Sooner Gymnasts, USA Finish Third at Japan Cup

July 5, 2010

NORMAN, Okla. -- Three Sooner gymnasts, Chris Brooks, Jonathan Horton, and Alex Naddour and the U.S. Senior National Team claimed the bronze medal at the 2010 Japan Cup at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, site of the 2011 World Gymnastics Championships, in Tokyo, Japan.

Japan won the team gold medal with a score of 276.100, scoring the top marks on pommel horse (44.500), still rings (45.000), vault (48.250), parallel bars (45.550) and high bar (47.750). Germany took the silver at 266.900, posting the top score on floor exercise.

With a score of 265.400, the U.S. men's team took the bronze medal in the team competition, earning the second highest score on parallel bars (44.550), still rings (44.400) and high bar (45.100).

Naddour, the 2010 NCAA pommel horse champion, posted a 14.750 to place fourth on pommel horse in the team competition.

Brooks, a four- time letterwinner at OU (2006-2009) and 2010 Winter Cup Champion, posted three scores of 15.000 and above on vault (15.750), parallel bars (15.000) and high bar (15.050), while competing on five of six events.

Horton, a four-time letterwinner at OU (2005-2008) and 2008 Olympic high bar silver-medalist and reigning U.S. all-around champion, also competed on five events and placed fourth on rings with a score of 15.000.

The Japan Cup featured an eight-team field that included France, Great Britain, Germany, Japan, Korea, Romania, Russia, and the United States. In the team competition, three gymnasts competed on each apparatus and all three scores count toward the team score, just like in the finals of the World Championships and Olympic Games.

The OU men's gymnastics team has not been without success this off-season sending two other gymnasts around the world to compete for the U.S. Senior National Team. During the summer break, OU sophomore Jacob Dalton, senior Steven Legendre and Naddour placed in the top three on one or more apparatuses at their prospective events around the world.

Oklahoma has five gymnasts on the U.S. National Team with Legendre, Naddour, Dalton and former OU gymnasts Jonathan Horton and Chris Brooks on the squad.

No other NCAA Division I men's gymnastics program has more members on Senior National Team than Oklahoma. This is most National Team members that the Sooners have ever had, beating the previous total in 1994 (4).

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Sooner Gymnasts, USA Finish Third at Japan Cup

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