After 6 days of intense competition, the 2009 World Championships have come to a close. But before the competitors leave London 09 to prepare for London 2012, let's look back at some highlights of the 41st World Championships.

Overall, there was a decent mix of veterans and new faces. The veteran who most impressed was Marian Dragulescu who recently came out of retirement. He won World Titles on both vault and floor and looked to be in excellent shape.

The newcomer who most impressed is, without a doubt, American Kayla Williams. Her impervious surge in the world of elite gymnastics is unprecedented to say the least. She jumped from level 10 JO National Champion to World Champion in just 4 months! In winning the vault world title, Kayla beat the defending Olympic Champion Hong Un Jong and reigning European Champion Ariella Kaslin. She won by more than half a point, and showed no signs of pressure in doing so. That's just plain impressive! Makes you wonder if this will change the way Marta and the national staff view the JO program.

Overall, the Chinese have proven they are still the best in the World. Despite not having strong all-arounders at this time, China still managed to claim 6 of the 10 Golds medals in event finals. Close behind in the total medal count was the US team, carried by the women and World All-Around Champion Bridget Sloan. All 4 of the US Women will leave London with medals and a promising future heading into 2012. Unfortunately the US men failed to win a single medal this year, but still had some great performances in 4 of the 6 guys making finals.

Here's a look back at each Final:

Men's ALL AROUND:

1. Kohei Uchimura JPN - 91.500

2. Daniel Keatings GBR - 88.925

3. Yury Ryazanov RUS - 88.400

4. Kazuhito Tanaka JPN - 88.300

5. Maxim Devyatovsky RUS - 87.475

6. Kristian Thomas GBR - 87.350

7. Tim McNeill USA - 87.150

8. Benoit Caranobe FRA - 86.175

Uchimura came in as the favorite to win with his consistency and exceptional execution. No surprise to see him at the top.

Womens ALL AROUND:

1. Bridget Sloan USA-57.825

2. Rebecca Bross USA 57.775

3. Koko Tsurumi JPN 57.175

4. Lauren Mitchell AUS-57.150

5. Youna Dufournet FRA 56.65

6. Yang Yilin CHN 56.575

7. Ana Porgras ROM-56.50

8. Ariella Kaeslin SUI-55.925

Many predicted the US women would finish 1-2 and this is exactly what happened. Rebecca Bross was in the lead up until falling on her very last tumbling pass, giving Bridget the gold. Koko Tsurumi was the surprise bronze medalist, just edging out Lauren Mitchell. It was an absolute joy to watch Mitchell compete in London. She made a strong statement for Aussie gymnastics at these World Championships. She was right there with the best in the world and looked extremely confident doing it.

Men's Floor:

1 DRAGULESCU Marian ROU 6.600/9.100 - 15.700

2 ZOU Kai CHN 6.800/8.875 - 15.675

3 SHATILOV Alexander ISR 6.600/8.975 - 15.575

Dragulescu squeaked out gold and a 7th World title with a slightly cleaner routine than Olympic FX Champion Zou Kai. Even still, it was a little sloppy. Shatilov made history in winning the first-ever World Championships medal for Israel and being just 22 years old, we should see a lot more of him in the future. If it had not been for a step out of bounds, Uchimura would have tied for the bronze. Steven Legendre hit a clean set, but watered down his first pass to a double front, barani. He only ended up with a 6.2 D score, instead of the promised 6.9 which would have been the highest of the competition.

Women's Vault:

1 WILLIAMS Kayla USA 15.087

2 KAESLIN Ariella SUI 14.525

3 DUFOURNET Youna FRA 14.450

4 KURBATOVA Ekaterina RUS 1 5.800 8.925 14.725 14.337

Kayla Williams was simply amazing here. She handled the pressure of her very first World Championship Final like a veteran. She competed a laid out handspring rudi with a clean landing for her first vault, then launched an extremely impressive yurchenko double full that she stuck cold! It was so inspiring to see her run off the podium into the arms of her coach.

Pommel Horse:

1 ZHANG Hongtao CHN 6.60/9.60 – 16.200
2 BERKI Krisztian HUN 6.90/9.175 – 16.075
3 SELLATHURAI Prashanth AUS 6.60/8.80 – 15.400

It was a long-awaited title for China's Zhang Hongtao and his routine was exquisite. The British favorite unfortunately took a fall and was out of medal contention. American Tim McNeill capped off a fantastic showing at his first World Championships with a 5th place finish here. (6.40/8.750 - 15.150).

