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GYMNASTICS: Gatson, Thornton advance to finals at World Championships
// Leslie King // November 22, 2005
MELBOURNE, Australia, Nov. 22, 2005 – 2004 Olympic silver-medalist Jason Gatson of Mesa, Ariz., and 2005 U.S. all-around champ Todd Thornton of Pearland, Texas, both advanced to the final rounds in the parallel bars and all-around, respectively, at the 2005 World Gymnastics Championships in Melbourne, Australia. The women’s qualification rounds are Nov. 23. This year’s World Championships feature competition in the all-around and individual events only.Thornton, who is a member of Team Chevron, will compete in the men’s all-around finals on Nov. 24. Gatson, also a member of Team Chevron, will compete in the parallel bars finals on Nov. 26. In addition, Justin Spring of Burke, Va., who competes for the University of Illinois, is one of the reserve athletes for the horizontal bar finals, which means if an athlete scratches from the finals Spring is in contention to replace him. In the all-around, the top 24 in the qualification rounds advanced to the finals. Japan’s Hiroyuki Tomita and Hisashi Mizutori went one-two in the qualification round, with Spain’s Rafael Martinez in third place. For the individual events, the top eight from the qualification rounds advanced to the finals. In the parallel bars qualification round, Greece’s Vasileios Tsolakidis finished in first, followed by Slovenia’s Mitja Petkovsek and the Ukraine’s Valeri Goncharov in second and third. The other qualifiers for the final round are: Yann Cucherat, France; Li Xiaopeng, China; Yang Tae-Young, Korea; Manuel Carballo, Spain; and Gatson. Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Its mission is to encourage participation and the pursuit of excellence in the sport. Its disciplines include men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics. For more information, log on to www.usa-gymnastics.org. #
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