg. “Right now, it’s definitely a little relief for the men’s side just to bring back some hardware.”
Whittenburg started the trend by landing a Dragulescu vault — a front handspring onto the vault table followed by a double front somersault with a half twist — in a competition that featured its namesake, Romanian Marian Dragulescu. His second vault was two somersaults with a twist, the blind landing making it all the more difficult.
His combined score of 15.350 was good enough to give him his first individual medal at the world championships.
“I never landed that (second vault) good,” he said. “So I was like, ‘Oh, one hop, OK, cool. I’ll take it.’”
Leyva, meanwhile, earned his third individual worlds medal and first on high bar thanks to a high-flying, smooth routine that sparked Alvarez’s animated celebration. It contained several releases that had him soaring above the bar and gliding from one skill to the next.
It came after he had failed to medal on parallel bars — where he has two worlds medals — and struggled through the all-around on his 24th birthday Friday.
“I’m proud I was able to finish the routine the way that I did, as well as I did, but I know I could have done way better,” said Leyva. “My high bar was definitely like a redeemer.”
For the U.S. men, the result was sustaining in a competition without Sam Mikulak, John Orozco and Jake Dalton.
Mikulak, the three-time U.S. champion, partially tore his Achilles tendon in training for this event. Orozco, a worlds parallel bars bronze medalist, also tore his Achilles in June. And Dalton, who medaled in the past two world championships, was passed over after not competing in U.S. championships in August. He then moved up surgery for a cyst on his labrum.
In their stead, Chris Brooks made his first worlds appearance since 2010 and Paul Ruggeri competed after twice being an alternate.
“It’s unfortunate when you lose your top guy and yet we know that we had to come in here and still put our best effort forward, and these guys did that,” said national team coordinator Kevin Mazeika. “I really appreciate their perseverance and their stick-to-itiveness to the very end. It was awesome to see.”
The American men were shaky in qualifying but steadied themselves in the team final. They didn’t have enough firepower to keep up with the Japanese men, who won their first major title since 2004, but saw several gymnasts get experience in a three-up, three-count situation like they will face in the Olympics.
Certainly, Whittenburg and Leyva’s medals proved valuable and kept the USA from being left off the podium for the first time since 2009. But helping with depth of experience will be valuable for Olympic trials next summer, when Mazeika expects Mikulak, Orozco and Dalton to be healthy.
“We merge everybody together come next June and the five athletes that do end up making the team, I’m pretty confident that’s going to be a very stout team,” he said.
PHOTOS: World championships