2018 Pacific Rim Championships

U.S. Women Pick Up 12 Medals In Pac-Rims Event Finals

U.S. Women Pick Up 12 Medals In Pac-Rims Event Finals

The U.S. women picked up 12 medals on Sunday in the Pac-Rim Championships event finals in Medellin, Colombia.

May 2, 2018 by Lauren Green
U.S. Women Pick Up 12 Medals In Pac-Rims Event Finals

A day after taking the team title and the top two spots in both the junior and senior all-arounds, the U.S. women picked up an additional 12 medals in event finals at the 2018 Pacific Rim Championships in Medellin, Colombia. Defending world champion Morgan Hurd was held out of the uneven bars and floor exercise finals for precautionary reasons after a scary beam set during the team and all-around competition.

Hurd’s absence meant that Jordan Chiles advanced to the floor final, where she edged teammate Grace McCallum to win gold with a 13.650. Chiles improved on her performance in the team competition by four-tenths after posting 13.250 on Saturday. One of the highlights came in her opening pass—a one and a half stepout to a double arabian with a small step forward.

Chiles also earned gold on vault with her combination of a Yurchenko double full (14.475) and a tsuk full (13.900) to average a 14.188. She rounded out her competition with a bronze medal on balance beam where she bounced back from a fall on her tour jete half to post a 12.175.



McCallum, coming off a win in Saturday’s all-around, advanced to all four event finals where she picked up bronze on vault with a 13.425 average and a silver medal on floor with a 13.600. She struggled just a bit on uneven bars and balance beam and finished seventh on both events.

On the junior side, Kayla DiCello led the way with a pair of gold medals on vault and uneven bars. DiCello posted a 14.525 to win the vault title with a pretty Yurchenko double full and a 13.625 for a solid uneven bars set. DiCello narrowly missed picking up a third medal on balance beam where she finished fourth by less than a tenth.

Sunisa Lee picked three silver medals after solid performances on vault, beam, and floor. Lee packs plenty of difficulty into her beam routine and despite a fall on her back handspring-back handspring-layout to two feet series, still picked up silver with a 12.850—just 0.125 away from gold. Her almost-stuck double-twisting Yurchenko earned a 14.375 as she finished just behind DiCello.

Jordan Bowers added to her all-around title with a bronze medal on uneven bars where she posted a 12.900. Bowers, in her international debut and won gold on floor exercise. Bowers earned the floor title with a 13.725—the top score on floor the entire weekend for the women’s competition.