Uneven Bars:

1 HE Kexin CHN 7.100/8.900 - 16.000

2 TSURUMI Koko JPN 6.200/8.675 - 14.875

3T PORGRAS Ana ROU 6.300/8.375 - 14.675

3T BROSS Rebecca USA 6.200/8.475 - 14.675

Olympic Champ He Kexin proved her dominance once again, and looked even better here than in the Olympic final. With the absence of Britain's Bar Specialist, Beth Tweddle, He had very little competition and beat the rest of the field by over a point!

Still Rings

1 YAN Mingyong CHN 6.800/8.875 15.675

2 IOVTCHEV Iordan BUL 6.700/8.875 15.575

3 VOROBIOV Oleksandr UKR 6.800/8.750 15.550

Defending Olympic and World Champion Chen Yibing of China was the favorite to win but failed to make the final after catching his foot on the rings and during his dimount in qualifying. This opened the door for teammate Yan Mingyong of China to take the gold.

Men's Vault

1 DRAGULESCU Marian ROU - 16.575

2 KOCZI Flavius ROU - 16.337

3 GOLOTSUTSKOV Anton RUS - 16.287

4 FAHRIG Matthias GER - 15.850

For his first vault, Marian launched his trademark vault, handspring double front with a half twist out, aka the Dragulescu. This vault was competed by nearly all of the vault finalists, but performed the best by Dragulescu who earned 9.550 exectution. His second vault had the highest start value of the competition at a 7.2. There was a lot of hype surrounding Ri Se Gwang of North Korea, but you just never know what he is going to do. Today he threw 2 scary vaults, the first was a piked Dragulescu which he landed on his head. ouch.

Balance Beam

1 DENG Linlin CHN 6.400/8.600 - 15.000

2 MITCHELL Lauren AUS 6.300/8.575 - 14.875

3 HONG Ivana USA 6.000/8.550 - 14.550

It was a rather sloppy balance beam final with major mistakes from Ana Porgras, and Yang Yilin, and a major save from Koko Tsurumi. After a disappointing finish for Deng Linlin in the all around, she claimed gold here, with Aussie Lauren Mitchell right behind her. Lauren has been delightful to watch at these Worlds. Ivana was a little shaky, but still pulled out the bronze.

One of the highlights from the Beam final was North Korean Kim Un Hyang. Even though she had some balance checks and finished out of the medals in 4th, she has a great routine that includes a roundoff full twist!

Parallel Bars

1 WANG Guanyin CHN 7.000/8.975 - 15.975

2 FENG Zhe CHN 6.900/8.875 - 15.775

3 TANAKA Kazuhito JPN 6.400/9.100 - 15.500

European Champion Yann Cucherat unexpectedly pulled out of the final today which opened doors for yet another Chinese victory. Wang Guanyin's difficulty-packed routine won the title.

Women's Floor

1 TWEDDLE Elizabeth GBR 6.100/8.550 - 14.650

2 MITCHELL Lauren AUS 5.800/8.750 - 14.550

3 SUI Lu CHN 5.700/8.600 - 14.300

Crowd favorite Beth Tweddle was the first competitor up, and hit her insanely difficult floor set. To the delight of the crowd, her score held throughout the competition. Myzdrikova of Russia came into the final in 1st, but a sloppy punch front half out of her third pass kept her out of the medals, even though the rest of the tumbling was fantastic. She had the second highest D score of the competition at 5.90 with a whip to double arabian, and even a triple full to back tuck! She missed the bronze by just .025.

Jessica Gil Ortiz made history for Colombian gymnastics today in advancing to the floor final, but after nailing her double layout opening pass, she unfortunately suffered a scary fall on her handspring double front pass. The arena grew silent as the medics rushed to Jessica. It looked like she was alright, but still got carried off on a stretcher, hopefully just as a precaution. Jessica trains at Universal Gymnastics in Miami alongside American Danell Leyva. Danell's mother is Jessica's coach.

High Bar

1 ZOU Kai CHN 7.500/8.650 - 16.150

2 ZONDERLAND Epke NED 7.300/8.525 - 15.825

3 CASSINA Igor ITA 6.700/8.925 - 15.625

This was the event final with the most hype, and while it was definitely exciting to watch, I was a bit disappointed in the result. I thought Zou Kai was sloppy and overscored. Even still, he came out on top with a 7.5 D score. 17-year-old American Danell Leyva showed a lot of promise in placing 4th and missing a medal by just .025. Jonathan Horton was certainly looking to redeem himself from Wednesday's All Around final, but couldn't quite pull it together. He went all out throwing the bigger routine, but missed his Kolman, and ran out of gas on his triple double dismount. He looked extremely disappointed, but the good thing about Horton is you know he'll use this as fuel to get back in the gym and keep fighting.