Danell Leyva lifts up his coach and stepfather Yin Alvarez in celebration after competing on the high bar during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. Leyva won the All-Around title. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
Danell Leyva lifts up his coach and stepfather Yin Alvarez in celebration after competing on the high bar during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. Leyva won the All-Around title. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
Danell Leyva reacts after completing his high bar routine during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. Leyva won the All-Around championship title.(AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
Danell Leyva competes on the floor exercise during the U.S. gymnastics championships, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
Danell Leyva competes on the high bar during the final round of the U.S. gymnastics championships, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. Leyva won the All-Around title. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
All-Around champion Danell Leyva, center, second place winner Jonathan Horton, left, and third place winner John Orozco , wave on the podium during the medal ceremony at the U.S. gymnastics championships, Friday, Aug. 19, 2011, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Genevieve Ross)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) ? Danell Leyva had been trash-talking all week long, telling Jonathan Horton he was going to beat the two-time defending champion.
Turns out, Leyva's a man of his word.
Leyva won his first title at the U.S. gymnastics championships in impressive fashion Friday night, not missing a single routine and capping his performance with a high-flying spectacle on high bar. First in line to congratulate Leyva after his mom and stepfather-coach? Horton, whose hopes of winning a third straight final ended when he peeled off high bar in the second-to-last rotation.
"I'm really proud of Danell," Horton said. "Did I want to win this meet? Yeah. But he deserved to win. I didn't hit everything. ... You could see the confidence in him. You could see he was not going to miss a routine."
Leyva finished with 183.8 points, 2.75 in front of Horton. Three-time junior champion John Orozco, who blew out his Achilles' tendon at last year's national championships, was third.
"It's amazing," Leyva said. "One of my biggest goals in gymnastics was accomplished tonight, and I feel ecstatic."
While the team isn't expected to be announced until Saturday, Leyva and Horton are all but locks for the world championships, which are Oct. 7-16 in Tokyo.
Worlds are the main qualifier for the London Olympics, and will give the U.S. men a chance to back up their big talk about contending for the gold medal next summer. It gives Leyva and Horton a chance to measure themselves against Kohei Uchimura, too. The Japanese star has been otherworldly since the Beijing Olympics, winning the last two world titles ? by significant margins, no less.
"I was sad to see (Horton) fall because I wanted us both to have a great meet," Leyva said. "But I'm glad because it's just going to fire him up more for worlds. And that's going to fire me up for worlds."
Leyva has long had big ambitions. When Paul Hamm returned to nationals in 2008, Leyva told his stepfather and coach, Yin Alvarez, that he wanted to beat the Olympic champion. Never mind that Leyva was just 16 then, and competing at his first senior nationals.
But it wasn't until he finished second to Horton last year that Leyva really realized his dreams were within his grasp.
"Psychologically, I've been ready since 2009. I've been trying to take the title since then," Leyva said. "But my preparation wasn't what it was supposed to be, what it was for this meet."
He wasn't perfect the entire week, but neither did he have any major flaws. He finished with the highest scores on parallel bars and high bar, and was fourth-best on pommel horse.
Still, the two-point lead Leyva had brought into the night had essentially been erased by the midway point of the meet.
"I had the math done in my head," Horton said. "I knew I could win it if I hit the last two events."
He didn't.
Horton's high bar routine is one of the best in the world; he's the reigning Olympic silver medalist on the event. It's a high-risk, high-reward routine, the next-best thing to going to the circus. But as he reached for the bar after his first release move, one of his hands slipped off. The momentum pulled him down and he dropped to the floor, prompting a gasp from the crowd.
"You can't win with two major falls, one the first night and one the second night," said Horton, who fell off pommel horse on Wednesday. "Danell pretty much had a perfect week. It's hard to beat somebody that doesn't make mistakes when you're making mistakes."
Horton got up, shaking his head and a look of disgust on his face. As he took a few seconds to compose himself, Leyva yelled out, "C'mon man, finish it!"
Horton did, and then did one of the best floor routines of the week.
But the damage was done, the title gone.
Leyva still had to go on high bar, but he could have fallen and still won the title. His routine wasn't perfect, but oh, was it entertaining. He launched himself so high in the air above the bar, the folks in the front rows had to crane their necks to see him. There was no hesitation when he grabbed for the bar, and he oozed confidence.
And after his feet hit the mat with a triumphant thud, he celebrated with the kind of gusto that has become Alvarez's trademark. He smacked his hands, let out a roar and then, as Alvarez wrapped him in a bearhug, lifted his stepfather up clear off the podium.
"That's the happiest I've been in a really long time," Leyva said. "It's an amazing accomplishment."
Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-08-20-US%20Championships/id-b059da12218945d688a6e644df579db4
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