David Durante defends US Wintercup Title

David Durante

us-gymnastics: -- David Durante of Garwood, N.J., won his second straight 'Winter Cup Challenge all-around title, edging out Jonathan Horton of Houston by just two-tenths of a point.
Team Chevron’s Durante had a two-day all-around total of 177.700 for the annual event held at Las Vegas’ Sports Center Arena, which concluded on Saturday. Durante led the all-around going into the final day of competition, starting with an 89.550. His second day 88.150 was enough to hold on to the lead and clinch the title. Guillermo Alvarez of Blackfoot, Idaho, posted the highest all-around score for the second day of competition with an 89.350.
Durante also won the parallel bars title....

2006 U.S. National WINTER CUP
February 4, Las Vegas

>> Combined AA results

>> Saturday's AA results

Apparatus Finals
Floor exercise
1, Michael Reavis, U. Iowa, 30.200
2, Dylan Carney, Stanford, 30.150
3, Jonathan Horton, U. Oklahoma, 30.050
4, Jimmy Wickham, Ohio State, 29.950
5, Guillermo Alvarez, Team Chevron, 29.850
6, Yewki Tomita, Team Chevron, 29.500

Pommel horse
1, Alexander Artemev, Team Chevron, 29.650
2, Curtis Kleffman, U. Iowa, 29.100
3, Tim McNeill, UC Berkeley, 29.000
4, Guillermo Alvarez, Team Chevron, 28.850
5, Kevin Tan, Team Chevron, 28.700
6, David Durante, Team Chevron, 28.550

Still rings
1, Kevin Tan, Team Chevron, 31.350
2, Sean Golden, Team Chevron, 30.700
3, Jonathan Horton, U. Oklahoma, 30.550
4, Alex Schorsch, Stanford, 30.400
5, David Sender, Stanford, 29.300
6, Jamie Henderson, U. Oklahoma, 29.250

Vault
1, Jimmy Wickham, Ohio State, 32.450
2, Sean Golden, Team Chevron, 31.800
3, Steven Legendre, WOGA, 31.150
4, Thomas Kelley, Buffalo Grove, 30.575

Parallel bars
1, David Durante, Team Chevron, 30.450
2, Yewki Tomita, Team Chevron, 30.200
3, Jason Gatson, Team Chevron, 30.050
4, Alexander Artemev, Team Chevron, 29.850
5, Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons, U. Oklahoma, 29.550
6, Adam Pummer, U. Illinois, 29.450

Horizontal bar
1, Yewki Tomita, Team Chevron, 31.150
2, Brett McClure, Team Chevron, 30.800
3, Jonathan Horton, U. Oklahoma, 30.350
4, David Durante, Team Chevron, 29.450
5, Gerry Signorelli, U. Michigan, 29.100
6, Kyson Bunthuwong, UC Berkeley, 29.000

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QUALIFICATION ROUNDS
February 2, Las Vegas
Men's All-Around
1. David Durante (Team Chevron) 89.550
2. Jonathan Horton (Oklahoma) 88.350
3. Guillermo Alvarez (Team Chevron) 87.350

4. Taqiy Abdullah-Simmons (Oklahoma) 86.150
5. David Sender (Stanford) 86.100
6. Michael Reavis (Iowa) 85.950
7. DJ Bucher (Ohio State) 85.800
8. Brett McClure (Team Chevron) 85.350
9. Jake Lee (Minnesota) 85.250
10. Geoffrey Corrigan (Team Chevron) 85.250
11. Gerry Signorelli (Michigan) 84.800
12. Ryan Lieberman (Buffalo Grove) 84.050
13. Clay Strother (Team Chevron) 83.950
14. Thomas Kelley (Buffalo Grove) 83.750
15. Philip Onorato (WOGA) 83.600
16. Jason Shen (Stanford) 83.300
17. Jason Chu (SCATS-HB) 83.300
18. Tim Gentry (WOGA) 83.250
19. Jamie Henderson (Oklahoma) 83.000
20. Paul Ruggeri (Central New York) 82.500
21. Jake Bateman (Ohio State) 82.150
22. Danell Leyva (Gattaca Universal) 82.000
23. Curtis Kleffman (Iowa) 81.900
24. Kyle Shanahan (Colorado Training Ctr) 81.900
(... best 24 of alltogether 77 athletes)

>> Detailed Results
Source: USA Gymnastics Federation.

The top 42 gymnasts from the first event advance to the all-around finals on Saturday.
Based on the competition's results, the top six from the all-around finals automatically qualify for the 2006 senior national team.
Six more gymnasts will qualify based on a points system established by the Men's Program Committee. The Men's Program Committee will select the remaining two gymnasts.

Steve Penny, US Gymnastics President

Preview
Gymnastics' new Scoring System to make its debut

The USA Winter Cup 2006 will have a different look this year, the Rutland Herald wrote today:
The annual ranking meet for the top U.S. male gymnasts begins Thursday in Las Vegas, and will be one of the first to use the sport's new, open-ended scoring system. Instead of 9.6s and 8.5s, get ready for 12.4s and 15.2s.
'I think it's actually a good thing we're just jumping right into it,' said Steve Penny, president of USA Gymnastics. 'The speculation has been removed. Everybody's changing their routines. We have to move with the change if we're going to remain competitive.'...

USA Winter Cup 2006
Twelve members of the current Men's Senior National Team are among the country's 80 top male gymnasts who are competing in the 2006 Winter Cup Challenge, Feb. 2-4, in Las Vegas.
Based on performances at the Winter Cup, 14 will be named to the 2006 Men's Senior National Team.
This year's Winter Cup Challenge is the first U.S. men's event to use the new scoring system adopted by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) last year...
>> Men's Startlist, Winter Cup

USA GYMNASTICS published an overview about the New Code of Points:
>> 'The FIG's new scoring system at a glance'

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GYMmedia Review:
>> US Wintercup 2005: Durante on Top
>> US Wintercup 2004: Blaine Wilson
>> US Wintercup 2003: Brett McLure was the winner...

Press Reactions in the USA...
... Rutland Herold wrote today:
The International Gymnastics Federation decided to overhaul its scoring system after several judging errors marred the Athens Olympics.
Not only was Paul Hamm's gold medal in limbo for two months because of a scoring error, but routines that were vastly different all had the same value on paper, making it difficult for judges to separate them....
>> Read more at the article of Rutland Herold (2006, Feb 02)

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