What an exciting day of competition in the 1st day of event finals here in Rotterdam! Since I know there are a lot of results to keep track of and a lot of videos going up, here's a quick recap on the medalists of the first day and a few interviews with the Champions.


Men's Floor Exercise:
1. Eleftherios Kosmidis, Greece, 15.70
2. Kohei Uchimura, Japan, 15.533
3. Daniel Purvis, Great Britain 15.366

A few notes:
Alexander Shatilov of Israel was brutally close to medaling, scoring a 15.333. Unfortunately for the US, Steve Legendre put his hand down on his Hypolito (2nd pass).
Defending Champion Marian Dragulescu has been recovering from injury and failed to qualify to this year's final.
And at just 19 years old, Kosmidis likely got a bright future! It was so cute when the final scores went up, he lept onto his coach for a big hug. 
Interview with Kosmidis following the Competition

Women's Vault Final:
1. Alicia Sacramone, USA, 15.20
2. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 15.066
3. Jade Barbosa, Brazil, 14.799
Alicia finally got her gold on vault! This is the first World Vault Gold Medal for her. She was the first vaulter up and threw a great handspring rudi followed by a yurchenko double full. Aliya Mustafina had a fantastic amanar, but her 2nd vault of yurhchenko half on front full off was not executed well enough to take the gold and Russian Head Coach Alexander Alexandrov actually put in a petition to the head judge following the last competitor on vault, but it was denied and the results stood. 

Ariella Kaeslin of Switzerland was brutally close to 3rd, missing the bronze by less than 0.025. She performed higher difficulty vaults than Barbosa, but Barbosa's execution beat her out.
Someone got a video of Alicia's vaults from today up at lightening speed. Check it out:

Interview with Alicia following her Win

Interview with Kaeslin following the competition

Pommel Horse Final: 
1. Krisztian Berki, Hungary, 15.833 
2. Louis Smith, Great Britain, 15.733 
3. Pensrath Sellathurai, Australia, 15.566

Louis Smith was the last to qualify into the final, but performed his set much better today and his huge 6.9 start value was good enough for silver. Berki was the first competitor up and just like Alicia, he was lucky enough for his score to hold! 

Interview with Louis following the Competition

Interview with Pensrath follwing the Competition

Uneven Bar Final: 

1. Beth Tweddle, Great Britain, 15.733

2. Aliya Mustafina, Russia, 15.60

3. Rebecca Bross, USA, 15.066

This final was probably the craziest! Defending World & Olympic Champion He Kexin of China was up first. Everything was going well until she fell on her laid out jaeger. The whole place gasped in astonishment. No medal for Kexin. Then teammate Huang Quishaung who qualified 2nd into the uneven bar final behind He was up 2nd. Toward the end of her wonderful set she peeled off the low bar doing a half pirouette to toe shoot. Crazy! So the top 2 girls took themselves out of it. Tweddle was 3rd up and performed the same amazing routine she's been doing here all week and the score held. Bridget Sloan finished 4th. 

Interview with Beth following the Competition 

Interview (in Russian) with Aliya following the Competition

Interview with Bross following the Competition

Interview with Sloan following the Competition

Still Rings Final

1. Chen Yibing, China, 15.90

2. Yan Mingyong, China, 15.70

3. Matteo Morandi, Italy, 15.666

This final was the least dramatic, in my opinion. There were no falls or major errors, but the Chinese dominated. Chen Yibing was the defending Champion on this event and it showed. The Bronze for Morandi was Italy's first medal of these Worlds. 

Funny clip of Chen posing for pictures with the very excited Chinese Reporters

Interview with Morandi after winning Bronze