* V A U L T  ( ... > FIG-LIVE-Results)
The competition day started with the men’s Vault final that was highlighted by the performance of reigning Olympic and defending World Champion Yang Hak Seon of Korea. The 20-year-old landed his new element that has been evaluated with a 6.400 difficulty score. Excelling with clean execution of both vaults as well, Yang secured the Gold.
Boasting the highest execution score for his first vault (9.500), Kristian Thomas (GBR) made up for the lower difficulty of his second vault and outscored Japan’s Kenzo Shirai for the Bronze medal. The latter stepped out of bounds at the landing of his newly submitted element that was added to the Code of Points under his name and that of Kim Hee Hoon (KOR), who performed the same element in Antwerp. The surprise of this final came in the person of Steven Legendre (USA), who qualified in last place but impressed with clean execution and stuck landings of both vaults to take the Silver

1. YANG, Hak Seon (KOR) = 15,533 - successfully title defender!
2. LEGENDRE, Steven (USA) = 15,249
3. THOMAS, Kristian (GBR) = 15,233

4. SHIRAI, Kenzo                  (JPN) = 15,133
5. SASAKI, JUNIOR, Sergio (BRA) = 15.000
6. HYPOLITO, Diego            (BRA) = 15,049
7. BERBECAR, Marius         (ROU) = 14,850
8. VERNIAEV, Oleg              (UKR) = 14,449
   ►► Detailed Results

* P A R A L L E L  B A R S
The Parallel Bars final featured nine instead of eight participants, due to a tie in both execution and difficulty values of Uchimura’s and Zonderland’s routines in the last qualifying position. Performing a routine that was hard to beat, 18-year-old Lin Chaopan (CHN) took an early lead in this final. He was soon joined on top by 2010 World Bronze medallist Kohei Uchimura, who did not show all his difficulty during qualification and was able to better the score of his fluid routine by nearly .3 points. With equal marks, Lin and Uchimura shared first place and the Gold. The local crowd vocally supported Epke Zonderland from the neighbouring Netherlands, who hit his interesting routine nicely.
The 2009 World finalist finished fifth. It was not a good day for top qualifiers Vasileios Tsolakidis (GRE) and Anton Fokin (UZB). They both came off the apparatus after making major mistakes and stopped their routines.
John Orozco (USA), who qualified in only eighth place, then saw his opportunity. He hit his routine and the .1 he gained in execution compared to the preliminaries won him the Bronze narrowly over You Hao (CHN).

1. UCHIMURA, Kohei (JPN) – (6.7) = 15,666
1. LIN, Chaopan        (CHN) -  (6.7) = 15,666
3. OROZCO, John     (USA) -  (6.8) = 15,533

4. YOU, Hao                     (CHN) –  (6.9) = 15,500
5. ZONDERLAND, Epke   (NED)  - (6.5) = 15,300
6. BERBECAR, Marius    (ROU) –  (6.5) = 15,000
7. WYNN, Brandon           (USA) – (6.3) = 14,266
8. TSOLAKIDIS, Vasileios (GRE) – 5.6) = 13,433
9. FOKIN, Anton                (UZB) – (5.5) = 12,466
    ►► Detailed Results


* H I G H   B A R - F I N A L
Both Samuel Mikulak (USA) and Kohei Uchimura opened the Horizontal Bar final with routines of a 6.900 difficulty value, the latter prevailing with the highest execution score of the event (8.733). In the end, his routine won Uchimura the Bronze, repeating his ranking at his home championships in 2011 in Tokyo.
The friendly rivalry between reigning Olympic Champion Epke Zonderland and runner-up Fabian Hambuechen continued in Antwerp and it came down to the two friends to battle it out for the World title. Zonderland was up first and he wowed the crowd with a spectacular routine that he upped for the final by .6 in difficulty for a huge 7.700 value. His risky routine cost him deductions in execution, but his 16.000 remained unbeaten and the 27-year-old took his first World title. Hambuechen produced an equally impressive routine that was cleanly executed, but with .3 less difficulty than Zonderland, the 2007 World Champion stayed in second place to take the Silver. Colombia’s Jossimar Calvo Moreno upped his score in the final to take a creditable fifth place.

1. ZONDERLAND, Epke (NED) - de.. (7.7) = 16.000
2 HAMBÜCHEN, Fabian (GER) - (7.4) = 15,933
3. UCHIMURA, Kohei (JPN) - (6.9) = 15,633

4. MIKULAK, Samuel (USA) - (6.9) = 15,566
5. CALVO MORENO, Jossimar (COL) -  ... (7.2) = 15,466
6. BRETSCHNEIDER, Andreas (GER) - (6.9) = 15,158
7. KATO, Ryohei (JPN) - (6.4) = 15,025.
8. LIN, Chaopan (CHN) -  (6.9) = 14,006;
   ►► Detailed Results

* Some necessary remarks ... :
It was a memorable, because absolutely high leveled high bar final !!
Here, moving all eight finalists (!) in border areas of coordinative and conditional skills and presented their technical skills and elements never before seen in compounds concentration and quality!
Actually, each of these eight giants was a potentially medallist in the area - only marginalia in meticulous interpretation sorted by rating rules then at the end of the starting field on the podium or in a hierarchy with only minimal differences.
Here none of these super athletes was a loser !!
At this point, observe the high quality of the high-tech apparatus equipments has to be mentioned that enable these services the gymnasts in the first place and - developed in close connection with the training and competition practice - the challenge of the performance profile of athlets still support and promote !
This 2013 Championships final on horizontal bar was the absolute highlight of this Worlds at the beginning of an exciting new Olympic cycle !
... perhaps only criticism at the end:
The monotony of outlets ! All the finalists showed the same circuit element - the double Tsukahara, streched . Hopefully, the gymnasts will come up with something more varied.
* For GYMmedia in Antwerp at the podium : Dieter Hofmann ( GER) ..