USA Gymnastics names men’s team for ’09 Japan Cup

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind., June 30, 2009 – 2008 Olympic silver-medalist Jonathan Horton of Houston headlines the U.S. men’s squad that will compete in the 2009 Japan Cup, July 18-19, at the Makuhari Event Hall in Chiba, Japan.

Joining Horton on the team are: Kyle Bunthuwong of El Cerrito, Calif./University of California – Berkeley, 2007 U.S. junior parallel bars champion; Steven Legendre of Flower Mound, Texas/University of Oklahoma, 2008 NCAA all-around, vault and floor exercise champion; Danell Leyva of Miami/Universal Gymnastics, gold medalist on the parallel bars at 2009 Winter Cup and the high bar at the 2008 PAGU Individual Event Championships; Tim McNeill of Falls Church, Va./UC – Berkeley, 2009 Winter Cup horizontal bar champ; and Sho Nakamori of Albany, Calif./Stanford University, 2009 NCAA team champion. Horton was a member of the USA’s Olympic bronze-medal team and won the weighted all-around at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

The team competition is July 18, and the all-around on July 19 will feature 12 gymnasts, with a maximum of two per country. In the team competition, three gymnasts compete on each apparatus and all three scores count toward the team score. Both days of the event will be televised on Fuji Television Network.

Based in Indianapolis, USA Gymnastics is the national governing body for gymnastics in the United States. Its mission is to encourage participation and the pursuit of excellence in the sport. Its disciplines include men’s and women’s artistic gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline and tumbling, and acrobatic gymnastics. For more complete information, log on to www.usa-gymnastics.org.